Worst Jobs For Highly Sensitive People (A list)

In this brief guide, we will discuss some of the worst jobs for highly sensitive people, as well as some of the best jobs for highly sensitive people.

Worst Jobs For Highly Sensitive People

The worst jobs for highly sensitive people may be those with a very high degree of stimulation and jobs that involve being constantly surrounded by people in an emotionally exhausting situation.

Some of the worst jobs for highly sensitive people include:

  • Nursing
  • Accountancy
  • Lawyer
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Customer Care Representative
  • Veterinarian
  • Public Relations
  • Executive positions
  • Construction

While many highly sensitive people find the work they do to help people very rewarding and they may truly enjoy looking after other people or listening to their woes, most highly sensitive people may also find it extremely draining and they will definitely need to ensure that they take frequent breaks.

Highly sensitive people can also be empaths, which means that they are very strongly in tune with the feelings and needs of those around them, even if they are not attached to those people emotionally, and this means that if they are in emotionally draining situations like being a nurse or being an oncologist, for instance, seeing all the death around them can truly get to them.

This doesn’t mean that highly sensitive people can’t do those jobs however, and they will usually be great at any job that involves a great deal of mingling with other people, because they can do very well around people and they will usually find ways to help them out one way or another.

Most highly sensitive people find that if they are involved in helping others, they will need to take breaks so they don’t experience burnout.

Another category that may count as one of the worst jobs for highly sensitive people may be something that involves constant stimulation, or noise, like construction or being an artist, because these involve a constant throng of people and they may find that after a while they start to feel agitated with the noise and crowds.

Just because the presence of people puts being an artist in the category of worst jobs for a highly sensitive people does not mean that they can’t be great artists though, just that they would do well as an artist that works on their own time and does not have to deal with massive crowds.

A highly sensitive person might actually make a great introverted artist, because they often have a creative bent and especially if they are a music artist, they may be very gifted at manipulating the nuances of music to make beautiful tunes.

Sales and marketing are considered some of the worst jobs for highly sensitive people as well, because they may find that the constant time and people pressures of this career are too much for them to handle in most cases, and they may find themselves withering away under these demands.

Lastly, another one of the worst jobs for highly sensitive people are those in customer support, because these jobs involve constant complaining and confrontation with the customers who are not happy with their product and may just be looking to vent their frustration a lot of the time.

In fact, one highly sensitive person who worked a customer service job says:

“I was too sensitive to constantly deal with angry customers, even if they were right.” 

Another highly sensitive person, who was a cashier at a supermarket, says, “Being a cashier at Walmart nearly gave me an anxiety attack. The crowds, the noise of people talking and loudspeakers, bright lights, and long hours were exhausting.”

Best Jobs For Highly Sensitive People

Some of the best jobs for highly sensitive people may involve something where they have the opportunity to rest and recharge and where they are not put under the pressure of needing to perform constantly.

Some of the best jobs for highly sensitive people may include:

  • Therapist
  • Psychiatrist
  • Occupational Therapist
  • Vocal coach
  • Physical trainer
  • Writer
  • Social workers
  • Teachers
  • Yoga instructors
  • Chinese medical practitioners
  • Massage therapists
  • Clergy
  • Hospice workers
  • Life coaches
  • Volunteers
  • Researcher
  • Employees of Non-Profit organizations

The best jobs for highly sensitive people would ideally make use of their unique talents to understand and distinguish between the various stimuli around them and be able to alter them accordingly, but not stimuli that are so intense that they can’t deal with it at all.

Highly sensitive people need to be in situations where they can take adequate time off and be able to take a break from things for a while, because they may often have the tendency to start feeling drained but not do anything about it.

The best jobs for highly sensitive people also involve just enough association with people that they don’t start to feel isolated and cut off, but not so much that they start being overwhelmed from feeling and associating with everything everyone says.

Being an empath and a highly sensitive person at the same tie can be very exhausting, and if the person is also introverted at the same time they can have trouble dealing with careers that involve too much confrontation.

Are you a Highly Sensitive Person?

You can easily know if you are a highly sensitive person if you feel that you are very receptive to emotion and stimulus around you, and if you feel that you are not able to cope with the demands of excessive association with other people.

According to Dr. Elaine Moran, who is the author and researcher who introduced the concept of sensory processing sensitivity, or being a highly sensitive person, you can answer these questions to know if you are a highly sensitive person too:

  • “Are you easily overwhelmed by such things as bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics, or sirens nearby?
  • Do you get rattled when you have a lot to do in a short amount of time?
  • Do you make a point of avoiding violent movies and TV shows?
  • Do you need to withdraw during busy days, into bed or a darkened room or some other place where you can have privacy and relief from the situation?
  • Do you make it a high priority to arrange your life to avoid upsetting or overwhelming situations?
  • Do you notice or enjoy delicate or fine scents, tastes, sounds, or works of art?
  • Do you have a rich and complex inner life?
  • When you were a child, did your parents or teachers see you as sensitive or shy?”

If you answer yes to most of these questions, you are a highly sensitive person, and it may help you to deal with situations accordingly.

If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.

Career Experiences of Some Highly Sensitive People

Here are some of the real life experiences of some highly sensitive people about their idea of the best and worst careers for highly sensitive people:

“I spent 11 years doing clerical work in the medical field taking verbal abuse several times a day by patients. Needless to say, I was a shell of a person. So miserable.

As of February, I work evenings as a custodian at my local school district. It is a union job, I get paid more than the doctors office, will have great health and dental benefits soon, have a 403b retirement and can expect a pension at retirement also. I don’t have to talk to anyone. I see a few teachers passing by and that is it. I listen to music and podcasts while I do some light cleaning. I know there is a negative painted picture of a janitor but for me, it’s far from the truth. Custodial work has saved my life. I am completely happy and feel at peace and satisfied with my simple work.

I dropped out of high school and never went to college, but have a better job (as far as benefits and security, retirement) than most of my friends and family members, even the ones that did go to college!”

“A medic who has never suffered won’t understand the pain of the patients even knowing what to do.

I was broken too. Now I study psychology. We can understand the things in a different way than others who didn’t suffer.”

“As a very introverted HSP with diagnosed social phobia, I thought about this for the past 2-3 years. In the end I decided to apply for the career that first came to my mind – chemistry lab tech (not sure if that’s the correct translation but you get what kind of career it is). But I was still uncertain if this career will really fit me and so on. Now since I got accepted, this uncertainty is pretty much gone and I’m looking forward to the start of my apprenticeship.

As an HSP you’ll maybe also want a meaningful job with rather low stress levels, an environment that’s as quiet as possible and tasks that you find interesting and cognitively stimulating. Though I cannot know how it actually will be, I’m optimistic this career will combine those things at least to a certain degree. Most jobs get a little hectic from time to time but I used to work in a call center for half a year, so this career will hopefully be O.K. in terms of stressfulness.

Anyways, I hope this gives you some ideas on what you may look for in a career or what area of careers may suit you. If you’re not totally bad at maths, any job in a lab, IT-related careers, analyst, research-related jobs and so on can all be meaningful – depending on your employer – and imo they’re overall relatively good for HSPs.”

“HSP here. I switched jobs a lot so far, and my current, also my favorite, is cataloging at a small (~20,000 population in the district) public library. I also did an online diploma for a library technical assistant—just because I felt like it. It took only 2 semesters, gave me a great background education, and allowed me to be a director of a small library if I ever decided I wanted to. I am currently in a kind of advisory role to the current director, which gives me challenges and lets me use my noggin, but without all the schmoozing and public relations part of the actual director position.”

Conclusion

In this brief guide, we discussed some of the worst jobs for highly sensitive people, as well as some of the best jobs for highly sensitive people.

Highly sensitive people can often be empaths and they usually do well in careers which allow them to harness this ability, and they may do very badly in jobs that don’t allow them to be who they are, or that involve so much stimulation that they start to feel bombarded by stimuli.

Highly sensitive people may also need frequent respite from their career because these individuals need relaxation and help with stress more so than other people.

If you consider yourself to be a highly sensitive person, you should take the Tony Robbins DISC Test.

If you’ve enjoyed the ”Worst Jobs For Highly Sensitive People ”mentioned above, I would recommend you to take a look at ”When Someone Shouts at You” too.

If you have any other questions or comments about the worst jobs for highly sensitive people, please feel free to reach out to us at any time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Worst Jobs For Highly Sensitive People

Is there a disorder for being too sensitive?

No, there is no disorder for being too sensitive, but there is a personality trait that is known as sensory processing sensitivity, or SPS, which means someone is very sensitive. 

Being a highly sensitive person is not a disorder, it is something that is just generally a part of people’s personality which makes them more susceptible to sensory inputs of any kind.

What jobs are Empaths good at?

Some jobs that empaths are good at include:

Calmer careers that don’t involve a lot of people all the time.
Artist jobs
Librarian 
Writer 

What are the traits of a highly sensitive person?

Here are some commonly seen traits of a highly sensitive person:

You’re jumpy and get spooked easily. 
You are a deep thinker
You seek newness. 
Sudden, loud noises startle you.
You cannot stand violence and cruelty of any kind. 
You feel emotionally exhausted from taking in other people’s feelings. 
Time pressure really bothers you. 
You withdraw from people and situations often. 

What Empaths should avoid?

Empaths should avoid the following to maintain their sense of peace:

People who complain all the time. 
Negative news. 
Large groups of people for extended periods of time. 
Highly critical people.
Intense entertainment. 
Sarcasm. 

Citations

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