Which was more annoying/stressful to you? School or work?

Neither, I enjoy(ed) both. I suppose work wins out in regard to workmates as opposed to the multitude of pinheads that populated my school. At least the guys I work with are sane….well almost.

School but maybe because I was always working f/t alongside. School took exposure to things I didn’t have any reference for while work seemed a little more routine, laid out, all the tools on the table.

Both. I’m a very free spirited type and do not like hardcore routine, scheduling. I have managed to work for the most part in flexible environments and hope I can keep it up.

I have only been working for two years now (one year of undergraduate study and one year of graduate study.) So far, my classes have been more stressful than work, but the stress from work is one that I tolerate less. I don’t mind being stressed out by a huge research paper that is going to feel satisfying once it is completed. However, there is no pay-off for the stress from work except my paycheck, which is the only reason why I suck it up.

Neither is stressful to the point where I feel incapable of dealing.

Neither was particularly stressful, but work ended at the end of the day and schoolwork, it seemed, never ended. It also helped that I was more mature when when school was over.

I always found school more stressful than work, except for the two years I worked for a real pinhead. I was already in place when he was hired and he wanted to replace me with his own choice, but no matter what he did I stuck like a barnacle.

School-work. I can stand school and work but when I get homework from school, I don’t know why, I just have no motivation to do it.

Work.

I study because I want to, not have to.

Work. I’m a school nerd; I love it.

I found school to be 69 times harder and more stressful than work. I was an engineering major. Engineering work places are a lot more fun, you get paid, there a perks, there is flexible scheduling, etc. Engineering coursework was brutal.

Enjoy school while it lasts! HA!

School was like a wonderful vacation to me compared to my job.

My job is far more stressful (most of the time) than any aspect of school that I can remember. The work load is very unpredictable but often can quickly become overwhelming without warning. Multitasking many different tasks is important and no mistake is tolerated because human lives are at stake. I’m expected to present a happy attitude while dealing with near constant special requests from patients, nurses and medical doctors. In addition to that I manage unexpected equipment/analyzer failures periodically but the demand for fast and exact results are relentless no matter what problems I may have to deal with or how heavy my workload is. I am an aging human being but I’m expected to function as a computerized robot with a pleasant sounding voice. Typically the workload increases substantially toward the end of my work shift and I’m forced to pick up the pace even though I’m near exhaustion and my head is ready to explode. Nevertheless I keep all of my personal thoughts and pain to myself. I blow off all of my steam with rigorous physical exercise and playing with my two cats.

I hope that you can get a job that you love as some people do.

The best that I can do is survive my job. Can you guess what I do?

Neither. I like them both.

I think it depends on major and job.

School was a major stress for me. I’ve had seven different jobs since I left, and only one of them was anywhere near as bad. But at least with a job, you can quit. You can’t quit school until you’ve reached legal leaving age.

Work. If I could have gone to school without having to work at all, it would have been much better. School is tough but not so tough as work, where there is no perfect job.

Work is a lot more stressful than school (at least for me). School is on a schedule. You know what to expect, when things have to be done, and how they are going to be judged when they are completed. You don’t get rewarded at work with a red ink message saying 100%! Great work!.. generally speaking.

At school, if you’re late, it’s not a big deal. At work, if you’re late and you have a boss or a job that is not tolerant, you get various punishments which are not too pleasant, including an unhappy boss.

I’m in a very fortunate position where I work because I want to, not because I have to. It’s great because it’s the sort of work that I don’t have to keep doing once I get home, though I often do.

Study, on the other hand, is what I do to broaden my mind and my opportunities, and it means I can live at home for a few more years. The worst part is that it follows me home and everywhere I go, and while I don’t hate it at all, finding the motivation is tricky. So it’s annoying because there’s no easy way out when the going gets tough, unless one of my jobs magically becomes enough for me to make a living.

I am 56 years old, and I still have nightmares involving school.
I rarely have nightmares regarding work, though I do about a certain ex-boss.

The worst was Nuke school in the Navy. When I went, there was 70% attrition; for every class of thirty, nine would graduate, and the rest were fairly evenly divided between disciplinary drops (involving demotion), academic drops, and psychiatric drops. My roommate at the time got halted to the ER in seizures due to stress, and I was so tightly wound that I could not turn my head for over a year after I left because I had so much tension in my muscles.

Compared to that, my work is relatively benign and my K-12 was a breeze.

I liked school and have found some work places far more stressful because of having to work day after day, all day, with a person or people that get on my nerves or who’s work you have to do for them because they are the bosses wife. Having to put up with a really nasty, jealous colleague who hates you because they think you got their promotion and does everything from deleting files to claim they never received them, to stealing keys and writing bogus letters to bosses and union reps. Work place environments were much more stressful. Books and learning I can deal with. Office politics and fools I have a much harder time with.

@cazzie Why do you think I work in a machine shop instead of behind a desk? Things are generally far more merit-based and thus easier to deal with. All I have to really worry about is physical injury :p

@jerv perhaps I am more on the spectrum than anyone realises???