Military
Law enforcement
Fire fighter/EMS/Medic/Paramedic
Nursing, doctoring

Can you imagine the country with no defense for a day? A state without cops/state troopers, a city without fire fighters, emergency medical service, nurses and doctors for a day?

Are any other professions that are truly needed 24/7/365?

Wife

An employee of or a contractor for a utility company.

quote:

Originally posted by Opus Dei:
An employee of or a contractor for a utility company.

Yep . I worked 40 yrs in the electric utility business . Spent many holidays , birthdays out in the field. Helluva experience though .

I'm thinking all leadership roles in any of the 24x7x365 industries you've mentioned. So as you mentioned, healthcare and law enforcement would be good examples, but also airlines/trains, tech companies on global production models/scales (Apple for example), telecom, utilities like gas, electric, water, sewer. I think in our modern world, and with modern tech and high-pace activity that there are many that work seven days a week.

I'm not just referring to checking your phone a lot, or answering a call when something is broken. I mean really scheduling and sitting down for an hour or more in the day. I don't believe that I am unusual or exceptional, but I spent a few hours in the early evening last night aligning my week, looking for conflicts and issues that I need to get on early, and getting my thoughts and notes together for a few of the important meetings. Also catching up on emails that I had to let sit due to lack of time while scrambling through last weeks workload. Once the week gets going, there's no opportunity to really notice that scheduled meeting that is missing a key person, or follow up item/information.

What I've come to realize is if I allow my work to fill in the cracks of time that I have in my life, my stress is lower because my work gets more under control. Conversely, if I am a bit burned out in the middle of the week and have a 30 minute window between meetings or work activities, I might take the time to check the news or call my brother. So I think to some small degree, it balances.

9-1-1 Dispatchers. Somebody's gotta answer that phone call for help.

Air traffic controllers.

Dairy farmers..

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Dairy farmers..

grandparents did this,

milk at or before sun up, and at sundown, every day

IT for network/computer systems that need to run 24/7

The self employed.

Anyone in the supply chains for food, water, energy, or communications and utilities or emergency/inpatient utilities needs to have their stuff running 24/7/365.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Dairy farmers..

Horse Farm- they eat every day, have to be led out to paddocks, taken in at night, stalls cleaned, fed, medical, and then you have to take care of the farm itself.

any Farmer for that matter, there's always something that has to be done...

Here's the truth that many of those who believe that some occupations are more important don't understand.

If an occupation was unimportant or unneeded, it wouldn't exist. We live in a large ant colony where every single job serves a purpose, and without it society would not exist was we know it.

Think of all of the jobs that must exist in order for another to do their job. Probably hundreds when you think about it, and likely few that take many days off.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
IT for network/computer systems that need to run 24/7

This was my first thought [I work in IT], but when I read the title, my mind didn't immediately jump to emergency services.

Judges. LEO need access to a judge 24/7 for warrants. They also have to set bail with conditions of release or deny bail.

I can tell you for sure, from personal experience, that air conditioning technicians certainly do take days off.

My wife and I spent many hours this past weekend trying to contact someone, anyone, who would respond to an HVAC problem. No joy.

quote:

I can tell you for sure, from personal experience, that air conditioning technicians certainly do take days off.

My wife and I spent many hours this past weekend trying to contact someone, anyone, who would respond to an HVAC problem. No joy.

Or they were all that busy.

I run into this all of the time with customers. For some reason they believe I'm hanging out around the office just waiting for them to call so I can just immediately take care of their needs.

The reality is that outside of emergency service, I'm anywhere from several days to several weeks out on work.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

I can tell you for sure, from personal experience, that air conditioning technicians certainly do take days off.

My wife and I spent many hours this past weekend trying to contact someone, anyone, who would respond to an HVAC problem. No joy.

Or they were all that busy.

No calls were returned. Not one. Many voicemail greetings said something like "Please call back during our normal hours, Monday through Friday, ..."

No text messages received a response. Not one.

No website "Contact Us" forms received a response. Not one.

Zero. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis.

I don’t mean to derail the thread, but a couple of years ago our water heater went out in the summer. All of the local businesses said that their installers don’t work after 1pm. It’s too hot for them. Really? I used to work my ass off in the burning hot summer for years, and not once did my employer say, take the afternoon off, it’s just too hot to work.