Meltdown in the workplace

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Hah! Not talking about Fukushima

I had meltdowns in two previous jobs. Once working for the Australian franchise of Burger King (here it's called Hungry Jacks); and a second while working in a Clarks Rubber store.

As I consider future options, it occurs to me that some careers might be highly stressful, and therefore might be meltdown magnets.

Teaching might be an example. We've all known teachers who 'lost it'.

Anyone care to share their experiences of meltdowns in the workplace, and strategies for dealing with it?

I've been lucky in I've fallen into careers that aren't emotionally challenging or require lots of multitasking with lots of interruptions.

I have been very close to meltdowns on a few occasions. All those times were at "customer relation-building days" ; where each year our employer would invite delegates from various companies to a themed event / day-out somewhere, where we would have group debating sessions, presentations, and lots of free breakout sessions of 'chit chat'. My job was to try to keep the 300-400 delegates talking to each other and keeping conversations going with them at all the various breakout sessions spaced out over the course of a long, tiring 12 hour event. The theme would usually be around football/soccer, and themes like "score to win" , and try to crossover that theme into business sense of "scoring to win".

The event had good intentions, but usually turns out to be little more than "speed dating for finance professionals".

The directors were watching out for their staff, including myself, to make sure we were continually doing 'chit-chat' to the various delegates at all those breakout sessions, and not hiding in the corner somewhere. When my meltdowns occurred, I would pretend I had an important phone call from a customer , then go outside pretending to be on my mobile phone for a while.
I would return home completely exhausted, my blood pressure about 160/90, and close to tears.

These aren't meltdowns, but they are times when I either snapped at someone or went off on someone at work.

In my 20's while working in an office, the holier than thou office manager who was so full of herself kept standing over me reminding me how to do the statements. I had done the statements for months and knew it backwards and forwards and didn't make mistakes with it. I was hormonal and moody and didn't much care for her anyway so I just basically turned around and snapped at her "Look, do you want to f*cking do this or do you want me to do it?" then went back to what I was doing. She stopped being so hovering after that.

When I was 19 I worked as a waitress in a strip club. I didn't dress like the strippers, I wore jeans and shirts. A half drunk customer grabbed my butt. He got a drink in his face. Just the liquid, not the glass.

I have several examples of snapping at customers or employers while being a cashier at different places.

When I quit my vet tech job I told the new vet (he was the reason I quit) that he was an arrogant sob and just because he's an educated farmer doesn't mean he's some neurosurgeon so stop acting like one.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
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As a young husband and hardly any help from family or friends I have to worry about keeping a job so i can keep a roof over me and my wife's head. Im only 24 and i have had like 20 jobs +/- . It seems like i live in fear of melt downs. I tend to quit jobs before i have a melt down. Some jobs i only worked for a week, some months , some for a day and some for a half a day . I have no clue how to stop melt downs besides leave the job for the day or hour and come back but most of every job doesn't allow that . And certainly i can't talk to the owner or manager about whats going on because they never listen or choose to not realize it or understand what i'm trying to say . So it always come downs as my fault when i try my hardest and best to be the best worker i do things that most workers don't even think about doing or i do things in such detail . (which is sometime a bad thing to be to good of a worker because it takes to long ) How dumb. I suppose to do a good job but not to good of a job. Oh and Heaven forbid that i do a better job than my boss/owner. which i have had that happen lol .. I have had some serious melt downs though and im scared that i might end up in jail if i have any more melt downs and i can't be away from my wife which helps me out so much .. so it gives me a power to control most of my melt downs but now i always end up quitting jobs left and right . and now im not riskisng going to jail but now im risking losing the roof over our heads .. the answer to keeping a job is a answer i have been looking for . for 9 years now . i'm going to try to get my own business and work by my self . Because in my history it seems like the melt downs never get better or easier at handling . but to counter react it i get better at handling the situation that can cause and will cause a melt down . and stay away from any potential melt downs.