Estate agency as a career is purpose-built for mental health problems because of the highs and lows that are an intrinsic part of a job that can go from success to failure within seconds, and often encompasses other people’s personal problems such as divorce, loss of job and bereavement.
The warning comes from Cornish agent Chris Wood, who himself suffers from depression, and believes the condition is far more common in the industry than might be thought.
He has spoken out after a new “Man Up” campaign gets under way: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSAeOhCrv_s
Wood said: “Estate agency, as with many sales related jobs, is one of targets, pressures, endorphin-fuelled highs when a sale comes together, and often crushing despair when it falls apart.
“It can be a cruel career choice and destroyer of nerves.”
He said that while depression is common among both men and women, agents who suffer from it feel too ashamed and insecure to confide in the people they work with because of the pressures to succeed and appear confident.
He went on: “For anyone who has ever wondered how they are going to feed their children, pay the mortgage (or your colleagues) simply because, through no fault of their own, a buyer has changed their mind, a customer neglected to mention the property has no building regulations approval until ‘now’, or a solicitor has simply ‘forgotten’ to send the commission cheque in time – estate agency can be a veritable roller-coaster of emotions.
“Throw into the mix that estate agents are often dealing with people who are themselves going through other highly stressful life events that have triggered the need or desire to move (marriage, divorce, pregnancy, death etc) and agents are having to do so with sensitivity and, often, great patience.
“It can be a recipe for depression. No one is immune.
“No one with depression has it easier or harder than anyone else and everyone deals with it differently. As an estate agent, I’ve battled the black dog for many years as both an employed agent and a business owner.”
Wood said he had decided to speak out about depression, and its possible links with estate agency, in a bid to help others speak out and seek help.
Wood’s full blog is here
Comments (11)
Completely agree with your stated points Real estate career is build for depression but I also believe challenges brings joys, one should not be afraid of failure, only after failure, we can understand the real importance of success. My brother was unable to gain profit from his business, faced a huge loss of the investment money and that lead him to depression, he was afraid of failure, but with a voyante sérieuse guidance he found on the http://www.martine-voyance.com/qui-suis-je/ website brought lots of change in his thinking. He now enjoys the work and is doing well in his business.
A carefully considered piece of writing.
Depression is a dirty word for many. I have suffered from this too, not just because of the highs and lows of agency but also having had a bereavement, loss of earnings due to the credit crunch, and a divorce all at the same time.
It cost me everything.
Others are often feeling the same but often deflect their feelings due to the testosterone filled environment of agency. Chest beaters, market leaders, that’s all that matters! Right?
Interestingly agents make their living off the back of other people’s highs and lows, perhaps they should think of that when decrying people in the industry, in their own business, who are down, but not yet out.
Don’t be afraid to admit to being depressed, but don’t be surprised if it makes no difference to those that don’t understand or who care not to, usually for their own gain.
Well done for bringing this up.
Whilst I too agree with Chris Wood’s sentiments, I have to say married to a Nurse. (And Nurses aren’t always known for their empathy !!)
Her words of comfort after a particularly difficult days are; “well it’s not life and death, is it?” Because, I suppose some of her decisions can be !!
I wonder what she’d say if she lost half her wage every time a patient died and then got the blame for it.. different world.
You have no idea to how close to the truth your comments are.
When something goes wrong in a hospital, who do you think is first in the firing line the Dr or the nurse ?
Nurses are in the “firing line” almost all the time, they have a very stressful time and lets not forget the NHS is in a huge financial black hole, so all the managers are trying to find ways of saving money and if they can do so at the nurses expense, well so be it.
I worked in the health service many years ago, and I have to say it was really stressful doing on call – looking down a microscope at 3 in the morning trying to work out whether a baby had meningitis or not. But I always did my best …..and you had to accept that sometimes, even though you got the result right, it wasn’t enough or in time to save the child (happened to me on at least one occasion …where the diagnosis was too late to help, and even though the baby had been given intravenous antibiotics on arrival in casualty…. she died…. I was gutted when I found out). So yes it could be life or death……but I was employed and always got paid.
The problem with our industry is that you can do all the right things, be conscientious and caring….and then things beyond your control can go out of control big time (like the government introducing measures to increase property demand whilst allowing the introduction of other measures to decrease supply…for instance…. causing a downward spiral of listings), or on a smaller scale where you lose a couple of sales as someone changes their mind, and a survey downvalues…. and all of a sudden you have all the overheads and very little coming in to contribute. You pay everyone else…but not yourself… not being in control causes the stress and then it becomes very, very scary. Stress is bad enough on its own……but add shear fear as well.
It a great pity that those in power that make the decisions still get paid at the end of the day…if only they could go through what we have had to experience sometimes.
I suspect all jobs have negative and positives. Stress, it appears, is everywhere.
Anyone who knows Chris Wood – and I am proud to have been allowed to merely scratch the surface of the bloke (figuratively speaking) from the other end of the country – will appreciate that his honesty and integrity – and passion – are worn completely on his sleeve, as is demonstrated perfectly by this personal baring of his feelings.
Many of us lock up at the slightest hint… or laugh off the thought… that we aren’t just having ‘a bad day’ – that something black and bottomless is waiting round the corner to swallow them up… and that there’s another one right behind them.
Takes a big man, Chris.
I applaud your ‘nads. Bigger than the majority.
I totally agree
I understand partially how you feel Chris. The banking crisis virtually wiped our business out overnight (particularly stopping first time buyers who we dealt with mostly), contributed (I am sure) to the death of my great friend and business partner, and destroyed my earnings for five years. Having only just got back on our feet a little, a couple of years ago, I was almost wiped out again by being unable to walk properly for 18 months (from hip problems), and having hardly any staff left to help. And then to top it all the lead up to… and final ‘referendum result’ halved our business levels overnight. Its been like a war for 7 years in a business I truly love being part of. Won’t it be nice to finally see some optimism at the end of the tunnel…..and I think its coming!!
An absolutely excellent article about a very serious and rarely discussed subject.
I would urge everyone to read Chris’s blog in full and be aware of the issue within our industry which, as has been alluded to, …
“…can be a cruel career choice and destroyer of nerves.”