7. Stress

IT careers are generally more stressful than other careers. They are often characterized by hard work, long hours and tight deadlines. Let's examine the causes of stress in the IT world:

• Where's the fire? - Working in an IT department is a lot like being a fireman. There is always some urgent problem (fire) to solve (put out), usually driven by customer demands. RHI Consulting, an IT job-placement firm, conducted a survey of 1,400 CIO's and determined that the number one cause (55% of respondents) of workplace related stress was increasing workloads.^xxvii Timelines for project development are getting shorter due to marketplace demands for faster delivery of products and services. In the new Internet-driven economy, 24/7 availability of systems is required. As a result, many IT employees feel like they are mice on little exercise wheelsƒexcept they aren't permitted to stop when they get tired. Michael Miller, a lead developer of client applications at a major financial firm made an interesting observation. While working on a software project that was consuming 12-hour days, 6 to 7 days per week, he noted that a syndrome developed that he called "sleep programming." That is, you would wake up exhausted because you were working on solving programming problems while you slept.^xxviii With today's fast-paced economy, deadlines probably aren't going to get longer anytime soon.
  
  
• Immigration - Come again? Shouldn't importing workers from other countries and filling open jobs be relieving stress? Not always. Although US IT jobs are characterized by long hours (from most Americans' perspectives), IT jobs in other countries can make them look like paid vacations. In India, there is cutthroat competition for technology jobs, which make successful candidates willing to work 85-hour weeks.^xxix When employees like these arrive in America, they are often amazed to hear about 40-hour work weeks. However, they are already conditioned to work harder and longer and this carries over to the workplace here. In addition, if the new guy from India is working 60 hours this week, it puts peer pressure on the other employees to work just as hard.
  
  
• Long Hours - There's no doubt about it. As an IT professional, you're going to be putting in some long hours. How many? Well, in an article from InformationWeek, Russell Clark, Director of E-commerce portals for OAO Technology Solutions, Inc. says "12 to 14 hour days and over the weekend is just the status quo for IT".^xxx No matter what your job, long hours add up to overwork and contribute to fatigue which leads to stress. Longer hours are becoming a norm in the US, but it is more acute in the IT arena. Where the average American works 42 hours per week, a survey by InformationWeek shows that the average IT staff person works 45 hours per week plus is on-call for an additional 24 hours per week.^xxxi On-call time (hours an employee must be available to work in event of a problem) has been increasing in recent years due to more and more IT systems requiring 24/7 availability (such as E-commerce systems). Employers are realizing that this is a problem, but until the shortage of IT workers is addressed, many employers will not have a feasible solution to this problem.

So what's being done about job stress in IT? Well, employers are waking up to the fact that job stress that creates reduced productivity, resignations and psychological problems for their employees is bad for business. To combat stress many employers are introducing programs and procedures such as offering flexible schedules, telecommuting, job sharing, mentoring, and open door communications.^xxxii A culture shift needs to take place at many companies to combat stress related problems. Employees need to feel they have input regarding project deadlines, scheduling and staffing. Bosses need to become team leaders and coaches as opposed to autocratic despots who operate in a vacuum. Employees need to be given more time to rest, recuperate and decompress. Many perquisites these days are geared towards time off as opposed to the benefits that used to be offered to keep employees at their desks (dry-cleaning and other valet services, banking machines, juice and coffee bars, etc.).^xxxiii The good news is that stress, while not being totally eliminated, should be decreasing in the future at numerous companies. Nevertheless, this isn't to say you won't end up in a stressful situation from time to time.

What Realm of IT Should You Work In?

Well, that's a question only you can answer. Who knows yourself better than you do? However, to answer this question, you probably need to know more about individual IT careers. In the next several sections, we'll explore specific careers in depth to provide you with more information to assist you in making this important decision.