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Appreciating Your Stressful IT Job?
in the trenches asks: "I'm a married, 24-year-old male, and like many posters here on Slashdot I work in the IT industry. I currently work as a website developer (mostly design-related work), but I also do some Perl and PHP programming. As most of you probably have, I've often wondered if I wouldn't enjoy working in a less stressful environment. I've even gone as far as to wonder if I'd prefer some sort of factory job or similar over my current field of work. The problem is this, I LOVE developing websites, but I HATE the stress and responsability that comes with a the job. How do you all cope with the stress and responsability that seems to come hand-in-hand with an IT career?"
I am a 26 year old engaged engineer, so I am not that dissimilar from the sumbitter.
I recently left a job in the aerospace industry for a research engineer position at a major university. I have never been happier. I took a little pay cut, but the cost of living in most college towns is a lot lower than it is in most cities, and I get more benifits (for example I get very cheap access to the athletic facilities instead of having to pay $30/mo for a mediocer health club...).
The work environment is lower pressure, and is more open, more self guided... I work fewer hours on the average day, because I don't feel the pressure to be there like I used to, but I work from home a lot now on the weekends and in the evenings, because I enjoy my job. I enjoyed the work at my old job, but I resented the environment of forced productivity so much that I did not enjoy working on my own time...
I have always been an exersize nut, spending hours at the gym and running each week, since the switch, without really changing my workout routine I have gotten stronger and faster, and I set my new personal record in the half marathon a few weeks ago.
Overall, I definatly recommend academia!
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
Excercise 1
1. Assume a comfortable posture lying on your back or sitting. If your are sitting, keep the spine straight, and let your shoulders drop.
2. Close your eyes if it feels comfortable.
3. Bring your attention to your belly, feeling it rise or expand gently on the inbreath and fall or reced on the outbreath.
4. Keep the focus on your breathing, Being with each inbreath for its full duration and with each outbreath for its full duration, as if you were riding the waves of your own breathing
5. Every time you notice that you mind has wandered off the breath, notice what is was that took you away, and then gently bring your attention back to your belly and the feeling of the breath coming in and out.
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
Is the only way to deal with stress.
Try and exercise hard for an hour each day and the endorphins produced will suppress the production of stress hormones.
I cycle. It's a geek thing to do as you can get into the engineering side of cycle componentry whilst at the same time getting to learn something about physiology and how to train yourself.... VO2 Max, heart rate monitoring etc.
I find that the exercise is the only thing that keeps me sane in a modern Western environment. I think that lack of exercise amongst modern Westerners results in the increased depression and other psychoses we're prone to.
The Machine stops.
I'm a 22 year old sysadmin at a university and part time student. I've been working at the university since May 2000 and got a full-time, permant appointment in December 2003.
Working at the university has it's benefits, but at the moment I'm considering quiting so that I can just get on with my life. You see, I'm still trying to get a degree. I can assure you that I'll be out of there as soon as I get it!
You see, at a university, you will not get the level of recognition, monetary or academic, that you deserve, unless you're part of the teaching staff and have a high academic qualification.
The stress from the bussines world doesn't scare me at all. In my current job, it happens all too often that I have to sit for hours and fix some cock-up so that students can hand in their assignments, when I really need to work on that exact same assignment. And then everyone wants to know why my grades are shit and when I'm going to finish the degree!?