Slashdot Mirror
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?"
Have a baby. You'll leave work each day with a song in your heart, knowing that there will be a minimum of bodily fluids to contend with.
Simple. Be unemployed... Also seems to go hand in hand with an IT career.
IT doesn't automatically mean less stress. There're stressfull jobs in other areas as well, just as there are relaxing IT jobs.
So just change your job but stay in the IT industry, specially if you like it. There's nothing better than a job in an area you like!
Stress and responisility come with any skilled job. You'll certainly feel less stress working on a production line, but you'll constantly feel undervalued, as you won't be getting used to anywhere near your full potential.
Saying that, my friend's father has a PhD from Oxford, and now drives a bus. He's far happier than he used to be. Maybe you should eventually give up the hard work, but not until far later in life.
Stress is what we feel when our current abilities are being challenged. It's also at these times that we grow as individuals - we learn to deal with situations which once caused stress, and hence become more capable. This applies whatever the cause of stress, even if it's a stupid boss that's doing your head in, you have to learn to deal with stupid bosses.
I think you're much to young to stop growing, much to young to run from stressful situations. I also think you're too young to be married, but your early marriage is associated with your personal needs to grow as individual. Maybe you've already grown all you want.
So obviously it's a personal choice how much stress you want to endure, taking into account how much you have already grown, how much you want to grow further, and your capability to do so.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
In my early 20s, I like everybody worked 14 hour days 5 days a week. Then at some point (marriage, probably) I realized that the *better* people get their shit done in 8 hours, and go home. If you find yourself working superlong, you're probably not operating correctly. You should just go home and do better tomorrow.
It's all about planning. Now I no longer look on 70-hour week people as heros; actually the opposite, why can't they get their work done more efficiently.
Get a new job. A less stressful one. Chances are if your stressed out over what you are doing, you dont actually like what you are doing. If the stress bothers you that much, its time to look for something else.
I've noticed in IT jobs, the more you talk and interact with your coworkers in a positive and joking way, the less stressful the job is. When you sit there and stew over what your boss might say next, it gets stressful.
You might actually enjoy working as a web developer, but perhaps not at the company you are at now. Having fun with your coworkers can make the day go by a lot faster and be more enjoyable. Look elsewhere!
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
Develop your life in a way that suits your personality, whether through social interaction outside work or reflection. I personally do Tai Chi. The way I deal with stress at work is to make everything into a joke -- my boss, for example, is insanely negative and insulting. All of us in the department used to get very upset about it. But with enough talking amongst ourselves and building of a mutual solidarity, we now pretty much laugh in his face: we take control of our environment and refuse to let him dictate stress onto us. He doesn't like it that much obviously, but we do. Something that REALLY helps is to think: what is the worst that can happen to me? As the Tao Te Ching says: Do your work, then step back.
musides
BEER
I work as a journalist. I'm 26, and starting to learn how to cope with stress and the fact that a single small slip of the keys could land my employer in a multi-million lawsuit.
The answer is; with the years, you get more confident in yourself. You know that the abaility to do it is in you, and is neing used, so it's nothing to worry about. Focus on teh task instead.
But occasionaly, I do get a bit worried. Like five minnutes ago, where the competing newspaper said (indriectly) that my story about the returing caskets with soldiers from Iraq was dead wrong (Among the pictures from thememoryhole.org were some pictures of caskets frome the columbia accident). I paniced a bit, yes, but though calmly about it, investigated my case, and discovered that the pictures I had discarded (since they wer taken during the day, while the pictures I used were in the night) from columbia had not been included in my article. And therefore it was 100% correct.
In other words: Trust your instincts.
Find out what's really bothering you. Is it really the stress and responsibility, or is it the money, the lack of advancement, or something else? This is very important, because if it's really the stress then it means that (e.g.) no matter how much they pay you, you would feel the same.
Once you know what really bothers you start thinking what you can do about it. Maybe a lack of advancement is because maybe you didn't finish college (I don't know you - I just know several people that work in IT in that exact situation). Maybe the stress is because you have several bosses that ask stuff for yesterday and you just need to come up with a way to prioritize everything effectively. And so on and so forth.
Changing job fields like that is risky because you don't know what awaits you. And if you don't address the core problem and make sure that changing job is the best solution, then it's going to come up again in any job that you do.
The ENIAC Demo Competition
I was going to do an Ask Slashdot about this, but this topic is somewhat related. So I have a question for those of you with degrees and such that moved into careers: I may have the opportunity to take a Web Development job in another state doing PHP/MySQL work and Mac OS X support. The job description falls squarely into my interests. The problem is, I'm only 19 and finishing my frosh year in college. Would it be worth it to a take a full-time job like this and go to night classes to get an associate's degree? Does anyone here have specific experiences with the difference between earning an associate's and a bachelor's degree in the high tech field?
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?"
Hey man. Just take it for what it is, enjoy it, make sure things are done right, and then be done with it. I work 100-110 hours a week and when I'm on call spend around 34-36 hours at the hospital straight. The hours *sork hard*, but I love the work.
But that's what you have to do - enjoy the job and then leave it behind and get on with your life. Time is precious.
So I ended up giving 110% to companies that didn't give it back and I found myself up at 3:00am on many nights, trying to save the dumbest crap on the Internet like I was trying to save the International Space Station or something. The dedicated server for Joe's Discount MP3 Warehouse would reboot, and there I'd be investigating like there was life at stake. It's pretty similar with coding, the people that give you the orders want it done -now- and with -no bugs-. Which, of course, is unrealistic.
It's an attitude that's not discouraged by management, a lot of times. Remember if they can "push you harder" they get better results. You get an ulcer.
So:
I think the most important one is the first. Remember that life is not at stake (unless it is at stake, then panic).
-- The unsig...
When I was younger I was the same, stressed about everything and everyone. Every little thing that was not going right was a major catastrophe.
You're going to have to learn to treat your work as just that, work. It is not your life. Do not take it home. When you leave work, forget it. You're not responsible for other peoples' work and mistakes. You can only do your best and if that's not enough for others, then that's THEIR problem, not yours. Also don't be afraid to ask for help, if you're completely overwhelmed.
I had to learn this the hard way after all that made my life miserable when I was working at my first professional job. I made a conscious effort to chance my attitude from the "worry about everything" to "don't sweat the small stuff". I haven't been miserable at work ever since even though there always is some level of stress involved.
But it's not the stress that you should be worried about, it's how you react to it.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
I've found that if I dress badly, act angry, yell at my computer, and do really weird stuff that people tend to leave me alone. Granted I can get away with this because I get the job done in record time and I've never missed a deadline. Also - listen to music in headphones (it increases your personal space theres an article around here but it's too early and I've only had a sip of coffee). It's entirely up to you to defend your personal space and to repel the cube invaders. I don't officially take a lunch ( it's in my desk drawer), so my work mates never see me take lunch. Use the phrases "Under the gun", "there's no time for that" a lot. Really create the image that you're too damn busy for their petty shit. Read slashdot between your sandwiches ;) Sit with your back to the cube door but have a reflective surface where you can see in back of you so you can detect cube invaders.
You really only have two options.. deal with them on your terms, or on their terms.
I've found that reducing the petty bullshit makes life easier.
-B
I would LOVE to be doing that, heres the reality check, I am in the Army, just got back from the War in Iraq in July 03 and have to go back for another whole year in Jan of 05, so, always remember, what may seem stressful can always, always get much worse, and most of what we sweat in life is really not that big of a deal, I used to think my IT job was stressful, but not even close to having things explode around you and having bullets whizz past (A sound I will never forget) Please don't take this as a flame or insult, just as a reality check.
-- Phillip Davis phil at daviszone dot org
Quite frankly I have been lucky enough to have a job as an Embedded Firmware Engineer for 25 years. Remember the catch phrase"Intel first from the begining" I was there. Beta'd the 8051, 8086, 80186, 29000, 29020 and the list goes on.
This led to marrige breakdown of two marriges something that happened to a lot of my co-workers.
My advise is simple. Try and make your family first and advise work your family / life / health comes first.
When picking a mate try and find someone who would partner with you at work and shows a genuine interest. This might be an artist that does books as well for web sites and the graphic artist can rise in them. Anyway you get the picture.
And finally try and work towards a end that you can live where you want run your own business and the work comes to you. All you need is that high speed connect. Work when you want. Go fishing or ? when you want.
That's what 25 years tells me. And no I didn't, I wish someone had told me.
Regards John
Vista, the single biggest argument for Desktop Linux! It doesn't "Just Work"(TM).
You could marry someone you hate. Having a wife that sucks makes your job stress seem much less important. Which reminds me, I heard a good joke the other day in a movie I was watching: "Yesterday, over breakfast, I made a Freudian slip. I meant to ask my wife to pass the butter, but instead I said, 'You bitch! You've ruined my life!'"
I've got a nice cushy IT job now, working as a security engineer for a nonprofit. About half the staff at the organization are developers or system/network engineers. It's not very stressful.
:)
Last year and the year before, I was working as an engineer for an IT consulting company. It's great experience, but it's a lot more stressful than working in one department for one set of people on one small set of projects.
I don't know if I'm weird, greedy, or just a masochist, but I'm giving up my cushy IT job to go finish a degree (any degree!) and become a market maker (that's a term some stock/options exchanges use for a floor trader that provides liquidity). Talk about a stressful job. The nice thing is the money and the skill you gain in doing it - if I wanted to retire after 5-10 years with a mil or two and just trade a few hours a day/week for the rest of my life, I could. Plus, I hear they have LOTS of vacation time!
I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
I used to love computers. Seriously.
I used to have a passion for everything. I used to love learning every minute detail I could about whatever it was I was interested in.
And one day, it all just stopped. I think it was when my interests became intertwined with my job. When what I was "interested in" was dictacted to me by whoever was paying me.
I have often times thought about pulling and "office space", and just ditching the whole thing, and doing something physically rewarding, but somehow, I end up stuck in that part of the movie where you're getting paid more and more for doing less and less. And like with crack cocaine, it's just hard to say no.
Any profession has a basic problem that, at some point, it becomes a job. The bigger question is how to keep it in balance. I'd encourage you to develop hobbies that are not related to computers; I took up woodworking and woodturning. You're married (and presumably not all that long), so it's worth thinking of cultivating your marriage and spending time with your children (once you have any, if you don't have any yet). Working for charitable causes is helpful also, especially in that it helps you see the value of your own career. (There's always someone worse off than you are.)
That having been said, some jobs simply are not conducive to this. Bad hours, bad boss, tedious work, etc. I stand by my oft-stated assertion that working with a good team of people (defined as coworkers you enjoy working with) is worth a LOT of money. In that case, look around for a position that's better for your soul. But even then, it'll become work some day.
In any case, there is a bigger picture to be kept in mind. I cannot speak for other faiths, but from my vantage point as a Christian, there is a lot to be said for developing an understanding of vocation. Your abilities are not purely of your own doing. What you have been given (money, ability, etc.) should be used for a greater purpose, as the parable of the ten talents (Matthew 25:14-29) shows. When viewed with this attitude, it's easy to see the "job" as the grunt work that provides for the real, but unpaid, task of giving time, money, or ability elsewhere. Speaking from experience, the stress becomes bearable as you realize that you tolerate it for a reason.
Growing up is all about taking responsibility... if you can't handle that, then I have no idea how you expect to get anywhere in life.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Do something that makes you happy and helps make other people's lives easier/happier. If you're not happy and you're not making the world a better place, whats the use of waking up in the morning. Find something that makes you happy, and adjust your lifestyle to meet your new (likely lower) income level. Be happy, and you'll enjoy your short life that much more. Note, your *wife* may not agree with the idea... so ya might want to talk with her, it is after all a marraige - she might have her own goals she's working for.
meh
Developing tons of web sites for a web design company under customer deadlines while trying to produce a profit is stressful.
Developing and maintaining a single large web site for a large non-profit or non-IT organization is markedly less stressful.
No matter what you're doing, the stress goes up when you're dealing with external customer deadlines, pointy-headed-bosses that constantly change project scope, and the urgency to sell stuff fast or perish. Conversely, if you have the luxury of being an internal developer for a stable company whose main focus isn't actually IT, things get more predictable and stable. I'm not saying there's no stress at non-IT companies, I'm just saying it's a lot worse when you're the guy whose work pays the checks for the rest of the staff.
If you're working for an IT company, consider your next job at a non-IT company, like non-profit organizations, city government, services companies, etc. The money's usually lower, but the pace is slower, the demands are more lax, and you don't have the stress of trying to put bread on other people's plates by the merits of your own coding.
What's your damage, Heather?
I've been professionally coding for 20 years, and I took a 5 month break to help my old man work in the sun, carting limestone blocks on some real estate property he was working on. Very hard, grimey, dirty, exhausting work in the harsh Aussie sunshine. A far cry from the cushy coffee/edit/compile lifestyle I'd plugged myself into in California for far too long
Best 5 months worth of work I've ever done. Sunshine, fresh air, daily exercise regimen disguised as 'work', and a decent wad of cash from the ol' man at the end of it.
Made me appreciate the beauty of code even more, when I finally got back to my laptop
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I've found the the people that get the most done get the most additional assignments. A Navy chief once told me "if you want something done, find the busiest person and give it to them". The point being that most everyone else is a slacker. I found myself doing most of my division's work on the submariness I was on. It shouldn't be any wonder that I wasn't very happy and had a lot of stress.
Perhaps it's ironic and perhaps not that the people that slack off seem to be the happiest. So now that I've been out of the Navy for nearly 12 years (6 in), and working 80 hour weeks on average during that time, I can tell you my current recipe for coping: twice the normal daily prescribed dosage of Prilosec (doctor says to) in an attempt to heal an esophagus damaged by stress induced esophagitis. And antacid at least once every day or two on top of it and about 20 hours less per week. In large doses, this kind of work related stress is terribly unhealthy. Other people I know that are about 40 as well in IT have developed stress related problems dealing with their stomachs and colons. I'm sure it doesn't help that I come from a largely unemotional waspy family and live with an emotional woman of Italian decent.
It's not worth it. Frequently, the fuck ups when they do something right get rewarded because it's so unexpected. The people that crank out huge volumes of work go unrecognized because it's normal.
The paradox isn't unlike what used to happen when smoking in the work place was much more common. Smokers got their hourly or every couple of hours smoke break while the non-smokers toiled away. If a non-smoker stopped for the same break, they were ordered back to work because they were slacking off. The smoker continued to be rewarded for what essential was behavior that took time away from work and (and caused health problems).
So the question now is, are you a selfish and lazy shirker, or a team player willing to share the load?
No more lazy and selfish than the [incompetent manager|greedy salesman|bonus-oriented project manager] who for their personal benefit decided to undertake a course of action that now results in someone asking me to work ridiculous hours.
On rare occasions (think no more than once every year or two) this may be acceptable.
Anything else, and I'd like you working for/with me, so I can walk all over you like the rug you allow yourself to be.
I deliver on time and on budget -- but I have considerable input into both. People respect my work, amongst other things, as they know that my estimates are realistic and my performance is consistently better than what they're used to from others who run around like headless chickens all the time, stressing out, while stupidly saying "Yes, Sir" to everything.
I am a professional, and as a result of my taking responsibility for my actions, while being willing and able to say what needs saying in tough situations, I am recognised as a professional.
Doctors, lawyers and engineers have had the foresight and backbone to thoroughly educate themselves, and (forearmed) stand up for what they know truly works well. Until this becomes common practice in IT, ours will remain a fledgling profession, full of unnecessary stress.
Wouldn't exactly make me want to go to work....
-ted
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...
Better yet, get canned.
One of two things will happen.
1) You will find its pretty hard to do, so long as you give it minimum effort.
2) You will get fired, and then know what real stress is.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
OK, I just have to get this out of my system first: web design is stressful? Try real programming some time. There, I feel better now. ;-)
Whenever I start hating my job, I think about how the non-techie population lives - and how I lived, once.
Sure, my job can be frustrating. The technical challenges are the least of it; sometimes I think Sarte ("hell is other people") was right. When I start getting annoyed, though, I try to think of what it would really be like to have another kind of job - working on an assembly line, delivering packages for FedEx, picking up trash, ... no, thanks. Even the cushy-seeming jobs (doctor, lawyer, stockbroker) and the "fun" jobs (ski instructor, river guide) have their own trials and tribulations. They call it work for a reason. If you really think about it, working in high tech is about as close to a perfect job as you can reasonably expect.
Slashdot - News for Herds. Stuff that Splatters.
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
I can definately empathize with the poster. I have a high-stress IT job in the Dallas area. I think what makes work the most stressful, is the roller-coaster ride of elation over what we can achieve technically and what we have to put up with from management and the customers we so dearly need. If there was a way to segment technical people from political people in IT, I think all the technical people would be much happier, but it's just not possible...
There's a pizzaria around the corner from my house called Nizza Pizza (Its in Arlington on Park Row and Cooper, if anyone wants to hop a plane and try a pie.) Anyway, on the busyest Friday night, I can see the cast and crew behind the counter making pizzas and salads like true artisans. The place is run by a family of Sicilian guys who stop and look up and say, "Hey Buddy, how ya doin'?" everytime I walk in. They make great pizzas, so they all must have the feeling of a job well-done. They have an obvious professionalism, and seem to enjoy their jobs. Watching them work makes me want to be the pizza guy, no matter what it pays. But then I remember my mortgage, and I turn around and head out the door with my pizza, because I have responsibilities...
RANT: modern living is not stressful. stressful is having to walk a mile to get a bucketful of greasy water, in a homeless territory rife with war, disease, and hatred. it never ceases to remind me of the highlights of western decadence when i hear of people in the modern world complaining of 'stress' at their 'jobs'. of the worlds population, those even able to 'stress out' about their jobs are in the upper 15%... everyone else is struggling to survive. sometimes, we forget our privilege. this is always fatal. END RANT
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I'm an Army Reservist who just spent six months in Baghdad as a combat photographer. I found that to be less stressful than my civilian software engineer job. (I wish that was a joke but I'm not kidding.)
I graduated from college in 91 and worked the same stressful IT job til 95. Then I said: screw this -- and decided to get out of the whole business (I was an application programmer).
I sold what I had and decided to travel for a while -- a while which ended up to be 2 years and 3 continents later.
I learned a lot during that time, and came back full circle to the IT industry with a healthier attitude. My philosophy now is: mental health, emotional health, physical health. In that order. If you get mentally broken down, the other two soon follow. And it doesn't work the other way around. You can't exercise your way to better mental health.
Also: bad stress is normally caused by stuff that is out of your control. Next time you feel stressed out, check to see why. Unreasonable deadline? Sys Admin can't get his sh*t together for your app to run? Bug in your IDE? Project Leader is a Dick?
Out-of-control stress is usually an environment thing. If it doesn't change (or you can't change it), it's often a sign to start looking for a different company.
I'm a consultant now and can honestly say that the company culture makes MUCH more difference to your daily routine than "being in the IT industry".
but it's not a joke.
I took a job with the Govt. (state, not federal)
Until just over 2 months ago I had a very stressful IT job. I won't go in to the details, let's just say it was getting worse and I didn't see it getting any better. I liked the job, I liked the people, I liked my boss and coworkers, but it was just getting ridiculous.
I went to work for my State Govt. In my case I was lucky enough that I have friends who work in IT there and a guy who used to be my boss went to work there so I had a foot in the door.
Old Job: 65+ hours per week salaried (overtime? yeah right), having to let vacation disappear because I don't have time to take it and it doesn't roll over year to year, travelling all over the place and being responsible for Everything IT. Constantly worried about the next reorg.
New Job: 37.5 hours per week (with comp time for more hours worked) vacation that accumulates year over year, just being responsible for my little corner of the world with people who can cover for me. Job security is pretty solid if you don't commit any of the Big Sins (get caught with porn, do something to embarrass the higher ups, etc..) I come in, I give good value for my time and I go home. I don't get an upset stomach on Sunday afternoon thinking about Mondays anymore.
Downsides? The bureaucracy is mind-numbing.
Conversations like this:
"Why can't we just fix this?"
"Politics. You'll step on the toes of the guy who's supposed to do this."
"You mean he wouldn't be grateful we did it for him?"
"Uh, no."
Meetings. Good God they love their meetings. We needed to relocate a bunch of servers from one of the state agencies to the server room right outside my door. So we have a meeting with the affected people. Fine. Then two days before the Big Move they call another meeting "just to make sure everybody's clear." Ooookay. Things that I would have handled in the past with a flurry of emails and a phone call now take 3 face-to-face meetings with 6-8 people.
Boredom. Seriously. My old job was much more challenging and interesting. There's plenty of work for me to do, but I think I actually miss the stress to some degree.
Coworkers. Don't get me wrong here. There are a lot of hardworking intelligent people here. One of the smartest bitheads I've ever had the pleasure to know is the main guy who helped me get this job. The guy who is my boss now is very good at his job. OTOH there are people who will reinforce every bad stereotype of a Govt. employee you ever heard. And it's almost impossible to get rid of them. You just work around them. On a brighter note, I can work at what I consider to be a leisurely pace and still out-perform a lot of people.
Raises have little or nothing to do with your job performance. You won't get rich working for the govt. Fortunately the only outstanding debt I have is my mortgage and my wife's student loans when she went back to school to get her RN, so while I don't make big money I make enough to pay the bills and buy a few toys.
I'll leave you with a quote from the guy who used to be my boss to make you understand why I'm here.
"There are people here who think they're stressed out. They've got no idea what the fuck they're talking about. The only stress I have is what I put on myself. Y'know, I recently got an offer from [company we both worked for] to come back. They offered me a substantial raise over what I'm making here. I turned them down. They asked me why and I told them - I don't travel, I don't work nights, I don't work weekends, I get to see my family and the difference in the stress is indescribable. It's just not worth the money."
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
Sorry, but I can't resist asking this. Is it true what they say about your fingers? :-)
You stroke a chord there...
:), or maybe a carpenter.
I'm a Software Architect running from meeting to meeting everyday. How often have I thought about dropping it all (including salary and lifestyle). Move to Hawaii and become a gardener (called landscape architect now
I like to create things (which is in part why I like software, you can make things without needing a big infrastructure). I need a lower stress job.
You also have to change your lifestyle, though, to live on less money.
Why is this "belittling" spiel modded as insightful? Why? What is insightful about saying "it could always get worse". Would it be insightful to say "Hey, dude, you should be greatful you only have siphilus, cause, man at least you don't have Aids".
The only thing worse than cliche advice like that is the attitude that anyone should just suck it all up because at they don't have it half as bad as someone else. Does it make the problem go away? No. Does it offer strategies on how to deal with the problem? No. All if is, if anything, is an excuse for someone, with grand notions of their own self-importance, to belittle someone else.
Here's another reality check: You getting shot at is the risk you take when you join the Army and given Americas glorious record of imposing themselves willy nilly on anyone smaller than them you can hardly say it was a risk you weren't aware of - so don't you dare come galloping in on your high horse like some brave mighty warlord and talk down to the rest of us about the meaninglessness of our problems because "hey, at least we don't have to risk getting blown".
can't tell ya how to struggle by with 50 grand a year and sit in an office for long hours. I CAN tell you how to put it into perspective. quit your job. Now go get a job like a mason's tender, or in a chicken processing plant, or working landscaping, or an a black topping road crew, something like that.
Now work for a month.
Every friday, STARE at that check, notice the slightly differerent number sequences that what you are used to. Now notice your backache, your dangerous sunburn, the cough you are getting from road dust, the sight of a thousand chickenbns hanging on hooks in front of you in a never ending stream that never quits. Now explain to wifey why you will be needing to a smaller home, and maybe the ride is kinda steep, go looking for a one grand junker with 200 thou on it. Now go to the grocery store and notice that everything but the cheap stuff is off the menu if you like eating 7 days a week. Now notice what a movie or DVD costs in termsof hours of labor. Now notice that you will still have bosses who are jerks, who will get on your case, tell you it needs to be done by yada yada, and you know it should take 4 yadas to do that. Notice now that even though it's 90 degrees out today, and tomorrow it will be thunderstorming, you'll still be "at work" and the climate control seems to be broken perpetually, it s a bit more random than what you might be used to. Now notice that full coverage insurance you are thinking about more because of that guy they hauled off yesterday with the crushed foot, and which you will have to buy yourself will cost you 1/2 to 2/3rds your check if you actually expect it to do more than the bare minimum band aids, and forget any income replacement or anything like that. Now notice all the people who are very hard to understand who are working next to you, and are living a dozen to an apartment, and all come to work in one old ratty van. Now sit back and watch the nooze at night and realise the two big choices you are being offered next november when you vote are both multi millionaires, people open doors for them and do their yard work and cooking and whatnot, they always have their choice of champagnes or lobster, and that they ain't sweating the note on nuthin,and notice how2 sincere sounding they are and they "are sympathetic and *just like you*, really, and they will help you, really and truly, not like those past dozens of times when we said it and it didn't happen, but this time it'll be different!"
REALLY think about that for awhile.
Think about that for awhile as you go to bed two hours earlier than normal because you can't hardly move anymore, and somehow finding time to go "workout at the gym" doesn't seem to be all that important or worth the cash they charge for it.
and etc, etc..
There's stress, then there's stress, besides that employment exercise, can't help you much. Good luckski!
1) It gives you something to look forward to and work towards.
2) It requires and promotes responsible financial planning.
3) It gives you a feeling of control.
4) It restricts your "suffering" to finite periods of time.
5) It recharges your creative batteries.
6) It opens new possibilities.
7) It gives you quality time to spend with your family and friends.
8) It gives you a chance to catch up on technologies YOU are interested in instead of what your job requires.
9) It gives you a chance to do positive things you will be able to reflect on when you end up in a nursing home or are disabled at a relatively early age.
It can be done even with a mortgage, a family and a slow economy. You might have to make sacrifices in your long term goals but in the long run you will probably benefit from a richer life experience.
I don't think it has hurt me in many interviews. Most people express admiration for taking such a bold step and admit they would like to do it themselves. If it has hurt a job prospect I probably wouldn't do well working for such a person.
Nothing like a change in perspective to reduce your stress level. I was called up after 9/11 and spent a year on Active Duty including a deployment in Afghanistan. Getting mortered, rocketed, shot at and seeing people who are happy with much much less that I, changed my attitude about what is important. Makes my bosses unhappy some times, but if a problem is not going to kill someone, it is not that big of a problem.
Computer programming is anything but stressful in my experience. What creates stress are the folks who are bored with their lives and feel the need to make everything an "emergency". It's all a matter of what style of work environment you want. If you can't retrain your managment to stop with the constant crisis thing, find a new job.
Probably one of the best ways to relieve stress.
In any case, you will gain productivity if you exercise more, and you will feel better to boot.
Stress is your body's reaction to something outside of your body. You may not be able to control what is going on outside of your body, but you can, and should, at least _believe_ that you can control your body's reaction to it.
Make a commitment, even 30 minutes a day, every day, in the morning when you wake up, or something along those lines. I find that when a project hits, and I have to get it done ASAP, that it's easy to forget to exercise.
Here's the thing. If you forget the exercise commitment, even if it's just 30 minutes a day, you are actually being less efficient. I have known managers (including myself) that tend towards the fallacious theory that as long as an employee (or manager) is stressed out, the job is getting done as well as it can be. After all, if you are so carefree, and everything is behind schedule, isn't there something wrong with that? But guess what? If you are stressed out, the project will be just as behind schedule as if you aren't. There is a "fad", if you will, where we are essentially being paid for being stressed out. This is wrong, and unnecessary. It is easier to be busy, for instance, if you eat a proper diet, exercise, and get enough sleep. A proper diet and exercise can also reduce the amount of time that you need to sleep.
So while being stressed out may be inevitable and ubiquitous, one thing it won't do is get the job done faster and better. Stress, in my experience, has just been used as a coping mechanism, as an excuse for poor management. Just look around and you will see that it is. Managers trying to do stuff they shouldn't be doing to try to save money is one symptom of this.
Bring your level of skill (including social engineering skills), your level of input into the workplace to a point where you don't have time to be stressed out. [ busy != stressed out ]. Problem is, if your manager is stressed out, and insists on being busier than you, you may have a problem on your hands. There is no work, no job that needs, in any way, to "inherently" be stress-causing. I just don't believe that. On the other hand, unnecessary stress that destroys lives can be found in almost any sector, in any job, anywhere in the world.
Exercise, exercise, exercise is that answer to so many problems that it's not even funny. Speaking of exercise....
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!?
Most of the comments are pretty much what I expected to see when I saw the question. :)
:), in a sawmill, as an apprentice chef (3 years), as a telemarketer, database administrator, financial and mutual fund portfolio analyst (i.e. slave number cruncher) for a financial management firm (for 8 years), a pc technician, tech manager, and now (for 5 years) as lead developer and senior network engineer.
I have worked (roughly in order) in the woods cutting cedar, landscaper's slave
I've owned two (failed) businesses - both in pc sales and consulting.
My current job is very high stress and long hours. One person said, "Compartmentalize." Well that doesn't always work. Another said, "You have no stress, only responsibility." I've heard people say that myself to me, but they don't know that our NOC handles PSAP - E911 traffie, PUD substation ethernet monitoring, etc. But I love my current job.
To all these people who are essentially calling him a whiner, you don't know what he's dealing with unless your in his shoes, so shut up unless you have some useful advice. =)
** ADVICE ** Every job I've had has had fairly high stress levels except for the cedar cutting. And eventually they all boil down to about the same level. If you don't want to leave your current job you need to find some activity outside of work that has NOTHING to do with work and uses preferably both physical and mental faculties. Take up a form of martial arts, or a musical instrument. Get involved in your home landscaping. Donate community service physical labor to the elderly in your community taking care or repairing their homes or yards. Get involved in a church that is *involved in your community*.
These things will help your stress level tremendously, lower your blood pressure, and you will find your job becomes much more pleasureable as well. And physical activity will help you retrain your thought patterns so that you aren't thinking about work all the time.
I am a software engineer on paper (BS), however instead of development/programming
.... so at one place (ISP) I ended up dealing with foreign customers, registering domains, giving phone support while in the background I was writing system maintenacne scripts .... (not a good idea)
... when you are 22-25 it's fun to do cabling in a 60x60cm vent hole covered with birdshit ... or installing microwave antennas in -20C on a rooftop ... ... or receiving a page that you MUST go to work immediately because someone kicked the plug on a server and now it does not stand up ......
.. ...
... built a little bubble, where no boss, no marketing crew, no-one is bugging me ... ....
..... ... I can develop my lagging marketing skills... and the best of all: I have no cellphone or pager .. (well I have one for emergencies - too much *jungle-enduro-dirtbike-riding* ...
...
... but since I do not feel like it (because it's saturday, and because I am sleepy) probably within an hour I will be covered in mud and pulling the gas on my dirtbike"
... it just started to rain... gotta get wet :)
I did network/system administration (linux/*NIX/cisco) since the late 90s for ISPs, for development firms, and lately for online casinos...
ENOUGH!
Partly because at many places I ended up doing stuff I would not wish for my enemies. System administrators end up doing the *all around crap* as soon as they discovered to be able to do more than it's in the contract
At the other place I ended up receiving phonecalls at 5am to get to an other city to fix a crashed windows network (*nix sysadmin remember?)....
Not crying
ENOUGH... I said again when I started to do networking/firewalls for an online casino... and ended up fixing customer support windows machines, because after fixing everything there were no more crashes/problems on the cisco/linux department...
Crap machines, 0 ergonomics, crowded workplace cubicles, overcooled machine environment
Enough... so I rented a tiny office with a 128k line
and I am running my own circus
for 6 months now I'm living from affiliate programs and occasionally I do stuff for people I know
I can run my own servers however I want them
The dark side: when you do your own business, you easily end up working for a month without weekends... and that sucks, but when you build your own little empire, it makes a difference
ps: actually since I am "on my own" I sometimes make less money than before, sometimes I make more, but at the end I have the uplifting freedom of being able to choose between: "spending the time at the office even if you do not have anything to do" or "going home early just because not feeling so productive today"
anyway it's saturday and I came in to work
when you are working for someone else the only thing you are missing is *choice*: to do anything without permission/guideance/supervision/orders - on your own
I've found that most web / sysadmin stuff (other than graphical design... i stay clear of that) can be automated if you take just a little bit more time during your initial planning. I've saved countless hours automating tasks (or modularizing pieces of code) that I thought I would only have been done (used) once or twice, that ended up having to be done (used) 10-30 times. You always have to take the task at hand and prepare for the worst outcome. I've found that even if you don't net any time savings writing a script or a program, it is much more enjoyable than doing it manually.
I've also noticed that the time it takes me to write these scripts and programs decreases relative to the number I have already finished. This isn't just because of experience, but because I usually already have a snippit of code that does what i'm trying to do.
Finally, don't do work that has already been done. I'm amazed on a daily basis at the number of freely available tools (perl modules being the best example). If you can't find a free tool, make a free tool (others will thank you)!
I'm only 21 and have risen to senior programmer in my organization using these and other techniques.
This being said, I totally sympathize with the stresses you are experiencing. Infact right now I am holding my screaming son while also trying to finish some homework for one of my college classes =) No matter how good you are and how fast you complete work, there is always an employer out there that will work you into the ground. Talk with friends working at other companies, if you suspect your company is shafting you, look for a new job in your spare time.
Grrrrr... don't bother me, I'm thinking.
the first thing i am going to say is to start sticking up for yourself. don't be afraid to tell your manager that you are experiencing too much stress. stop complaining and do something about it.
now, having said that, i am going to make an assumption about your situation. i imagine that you are the guy who deals with the website. you have a small group of people who are constantly bringing new things for you to deal with. the problem being that people are dumping a lot of various things on you and you have to react quickly. if this is an accurate description of your situation, then i have a pretty good solution. that is, you need to create a process for your co-workers to use when giving you materials and work. you need to ween them out of the habit of just dumping stuff on you.
the problem is that, without a system, your co-workers have no choice other than to drop by your desk and load more crap onto your plate. you'd be surprised at how most people are receptive to following your instructions if you come up with a good, clear process. a few people may be resistant to having some kind of "system" when it has been so easy for them to just come to your desk and give you work in whatever format, with whatever deadline they choose. for that reason, you need to give them something in return. your process needs to give them something back. provide turnaround times. stick with them. send a notification when the work was done.
a couple of important things about designing a process like this - set the times to a reasonable level so that you can accomplish everything without stressing.
if there is simply too much work - no matter how you organize it, then you should look for ways to get work off of your plate. is there one repetitive task? put some serious time into automating it. pull one weekend and automate a task if it can save you 1 hour every week. would it save you 5 minutes if your co-workers would do some simple thing before submitting work to you? build that into your process. those things will add up very quickly.
there's so many other things you can do as well. just put some thought into it. the key is, nobody is going to make your work situation better for you except yourself.
TODO: come up with a clever sig
I work as the sole sysadmin for a small ISP, which means that I have a pager that can go off any time, any day. Stupid little mistakes like blown semicolons can result in thousands of customers not getting service. And then there's dealing with bonehead customers.
But I'm not stressed out.
My boss admittedly helps a lot as he doesn't ask for deadlines, just to get things done as soon as possible, and when it's done it's done. I cooperate by doing my best to make sure things happen. I naturally desire a finished product, and as such they get done in a reasonable amount of time. I also don't treat the job as if the responsibility for the operation of the universe rests solely on my shoulders. Sure, the pager might go off at 3am, and I might have to get my butt to the server room in 15 minutes flat (this is doable for me), but I don't have to act as if every second counts, and that I should shoot everyone that gets in my way. I still manage 99.9% uptime, which is mostly defined by the design of the system and leaving things be anyway.
My wife works at a Visa call center as a customer service rep. It's a place with high turnover, irritating idiots that ream you out over $5 that they rightfully owe, and high expectations on the part of management. It's also a place where management works hard to make sure they can keep employees longer than two weeks, by offering great benefits, allowing the CSRs to vent about boneheads, bonuses for hard work, and free food. They also have a very clearly defined reward structure for their top performers.
But what she does for her stress is her gym membership. It's good for her health, it's helping her lose weight, but most importantly, she can beat the crap out of the machines instead of the customers, and exercise generally helps a lot with stress anyway.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
This is an article i had saved from years ago (before Internet hit us)... I could not cut it shorter and still retain the humor.... Here it goes.
...and either beat yourself up, or feel guilty, depressed, discouraged, and/or inadequate when you don't meet them."
How to Stay Stressed
Although the De Anza Health Office long been an advocate of stress
management, stress, tension, and burnout are still common complaints
of students, faculty, and staff alike. On account of this, we have
come to the following conclusion: YOU ALL WANT TO STAY STRESSED!
The following provides you with a few reasons why.
STRESS HELPS YOU SEEM IMPORTANT.
Anyone as stressed as you must be working very hard and, therefore, is probably doing something very crucial.
IT HELPS YOU TO MAINTAIN PERSONAL DISTANCE AND AVOID INTIMACY.
Anyone as busy as you are certainly can't be expected to form
emotional attachments to anyone. And let's face it, you're not much fun to be around anyway.
IT HELPS YOU AVOID RESPONSIBILITIES.
Obviously you're too stressed to be given any more work. This gets you off the hook for all the mundane chores; let someone else take care of them.
IT GIVES YOU A CHEMICAL RUSH.
Stress might be considered a cheap thrill, and you can give yourself a "hit" anytime you choose. But be careful, you might get addicted to your own adrenaline.
IT HELPS YOU AVOID SUCCESS.
Why risk being "successful" when by simply staying stressed you can avoid all of that? Stress can keep your performance level low enough that success won't ever be a threat.
STRESS ALSO LETS YOU KEEP YOUR AUTHORITARIAN MANAGEMENT STYLE.
The authoritarian style of "Just do what I say!" is generally permissible under crisis conditions. If you maintain a permanently stressed crisis atmosphere, you can justify an authoritarian style all the time.
Are you worried now about how to stay stressed? You'll have no trouble if you practice the following clinically proven methods:
NEVER EXERCISE. - Exercise wastes a lot of time that could be spent worrying.
EAT ANYTHING YOU WANT. - Hey, if cigarette smoke can't cleanse your system, a balanced diet isn't likely to.
GAIN WEIGHT. - Work hard at staying at least 25 pounds over your recommended weight.
TAKE PLENTY OF STIMULANTS. - The old standards of caffeine, nicotine, sugar, and cola will continue to do the job just fine.
AVOID "WOO-WOO" PRACTICES. - Ignore the evidence suggesting that
meditation, yoga, deep breathing, and/or mental imaging help to reduce stress. The Protestant work ethic is good for everyone, Protestant or not.
GET RID OF YOUR SOCIAL SUPPORT SYSTEM.- Let the few friends who are willing to tolerate you know that concern yourself with friendships only if you have time, and you never have time. If a few people persist in trying to be your friend, avoid them.
PERSONALIZE ALL CRITICISM.- Anyone who criticizes any aspect of your work, family, dog, house, or car is mounting a personal attack. Don't take time to listen, be offended, then return the attack!
THROW OUT YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR. - Staying stressed is no laughing matter, and it shouldn't be treated as one.
MALES AND FEMALES ALIKE - BE MACHO. - Never ever ask for help, and if you want it done right, do it yourself!
BECOME A WORKAHOLIC.- Put work before everything else, and be sure to take work home evenings and weekends. Keep reminding yourself that vacations are for sissies.
DISCARD GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS. - Schedule in more activities every day than you can possibly get done and then worry about it all whenever you get a chance.
PROCRASTINATE. - Putting things off to the last second always produces a marvelous amount of stress.
WORRY ABOUT THINGS YOU CAN'T CONTROL - Worry about the stock market, earthquakes, the approching Ice Age, you know, all the big issues.
BECOME NOT ONLY A PERFECTIONIST BUT SET IMPOSSIBLY HIGH STANDARDS...