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?"

Comments

Have a baby.

[arkanes]

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.

Easy

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple. Be unemployed... Also seems to go hand in hand with an IT career.

Working to your full potential

[prodangle]

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.

Re:Working to your full potential

[Anonymous Coward]

For some people, the undervalued feeling can be worse then the stress. It really depends on the individual.

Being from the military, I've had a wide range of responsibility and have done some very stessful things. Many times, I've performed ~12 hours of extensive safety checks and signed the dotted line that all nuclear protection systems, alarm systems, and monitoring systems were fully tested and ready for a reactor startup. Then moving over to the position of reactor operator and performed the actual reactor startup. All of this knowing that in a few more hours, I will be heading out to sea about to leave my life and family behind for 3 straight months with little to no real world communications. I've done reactor startups at sea with a room full of people watching and monitoring my actions. I've been involved in "incedents" and had to explain to the big men what I thought happened and why I took the actions I did.

All that is fine and dandy but I made a decision to not continue that type of work. I got into "computers" because I enjoy them. 5 years later that enjoyment is now starting to wear off. Working my way up to Network Admin or whatever I am doing now is great and I enjoy the work and challenge but the *relative* lack of stress and lack of responsibility is hard compared to what I was doing and is a hit to my personal happiness. It was much worse with my previous jobs as I worked up the IT chain. I am happier overall where I am now but I know I can handle much more, that hole is something to consider.

Stress is relative to the person experiencing the stress and not always proportional to the responsibility involved. Having a job with great stress but no responsibility to go with it would be something I could not do at all. I imagine running a cash register at a busy fast food chain would be extremely stressful but the payoff of performing such work would be hard to justify.

Stress, growth, individuals

[sydb]

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.

Re:Stress, growth, individuals

[nycsubway]

Stress is what we feel when our current abilities are being challenged

That is true, but when you feel your stress is going toward something worthless, the stress gets worse, because there is no sense of satisfaction that you've done something worthwhile.

For some people shoveling data from one database to another and processing it in between is worthwhile, for others it is not.

Medical school is stressful, possibly just as stressful as working 80 hour weeks at a software company to get the product out on time (although no one really does this anymore, its all been outsourced :) ) Some people would find working for no money and learning how to help the sick is more rewarding and therefor more worth the stress than getting paid a lot and producing something you dont feel is worthwhile.

I used to work for an insurance company as a programmer. With a bachelors degree I was one of the most educated people there. I was NOT challenged to use my education. The stress came from office politics and the boss saying "whats your status." every hour. To produce reports for management, this just wasn't worth the stress. It paid well, but not worth all the stress.

So I recently moved on to a new job. It pays a lot less. The stress now comes from being challenged to do something that I feel is more worthwhile.

Your choice of how much stress you endure is related to what you think of as good stress or bad stress. When ever I'd complain about something at my previous job, a coworker would always say "It's just a paycheck.. It's just a paycheck"

Re:Stress, growth, individuals

[Llurien]

Correct, but also consider what happens when the challenge is over your head. It's all nice to assume that stress automatically makes you a better/smarter person, but if the challenge is too big for you, the stress becomes harmful. This is exactly the reason people get burn-outs.

Re:Stress, growth, individuals

[Kingpin]

Bravo. Your post basically sums up the experiences I've had during the past 3 months. Until late January, I was on my 6th year as a J2EE consultant. I was doing good - but I had run out of challenges in the company I was in. So I changed to another company, where I knew the CEO and I knew that he would just put me "out there", and I'd have to swim to survive.

The first 3 days in my new job, I spent on a project management course. The 4th day I was leading a meeting with a newly won customer, and for the past 3 months I've been working as a technical project manager for this customer.

For the first time in my life, I felt stress physically. I could feel my body complain about my concern for the project. I hated it. I managed to cope fairly good with it, as it was a passing sensation that lasted for only a couple of weeks.

I took a chance that challenged my abilities, I knew that I was asking for trouble doing it, I grew. I'm looking forward to using my newly won self-confidence on the next project.

My point: If you can cope with the stress (take it seriously, buy a book, talk to people), it will help you grow. If you cannot, well.. Some do postulate that IT workers are the modern factory workers.

Re:Stress, growth, individuals

[waveclaw]

Stress is what we feel when our current abilities are being challenged.

Pure myth.

I had trouble with stress in high school. I was recommended to take a college class on stress management. The class covered such things as what stress is and how to cope with it. I would say that, based on my current reactions to the world, it was very helpful.

Stress is not challenge. Life is anything that happens to you. The physical response to this is usually what the layman refers to as 'stress' even though this is calling the disease after the symptoms. This response, the stress response or fight-or-flight response, is usually seen in wild animals and plans only when Bad things happen. It's supposed to go away once the threat causing the stress goes away, in other words: closure. We, especially in IT, like to make high stress the Norm.

That tight, uncomfortable feeling is what happens when you are distressed.

[Note: I am not a medical doctor. If you are having serious problems at work/home/school seek help. Especially if it is impacting your health, causing impotence, weight problems, etc.]

You have a minimum level of loading that makes you happy. You also have a maximum. This loading is multi-dimensional. It can be intellectual, emotional, psychological, etc. Getting outside that range, either below (I'm soooo bored with these classes) or above (arg! I can't take these 80 hour weeks) causes your stress response to break down. When you can't respond to the distress anymore, YOU break down. You burn out.

Just calling it 'responsibility' is irresponsible and hides the true, killing nature of stress. When you are distressed for a long time, your body does a lot of bad things. One of the most popular is the massive midriff of fat that the body likes to accumulate when distressed. Another 'coping mechanism' is a heart attack.

Fathers get closure every time their little one walks, talks or moves on to college. You might need to teach your boss how to close a project without leaving dangling requests or unfulfilled garbage, intellectual or emotional, around. Having a boss who can do this is one sign you have a manager that knows how to manage people (vs. a canned MBA with little in the way of social skills who 'allocates resources.')

However, the only way to survive is to learn to relax. This is inducing the relaxation response instead of the fight-or-flight response. (Unless you are really allowed to punch out you boss at work and thus get closure by resolving a 'fight.' A major factor in post-fight male friendships.)

Use breathing techniques. Use visualization. Learn to quit while you're ahead. Learn to label things for what they are: distress that kills not 'responsibility' or some other Ward Cleaver crap. Exercise (ooh! there goes the karma.)

Real life: it's not just for hippies.

Pull your 40/week and stop

[Saint Stephen]

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.

Re:Pull your 40/week and stop

[Anonymous Coward]

You seem to discount that, what with companies wanting everything they can get out of you, many IT workers, particularly in underfunded areas like public works and education, often have more on their plate than they can reasonably finish in 40 hours.

So? Because management can not plan work loads and schedule properly, that's somehow your problem?

Sometimes overtime is expected simply as par for the course (and not paid because you are salaried)

Overtime might be expected but they might not get it. If an employer wants overtime from me they need to earn it; either through being a good employer generally or paying me for it. Why is working for free seen as acceptable? It isn't! You're being ripped off! Stop working for free!

New Job

[nycsubway]

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!

Don't -let- it stress you out.

[Simon Carr]

I know where the stress comes from. Most people in this field want to do their best, and a lot of us are (or started out as) young kids, so we take things way too seriously.

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:

1. Don't take it so seriously.
   
2. Remember that you like other things outside of computers (right?)
   
3. Remember why you like doing this in the first place.
   
4. Slow down, give your masters a realistic timeline for things, and don't budge.
   
5. Allow yourself to make mistakes, you're not a computer yourself.
   
6. Allow others to make mistakes, hell, laugh at them.
   

I think the most important one is the first. Remember that life is not at stake (unless it is at stake, then panic).

IT Stress and your life

[Embedded]

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

Re:Same here... ...but you learn how to cope.

[sydb]

I work as a journalist... abaility... neing... teh... minnutes... (indriectly)... returing... paniced... wer...

Yeah, I'd be stressed too!

Pressures? Responsibilities? Grow up, man!!

[mark-t]

Okay... I'm sorry about this, and don't take it too personally, but you really need to wake up and take a good, honest look at life. You say you're married... that entails certain pressures and responsibilities. You don't say whether or not you're a father, but you might be, or may be some day, and that entails a _huge_ responsibility and adds its own pressures. You are already working at a job that you say you enjoy (which puts you ahead of a lot of people right there!), if you give up on something like that because you don't like the pressure or responsibility, what does it say about your character? What does that say about how much you can be trusted with even bigger and more important things like being faithful to your spouse in hard times or raising a child?

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.

Re:Team Player vs. Pull your 40/week and stop

[WiPEOUT]

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.

Work for a University

[TamMan2000]

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!

Re:Work for a University

[ZorinLynx]

As a sysadmin working for a university, I must concur. University jobs are the best!

Sure, there are times when it can get stressful, but the stress isn't CONSTANT like it is with jobs in the business world. Managers aren't constantly worrying about the bottom line, just providing the best environment possible for students and researchers.

There's also a lot more freedom to play with open-source technologies. For instance, our entire server base is Linux-based, and we even use a linux-based central virtual router, which has given us pretty much 99.999% up-time since we implemented it.

There's also a few perks, like lots of good looking women on campus all the time, being able to attend cool lectures and events (I was at the astronomy dept. star party last night, observing the solar system through a 12" reflecting telescope) and other random things.

If you can find a university IT job or research position, go for it. The atmosphere certainly beats the business world.

My dream job

[chewmanfoo]

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...

Re:Marry a Bitch

[arnie_apesacrappin]

One day a co-worker of mine was having a really bad day because of his divorce. He imparted these words of wisdom:

"You know what marriage is? Find a woman you hate and buy her a house."

Army Reservist just back from war says...

[swinginSwingler]

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.)

Re:"stress" is a waste of a word.

[Drooling Iguana]

Just because things could be worse doesn't mean that they couldn't be better.

Re:Marry a Bitch

[dreamchaser]

Or you could do what I did and marry a loving, supportive woman. Not only will you want to work hard to help support her, but the love and emotional support she'll give you will make the stress melt right away. The glass is half full guys, not half empty!

Re:Marry a Bitch

[gray code]

The glass is half full guys, not half empty!

reminds me of a joke:
The pessimist says, "this glass is half empty."
The optimist says, "this glass is half full."

the engineer says, "this glass is exactly twice as large as it needs to be."

there's stress then there's stress...

[zogger]

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!

which reminds me: exercise

[kardar]

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....