Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

IT Workers Face Dangerous Stress

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-need-a-vacation dept.

feminazi writes "William Cross, CIO and Ph.D., told the IBM Share conference this week that IT workers often face dangerous levels of stress. In a Q&A with Computerworld.com, he described some of the manifestions: "They tend to be less emotionally stable. They tend to react strongly to small things that they might not react to under other circumstances. A change in schedule may be a crisis if somebody is really stressed." What to do? "Easy things. Exercise ... learn to relax, learn meditation, learn breathing exercises, participate in your religion — all of those things are very effective stress managers."" This story selected and edited by LinuxWorld editor for the day Saied Pinto.

3 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Take small breaks to do quick exercise by OakDragon · · Score: 3, Informative

    For developers, or those who otherwise sit at the keyboard and monitor for long stretches, don't underestimate the importance of getting up to do a few stretches every once in a while.

    Once I sat in front of Visio, concentrating on state diagrams for a loong time. (I was just learning how to use Visio.) When I finally got up, my mouse arm was wracked in pain. I had sat there for hours, sans break, without realizing it.

    --
    Dark Reflection
  2. Re:Stress... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Except stress is a physiological response that can be measured through serum levels of various substances (e.g., cortisol), so you can
    believe in it or not, fact remains it's real and measureable.

  3. It's reports like the above.... by 8127972 · · Score: 2, Informative

    ..... That make firms with rec rooms, fun company outings, enforced breaks during the workday (to read, improve your IT education, etc.), and subsidized memberships to gyms and the like the ones to work for. I would suspect that those companies have IT staff that are less stressed and they have less retention issues..... Not to mention they lower the risk of some overstressed IT person going postal. More examples can be found here:

    http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,20972,00. html
    http://self-help.vocaboly.com/archives/495/value-y our-employees-by-offering-company-perks/

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.