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IT experts are the most stressed says survey

IT experts are more likely to suffer from stress than any other professional, according to a new survey.

The poll of over 3,000 people, conducted by SWNS on behalf of online learning provider SkillSoft, found that:

• 97 per cent of people working in IT claim to find their life at work stressful on a daily basis
• Four out of five IT consultants feel stressed before they even enter the workplace, in anticipation of another day juggling complaints, pressure from managers and daily targets
• A quarter of IT experts are under such enormous pressure to perform at work they have taken time off suffering with stress

One IT respondent said: "I spend most of my day fielding calls from people who don't even have a basic knowledge of computers and printers. It is amazing the amount of time I spend teaching people where the on-off button is.

"And when I do actually find a technical problem to solve, I have my manager breathing down my neck wondering why I have a backlog of complaints."

Kevin Young, managing director of SkillSoft says: "Our research was sparked by a recent Gartner report which claims that the untrained or under-trained desktop user will cost an organisation five times more to support than a well-trained worker. This led us to thinking about how much pressure this must also put on the IT professionals who have to provide such support.

"By commissioning this study, our aim was to establish to what level workload affects the stress levels of people working in IT and across a variety of other job disciplines; and to learn more about the sort of other factors that impact on stress in the workplace."

People working in medical professions have the second most stressful job, while engineers, sales and marketing professionals and teachers also have demanding roles, according to the poll.

According to the poll:

• 37 per cent of people find it difficult to meet deadlines, whilst 31 per cent stress about taking on other people's work
• 28 per cent say they lack job satisfaction and would prefer to work elsewhere.
• A third of people would rather be their own boss, and have complete control over their daily duties

And employees claim to feel put-upon and suffer most at the hands of their managers - who are blamed for lack of support, increasing pressure, interruptions and bullying behaviour.

Kevin Young continued: "According to the Health & Safety Executive, stress is now the biggest cause of working days lost through injury or ill-health (an estimated 12.8 million lost days each year). And the TUC estimates that work-related stress costs the economy up to £7bn per annum.

"By understanding more about what makes people stressed at work, organisations are much better placed to manage its causes."

According to the survey, the top ten most stressful professions, stresses and colleague irritations were:

Top ten stressful professions:

• IT
• Medicine / Caring Profession
• Engineering
• Sales and Marketing
• Education
• Finance
• Human Resources
• Operations
• Production
• Clerical

Top ten work stresses:

• Workload
• Feeling undervalued
• Deadlines
• Type of work people have to do
• Having to take on other people's work
• Lack of job satisfaction
• Lack of control over the working day
• Having to work long hours
• Frustration with the working environment
• Targets

Top ten colleague irritations:

• Seeing others not pulling their weight
• Managers changing their minds about what they want doing
• Lack of support from managers
• Pressure from managers
• Feeling put-upon by managers
• Interruptions by colleagues
• Interruptions by managers
• Bullying behaviour by managers
• Lack of support from colleagues
• Bullying behaviour by colleagues

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