IT experts are more likely to suffer from stress than any other professional, according to the survey.
A staggering 97 percent 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.
And a quarter of IT experts are under such enormous pressure to perform at work they have taken time off suffering with stress.
The poll also revealed that a third of IT professionals say it is difficult to get the work done when managers are constantly on their backs.
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 organization 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 – with 96.8 percent saying caring for others is rewarding but traumatic on the same hand.
Engineers, Sales and Marketing professionals and Teachers also have demanding roles, according to the poll.
The poll reveals that 37 percent of folk find it difficult to meet deadlines, whilst 31 percent stress about taking on other people’s work.
A disgruntled 28 percent 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 behavior.
Kevin Young continues: “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, organizations are much better placed to manage its causes.”
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 behavior by managers
Lack of support from colleagues
Bullying behavior by colleagues
hmm...
Posted by: cchc28
im notfeelingt he love...
Posted by: PBiddy35
From the pound sign for money I'd guess this is British/Aussie article. Also it doesn't seem to include things like Air Traffic Control under professions. Oh yeah the poor IT guys expect computers to fail big deal, cops go to work to help people who dont want it for victims who dont appreciate it. All the while RISKING THEIR LIFE. Maybe this list is accurate for corporate positions, but thats it.
Posted by: frank
I'm amazed that Retail management isn't on the list, either.
Posted by: SOT
This is the dumbest survey ever. It shows more that there are some people that are just to fragile to work more than anything else.
I was in IT for a while and although somewhat stressful (worked for GE as a CISCO (CCIE -a real one ) admin -lagest private network in the world) it wasn't the life and death stress.
Operations: White collar speak for middle management drones that should have been fired a long time ago.
Education: maybe if you are working in an inner city but even then give me 180 days of 8am-2pm v. working 8-5 for two weeks off a year any day.
As well a lot of complete idiots that bought into the ITT tech "this is a better life than slinging burgers" got screwed over because in life they had the mental capacity to sling burgers and not manage networks.
So a job may be stressful (in these cases) because you have a lot of underqualified people doing jobs they shouldn't even dream about.
Examples:
Human resources as a job is a fucking joke, it is the most manufactured bunch of jobs in the world. Most of the people in HR couldn't do anything else and got shoved there because of some PC need to have people administer the hiring process. If HR is tough and stressful, learn how to say "would you like fries with that, and get back to MC Donalds.
Sales and Marketing: Maybe if you are a marketing babe who's ugly or has the clap, it can be stressful. Sales, coffee is for closers and if you job skills limited you to sales, get a fucking education.
IT: might be stressful if you got a degree and have a paper that's supposed to prove you can do things you have no real understanding of or if you just quit MCDonalds for a new and exciting career in IT or if you a a sock fucking basement dweller who can't relate to people.
Engineering: Come the fuck on, some of the most over paid and least understood jobs in thw world. Made hard becuase it makes other people not question what the fuck is going on. Almost a voodoo science at this poit run by people that are afraid to interact with the real world and are like gophers in cublicles with poket protectors and bad breath.
Production: If they mean mfg, maybe for the poor slob that is doing the same damn task day in and day out for years, putting plastic tits on barbie but a lot fo production jobs are more about unions than anything else. Yeah real stress is not getting yoru union approved 15 minute breaks every two hours, and an hour lunch and paid month off of every fucking vacation day you can think of.
Medicine /Caring: Some of the same BS as the IT, lots of underqualified idiots getting out of the shoe department at Macy's in charge of peoples lives...more stressful for the patients than the workers. As for doctors, don't even get me started, make you wait 2 hours to see you for all of 5 minutes and then an RN does the rest of the "work". Big stress in trying to pick out what color your new porche should be. Those mother fuckers.
Let's talk about real stress:
Cops
Firefighters
Soldiers
Crab Fishermen
Truck drivers
That kinda shit where life and death and the idiot actions of others and mother nature can really Fuck you up.
Posted by: KozmoKramer
You have to throw Correctional Officers in there as well.
Especially Max - Super-max Officers.
Walking a tier with a couple hundred of life's filthiest, dangerous and most anti-social scumbags has got to be stressful.
Posted by: Andy0921
Posted by: TypeX
Don't underestimate the stress in IT and those other workplaces... your ass is canned if you dont fill that water bubbler in 0.4seconds!
Seriously though, obviously cops and co's have the stress (but did you really think we'd get recongized) and should be at the top of the list. Good point putting crab fisherman on that list SOT. Damn... is all I have to say.
ma police, boston ma police, massachusetts police, massachusetts police, mass state police, mass police, ma, mass, massachusetts, massachusetts, massachutes, massachusetts law, massachusetts polece, police, officer, police officer, cops, police gear, law enforcement, police duty gear, state police, sheriff, law, police supply, police agency directory, police agency, police department, traffic officer, police dept, state trooper, dispatcher, massachusetts county sheriff, massachusetts sheriff, massachusetts department of corrections, ma doc, doc, dept of corrections, police information, civil service, ma civil service, massachusetts crime, police training, police academy, ma police academy, massachusetts officers, masscop, masscops, mpa, bpa, ibpoa, police association, massachusetts police news, massachusetts crime news, mass most wanted, police career information, police patrol, police administration, police books, crime scene training, police discussion, crime discussions, cops
About MassCops, the home for Massachusetts law enforcement.
The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network opened in 1998 and is now a part of the New England Police Network The site is a pro-police discussion forum intended for sworn police officers and civilian law enforcement officials as well as those interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement here in Massachusetts.
The goal of The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network is to provide an informal network of law enforcement officials here in Massachusetts for educational and informational purposes.
The forum covers many topics such as Police Related News Articles, Agency & Profession Discussions, Police Training as well as Law Enforcement Career Information.
The Massachusetts Law Enforcement Network and The New England Police Network (NEPN) and it's network sites are privately owned websites/domains and are not affiliated with or endorsed by any government association or agency.
MassCops (masscops.com) and (masscop.com) are privately owned are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Massachusetts Coalition of Police (masscop.org)