Work Stress at Record High

IT Management - Anthony Savvas - Tuesday 7th September 2004

Almost 90% of European IT directors say their health and personal relationships are suffering as a result of their jobs.

The annual Pressure Point Index survey of 700 IT directors across Europe, carried out by IT services company Synstar, shows that the pressure of the job is steadily building up.

One-third of IT directors said managing an impossible workload is their biggest worry. And almost a third admitted that a feeling of almost losing control is pushing them to the limit. Add the fact that a quarter also felt their bosses are setting them too demanding targets and it is no wonder that Synstar's Pressure Point Index (PPI) has reached a high point of 200.

The PPI is calculated by gauging respondents' concerns about 16 different IT and business issues. Synstar said the PPI is increasing by 2% a year.

Russell Flower, Synstar director of managed services, said, "IT directors wear two hats - on one it says IT strategist and the other reads IT fire-fighter - but there simply are not enough hours in the day to do both."

The survey also found that a third were concerned about the business benefit they were getting from IT, and a quarter were worried about their job security.

The "least" worried IT directors were found in the Netherlands, where 61% were having sleepless nights about their jobs, and the most stretched were in Spain, where 90% admitted to problems.

In the UK, 68% suffered from their job, which was higher than Germany (65%) and lower than France (76%).

Overall, the most stressed IT managers worked in retail (76% of respondents) and the least were in banking (67%).