IT managers are stressed out, Silicon survey reveals

IT managers are suffering from unacceptable levels of stress, partly caused by the unrealistic demands placed on them by board level executives, according to Silicon.com's latest survey.

The research - carried out to back yesterday's launch of http://www.IT-director.com - found that 70 per cent of respondents blame stress for project delays, while 75 per cent claim to be under more pressure than they were 12 months ago.

The demands of Year 2000 compliance played a part, but the behaviour of the board was identified as a major factor.

One respondent said: "Demands seem to become more unrealistic. As people become more aware of the increasing capabilities of IT, they want more right now, totally disregarding the fact that any of these new capabilities, whilst they may be very convenient for the end user, require a lot of complicated infrastructure in the first place."

A supplier of software to the construction industry felt the knock-on effect of this pressure: "[We get] unrealistic demands from customers who expect the world for nothing. We often have major (£1bn turnover) organisations spending £1m on in-house projects - which fail - asking us to supply software for a few hundred pounds as their budget has been spent." He blamed board-level attitudes for these project failures.

David Taylor, president of IT directors' association Certus - which, along with Bloor Research and Silicon.com is behind IT-director.com - commented: "Stress levels among IT directors are totally unacceptable. I believe that stress will be one of the biggest issues that IT directors have to deal with over the next 12 months."

Taylor added that improving the dialogue IT has with the business will help, but said that having dedicated IT representation at board level is a better solution.