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Story URL: http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39167789,00.htm

Techies chilling not stressing - poll
Life in the server room a veritable lotus garden of tranquility?

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Monday 09 July 2007

The tech world may be fast-paced but techies are not yet at breaking point, according to the latest silicon.com reader poll.

Despite a smorgasbord of potential issues - from offshoring-fuelled job security fears to the UK's IT skills crisis or criticism of techies' communication skills - nearly half (42 per cent) of poll respondents characterised their normal stress level as merely punctuated by 'occasional panic attacks'.

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This suggests that, when not having a hair-tearing, fire-fighting incident, the majority of respondents are coping well with life in the IT department.

Moreover, 22 per cent are even less stressed out: these silicon.com readers said the daily grind of IT translates to needing a stiff drink. And for a lucky - and doubtless philosophical - 13 per cent, life as a techie tends to be a matter of 'Zen-like serenity'.

However it's not all plain sailing for silicon.com readers. For a significant slice of IT workers, the day job is much less kind: 19 per cent filed their state of mind under 'Do not speak to me - I might blow'.

And an unfortunate four per cent have, by their own admission, already 'gone postal'.

Research out earlier this month suggests stress is causing IT managers to forego holidays. A survey by the Chartered Management Institute found 63 per cent of managers will not use their full holiday allowance this year - and 20 per cent of them blamed excessive workloads for scuppering holiday plans.