Tech Workers Increasingly Burnt Out

from the that's-a-surprise? dept

I just found out that a techie friend of mine is quitting his job to "take a break". I thought it's an odd thing to do with the economy the way it is, but when you get completely burnt out, some people feel that's the only thing to do. I'm sure this is no surprise but a new study says that tech workers are increasingly suffering from burnout. Workers find they have more work to do since their companies laid off plenty of people, but still need the work to get done, and less resources to get that work done. The creators of the study are worried that this massive level of burnout will lead to decreased productivity. Of course, I'm sure some unemployed techies would say that they'd accept burnout for a paycheck any day...
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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 20 Mar 2003 @ 8:08pm

    yep

    I do EDI data mapping, an easy, but obscure and tedious, technical occupation.

    I've survived at least 5 layoffs in the last 2 years.

    I couldn't care less.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Old Man Harris, 20 Mar 2003 @ 11:32pm

    No Subject Given

    Correct me if I am wrong, but I did not read this article to be addressing all tech workers. It looks more like it is addressing IT workers, such as IT managers and tech support people at big companies (not the product development types such as software engineers, system architechts and chip designers). If that's the case, I don't understand why this is news. Have you ever met an IT manager who was not inches away from swallowing cyanide capsules to put himself out of his misery? Even in the best of times with big budgets those people are always ready to slit their own throats. Hey wait, I am watching CNN and it seems that a team of IT managers just arrived in Baghdad to act as human shields for some Iraqi air defense sites. Oh wait - scratch that - a Tomahawk missle just hit them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dr_Stein, 21 Mar 2003 @ 7:28am

    I agree.

    I'm stuck working for an exploitative company that has decided to impose the following stupid restrictions:
    * We're required to be available for any 24/7 shift, thus making sure we can't go to school.
    * Our schedules are a week to week thing. They're rarely the same 2 weeks in a row, making it a pain to get here on public transit.
    * Tennis shoes are no longer allowed. Note: customers *never* see us.
    * Management has the "business always comes first" attitude.
    * Training classes (rarely) are never held for the entire group at once, so instead, we all get half-assed (and different) training.

    Ugh. But then again, I suppose I'm supposed to be happy that I have a job. Management knows this. This is the problem. Companies don't care about people.. it's "business first."
    Screw that. My family comes first.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      milnesy, 21 Mar 2003 @ 1:17pm

      Re: I agree.

      Same here. I do desktop support for 1000 users and I'm constantly being pulled in all different directions. My fiancee' works at the same company in a diff. department and she went through a round of layoffs. When she said she was getting overwhelmed and that her (and her co-workers) want to leave, management says that they are banking on the fact that you can't find a job right now. What kind of mentality is that?

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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