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March 2009
IT workers 'have the least stressful jobs' They may have seen their pay, project or even their contract cut with immediate effect or alarming alacrity, but yet, research still points to fact that IT workers occupy some of the least stressful at the moment, including in South Africa. This is according to Karen Geldenhuys, MD of ICT-focused recruitment company, Abacus Recruitment. She said that one of the reasons why IT workers often face less stress at the coalface - certainly in SA - is due to the critical skill shortage in the ICT industry. This enables IT workers to "take things more in their stride as they know their chances of retrenchment are far, far lower then in other industries, including mining, construction, motoring and financial services." Researchers at CareerCast ranked software engineers and systems analysts behind historians and dieticians respectively. An interesting perspective indeed. To determine the rankings, the US-based group made use of 21 different demands of a job, including stamina, competitiveness, deadlines and responsibility for people’s lives. Besides being very much in demand - well, at least in SA - IT workers do not have to make life-or-death decisions, like a surgeon, a pilot and a Photojournalist might need to do (though it is not quite clear why a photojournalist would have to make a life-or-death decision). They also often work in very comfortable - and often trendy - work environments. "I don't think many people would ever have thought that an IT worker would face less stress then an historian or dietician," said Mahlako Hlakadu, CEO of black-owned recruitment and training company, Titan Trade Technologies. "Mind you," said Hlakudu, "I think it is pushing it a bit to state that IT workers face less stress then historians, who are seen as leading rather pedestrian lives. Let's face it, some IT projects - and some IT jobs in general - are high level and, therefore, high pressure. So I am a bit at odds with this research." What about tight deadlines and schedules, projects prone to last minute changes and long periods away from home, asked Hlakudu. "Surely this would be regarded as stressful?" Abacus Recruitment's Geldenhuys concurred with Hkaludu, saying: "It must be remembered that just because the work environments at IT companies might be better, more funky - and that jobs are less on the line, job pressures remain. There are less people having to do more work. So if research is showing that historians are more stressed then IT workers then I query the parameters of the research. After all, as any IT worker will tell you: 'rubbish in, rubbish out.' |