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Career Management

by Toni Bowers, Head Blogs Editor
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I found this in an article on the PubMed web site: "In a study of the bodily, mental, and psychophysiological reactions of employees involved in the design of advanced telecommunications systems and of office employees using regular video display technology, several stress-related psychosomatic disorders have been identified." Those disorders include:

  • Sleep disturbances
  • Psychophysiological stress (I looked this up and got this definition — the branch of psychology that is concerned with the physiological bases of psychological processes. Now if I only knew what that means.)
  • Somatic complaints (headaches, chest pains, nausea, lower back pain, etc.)

So, okay, the fact that IT design people are more prone to stress is not such a big surprise. The depressing part is that the same group performed a controlled experiment with 116 advanced telecommunication systems design employees to see how well stress reduction techniques worked on them. Their conclusion?

"The type of stress-reduction programs chosen and intensity of participation did not significantly impact results."

Wow. That's certainly an uplifting bit of data. I wonder how closely that mirrors the IT society as a whole?

Toni BowersToni Bowers is the Head Blogs Editor of TechRepublic. She has been in the publishing industry for 20 years, with concentration in IT-related topics. She has edited newsletters, books, and web sites pertaining to software, IT career, and IT management issues.

Print/View all Posts Comments on this blog

That's why G_D created Zoloft Locrian_Lyric | 05/01/07
Relaxation Therapy SD ITman | 05/07/07
Can I ask a question? ProblemSolverSolutionSeeker | 05/08/07
It Never Ends medhat@... | 05/03/07
What sort of techniques don't work? gardoglee | 05/03/07
The enterprise problems: low know of the director's companies Daniel.news.it@... | 05/03/07
Asperger Syndrome, may be ! medhat@... | 05/03/07
I'm Aspie. Locrian_Lyric | 05/07/07
Always let the doctor diagnose. dpcole7 | 05/29/07
ugh... timsalabim | 05/07/07
stress eh? no surprise john_thomas@... | 05/07/07
Your conclusion is misleading chrismaxwell@... | 05/08/07
Definition suziep12@... | 05/16/07

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