] - Researchers at
the North-West University and the University of Utrecht in
Holland are conducting an online survey to determine the stress
levels of the IT professional's working environment.
The researchers hope the survey results will provide an
indication of the prevalence of stress in IT careers, and also
provide a method for measuring stress levels, says researcher
Christelle Westerman.
“We found that there are no certain benchmarks in SA for
measuring stress. Using the results, we want to make
recommendations for the prevention and management of
occupational stress burn-out for IT professionals.”
Stress levels in the workplace are on the rise, says
Westerman, and this is particularly evident in the IT field,
where people experience high levels of burn-out and work
overload. “Stress levels in IT have increased dramatically in
the past few years. Some of our research showed that many people
are working in an unhealthy work environment.”
The survey will be run over the next three months, she says. “We
are hoping for a minimum of 400 participants, that is the quota
we have set. If we don't reach it, we might have to consider
extending it.”
To ensure that only IT professionals take part in the survey,
the university enlisted the help of IT consulting firm
Compuways, says Westerman. “We needed to use a database for our
research, and Compuways has a list of IT contacts.”
Compuways will send the survey to IT clients and place a link to
the survey on its site in order to increase participation.
As an incentive to take part in the survey, Compuways will
provide one participant with a Java or .Net training course
worth R6 000.
