According to a recent study by the RISP (Rhein-Ruhr-Institut für Sozialforschung und Politikberatung e.V.; an institute for applied sciences at the university and the city of Duisburg) IT workers are risking their health. IT workers working in software development projects and consulting are suffering from psychosomatic disorders - fatigue, nervosity, sleep disorder, stomach trouble - four times more often than workers in other sectors.

There is a rise in chronic exhaustion of 40%, usage of antidepressants is 60% higher than in other sectors, usage of psychotropic drugs beats the average value of all employees with even 91%.

Possible reasons are no surprise. They can be found in:

• Project work: IT workers are often working in several projects at the same time. Contradictoriness have to be solved by the individual workers.


• Particularization of work: instead of getting the whole picture, many IT workers just treat with small parts of a project, thus experiencing an assembly line work effect.


• Stress by management: restructuring in companies and the urge of self-organization for the individual worker unload management tasks on people who once decided to do technical jobs (instead of an management job).


• Changes in performance appraisals: by replacing performance ratings on efforts instead of results, workers are likely to expand their work time.


• Fear of losing the job.


• Constraint of constant self-improvement, even when companies won't pay for courses. Often IT workers train themselves in their spare time (especially freelancers).

83% of all interviewed managers (n=700; managers of companies with more than 200 employees) also admitted to have problems: concerned about losing their job they suffer from bad sleep. A third of them feels overcharged, nutrition often consists of fast food to save time. (Source)