In an ever-changing industry that is moving 100 miles-per-minute, tech professionals have experienced increased pressure to stay current on new technologies and keep a company operating efficiently.
Below are some common stressors IT professionals face, and what they and their managers can do to mitigate it.
Acknowledge what causes stressful situations:
Depending on the role, technology professionals could be responsible for the upkeep of all systems that allow their company to operate. If the systems went down, that impacts every employee’s productivity and performance, which impacts revenue. That pressure can build a lot of anxiety and stress for technology professionals.
It can be extremely stressful when professionals don’t keep systems current by implementing new releases in real-time or conducting frequent system upgrades.
Other causes of stress are tight deadlines, high demand for support with minimal staff to assist, not getting approval fast enough for new initiatives that would help the organization, as well as working with non-technical people.
Tips for mitigating stress:
Preplan and map out all strategies and implementations that may occur for the year ahead. Build out a backwards timeline for when things need to be executed by when.
Get into a routine and do one core piece of the role consistently. For instance, start every morning off by conducting system upgrades or upkeeps and make it a habit.
Be proactive rather than reactive. If you get flagged for an update or potential issue, resolve it in real-time rather than letting it build up to be an even bigger issue down the road. This is a major cause of stress that can be avoided.
There is no way you’re going to know every technology and be up to date on everything. So, rather than trying to be good using 15 technologies or programs, choose one area/nice and become an expert in that. Master your space.
Overcommunicate anxieties, issues, frustrations with your manager. Also, escalate things that aren’t issues yet, but could become large issues down the line.
It’s not only up to the tech professional to manage stress. There are things management can help with, like:
Know that different people are managed differently; therefore, tailor your message and approach per employee. Managing everyone the same is not effective.
Give employees the autonomy to learn and grow, and learn from mistakes; however, don’t fully sit back and watch a mistake unfold that would impact the masses at a large scale. Good managers give employees enough rope for them to learn and grow, are present and available, and are good teachers.
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