We Have Found the Problem, and the Problem is Us

I saw an interesting article in this week's CIO Insight about the causes and effects of stress for IT Workers. They report that the number one cause of stress for your employees is you.

(Well, I don't mean you personally. I mean "you" as a proxy for "us," aka "management." Or maybe I do mean "you" as in you. The answer to that question is going to take some introspection and maybe even some input from people we manage about what stresses them out.)

Here are what IT workers identify as the top causes of their stress:

• 29%: management
• 24%: inadequate staffing
• 20%: tight deadlines
• 15%: inadequate budgets for upgrades and projects
• 12%: users

My Manager Sucks

For the 29% who directly indict their management, I don't think you can get any more direct than that. We're probably talking about interpersonal conflicts with the boss, bullying, or harassment. Or we could be talking about lazy, ineffective or incompetent management. Any way we cut it, 29% of IT employees, when asked what makes their life suck, point at their manager.

If you are in this group, you need to fix it. Not only are you ruining your career, you are damaging the careers of the people you are responsible for.

Staffing Shortfall

That doesn't really let us off the hook, though. Let's look at the number 2 concern, staffing. Have we made sure that we have the reqs and headcount to support our responsibilities? Have we defined the workload and priorities in a way that our staff can reasonably be expected to carry them out? Have we filled the positions we do have with good quality people, and either repaired or discarded the dead wood?

If we have a staffing problem that is stressing out our people, it is likely that we have failed in one of those areas. Maybe we really aren't being given enough staffing for what we need to do. In that case, prioritize and assign work in such a way that people feel they have a chance to succeed. Some stuff is not going to get done, but at least the most important stuff will be taken care of, and your staff will appreciate that you are asking for something that they can reasonably provide.

Look for efficiencies and ways to do things more easily. Define processes and refine them. Sometimes you can organize things so that more can be done with less. But it is all going to start with prioritizing and sequencing your team's work.

Deadlines

Now let's look at the 20% that are talking about tight deadlines. Why are the deadlines tight? Did we commit to delivering something without understanding what we were getting our team into? Did we fail to sequence, prioritize and delegate work appropriately?

Tight deadlines and inconvenient scheduling are always going to be part of IT work. It may be the case that some of this 20% are maybe not well-suited for working in IT, or maybe they would be better off in a support than a project role. But I'll bet that a big part of this 20% falls squarely on the shoulders of their managers.

Budget Shortfall

A lot of the comments made about staffing shortfalls also apply here. If we don't have adequate budget to carry out necessary tasks, then we have failed to prioritize and plan properly. Sometimes these factors really are outside of our control. But a lot of the time, they are not.

Budgets are a pain, and nobody likes them. Too often, we avoid looking at them, and we miss opportunities for cost savings. When we do that, we contribute directly to the problem that results in the budget shortfall in the first place.

Users

Yes, even the so-called "PICNIC" problems (Problem In Chair, Not In Computer), are partly our fault. We have a responsibility to structure engagement methods and expectations in such a way that user complaints do not interrupt productive work.

Rotate bug management and incident processing between members of your team. Let everyone take a turn handling problem children so that everyone also gets chunks of productive time.

Nobody can be productive in constant interrupt mode. I'll bet that a big chunk of the people who reported "users" as the cause of the stress are people who can't put together a chunk of productive time because they're dealing with constant interruptions. Give them back chunks of time by rotating the user support roles and letting everyone else concentrate on bigger tasks for a while.

We are the Problem

Here's the thing: We were given a management position in order to make our team more productive and to create value for our employer. That isn't going to happen when your team is frazzled and stressed out. Take some time to think about your team's situation. If you see any of these problems gnawing at your team's morale, take action.