Ask HN: How would you quantify the level of stress at work?
Are you stressed at work? How would you quantify the level of stress from %0 to %100?
Take the average of a typical week at work.
Take the average of a typical week at work.
a. I hate it so fucking much that I rarely even curse and it is making me want to say I hate it so fucking much
b. I am more sensitive to distractions and noise. I can't simply "put on headphones" like everyone always retorts when I say I can't focus.
c. There's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I can change jobs, but this stupid fucking fad has permeated everywhere. I have heard of exactly two companies that give their thought-workers distraction, noise-free environments. If I haven't put down roots already, maybe I would have given it a crack, but moving is not an option.
So, in the larger context, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, FIRST. BEFORE you work on your work environment, make sure your home environment is safe and restorative. (And, these days, has a fast enough connection.)
All else will come from this. Remote work. Or, when that's not possible, simple relief from stress when you are away from work.
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, FIRST.
1. I have tried it a couple times, and I did not do well. It's kind of like that advice where people say your bedroom should only be for two things: sleeping and sex, well home to me is only for home-y things: family, cooking, relaxing, house-chores. When I am at home, my mind is home. If I had the luxury of affording a bigger house with a separate office that feels detached from the rest of the house, I think it could work, unfortunately I won't know.
2. I am a little traditionalist in my thinking that having a presence in the office can only help you, and only being a remote worker can only hurt you. When it comes to job cuts for example, I think the people that are there day in and day out and have curated relationships with people are more likely to stay - it's human nature right? Also, getting a raise usually comes down to office politics. If you aren't there to understand how things work, it's going to be very difficult. Software engineers have pretty great starting salaries, but as we all know, they seem to get hard capped, depending on your market around the 150k to 200k mark. To be a 250k engineer must mean you are truly remarkable, something I am comfortable with admitting I am not.
3. To kind of restate #1, the separate of work and home is important to me. When I tried working remote, I always never felt that crossover from being home to being at work. Some people suggested that I actually get ready like I was driving to an office, and go out for a 15 minute drive to maybe a coffee shop or something to start my day, and if I ever get another chance at remote work, I may give that a shot.
I think as remote work becomes more pervasive, some of these issues I face may be solved, but I don't think we are there yet.
[0] Actually, there were several coffee-shops, one with an outdoor patio on the lake.
1. Agreed 100%, I also cannot work from home. Especially with a toddler running around. I need to physically separate myself, so I rent an office space that's a 10 minute walk away (I'm in NYC). It worked out really nicely.
2. This might be the case if you're the odd one out. I can see how that would be isolating. Look for companies that have a remote culture, eg 50% or more of the employees are remote. I wouldn't want to be the guy working remotely as an exception.
Also, I have tried the "working out of a coffee shop" thing and couldn't stand it. It's very uncomfortable. I felt like a freeloader and I need a large, permanent workspace.
100% should be a breaking point. It sounds like you've accepted your situation if you've only found 2 companies that have quiet work spaces, and if moving isn't an option. Are you going to spend your working life at this job, redlining it at 100%?
source: experience
1. Immediate, demand-driven stress.
2. Low-level, semi-constant stress (the nagging kind).
I'm perfectly fine with 1, as I accept that as part of the job which I'm highly compensated for.
Number 2 though is what always affects me the most and is the reason I left my last role. It's the kind of stress that is alway present under the surface but never quite manifests itself like #1 does.
Think of the boss who is constantly inconsistent (consistently inconsistent?), saying something one day and then something completely different the next. You shrug it off with an eyeroll and start re-doing all of your work, but deep down it eats away at you. Or the lazy colleague who you're constantly cleaning up after but who is best buddies with leadership so is regularly promoted ahead of more capable colleagues. The frustration bubbles under the surface but due to office politics there's nothing you can really do about it. I could go on, but I'm sure we've all suffered some form of low level stress that has a far more significant impact on our personal well-being than we care to admit.
I work 90% meaning I have a day off every two weeks. Plus, in the Netherlands there is Parenting leave meaning you can have about 1000 hours of unpaid leave anytime you like during your kids first 4 years, of course this is to be discussed with the boss but in my case it is always possible (I do it when it does not interfere with important meetings, conferences, colloquiums etc.) This is on top of the usual 5 weeks paid vacation every dutch person has.
[0] http://www.inhabitots.com/finlands-family-benefits-prove-why...
I think many people should get vacation time more quickly, or it should be a standard of five weeks just like the Netherlands.
Sure I could take unpaid days off probably, but that would just decrease my earnings for that year. I normally take one week long vacation a year with my family, but would honestly like to travel more.
We only get the 25th off of December off, and 6 holidays not including a floating holiday that we can choose to take off (and if we don't we get another day of paid time off)
Work life balance is recognized as very important here and the correct way to deal with a too large workload is to go to your Project lead and ask him where your priorities should be if you can only finish one of 2 things. This was really hammered in during an application interview at ASML. I answered that I'd pull an all-nighter if required, they were very adamant about never putting myself in a situation that could lead to burn out, even temporarily. Perhaps I'm a bit in a "highly educated" bubble and truck driver have more stress? Although truck drivers can actually get fined when they don't take their obligatory breaks and stick to decent working hours.
That's true I'm not sure it's very easy to quantify the stress of a nation/industry and compare it to another nation.
At my current company it's pretty do as you please with breaks/lunch/time off. I believe I have 3.5 weeks and I've been here a year. I pretty much just go to work and then go home (not right at 5pm on the dot). So I wouldn't say work/life balance is great, but it is what it is I guess.
In a world where metrics are useful for everything, I feel like a time-series graph showing relative stress levels time would be really illuminating.
I suspect stress capacity is going to be different for each person, and that capacity might change or shift over time (as a result of physical health, emotional stability, etc.)
Another is that the level of stress (and its attendent tension held in the body) one might be aware of is dependent on how well trained your awareness is.
We could narrow down "stress" by measuring the levels of stress markers in the body, but I think that only gives part of the picture.
Unless you are talking "on a whim" with no notice it would have to be a pretty terrible employer to not let you take a Tuesday off.
I'd be inclined as long as you give a week or two notice to approve that time off no problem. However, if you lied and said you were sick there is a major trust issue there and there would probably be disciplinary action
I think OP was referring to not having to worry about the number of days he has taken so far, since he says "make my own schedule", i.e.: not having to worry about limits, either temporal or financial.
I've got so good at it, that sometimes I have to feign being stressed so the higher ups don't think I don't give a damn. (I do, I just don't consider work "life or death")
On a previous project I actually told a non-technical owner: "What you are asking me to do is basically to hit your finger with a hammer.. That said, it is YOUR finger and YOUR hammer.. so say so and I will do" (it actually worked!)
Some jobs are just inherently stressful, an Account Manager under pressure to get orders/sales over the line at year end, a Support Manager working with irate customers and escalating issues etc etc.
I've seen people go off sick with 'stress' and have staged re-introduction to the workplace, but if the role is inherently stressful maybe they weren't cut out for it in the 1st place.
On the other hand undue levels of stress can be placed upon employees by bad management (usually to try and save their necks after they've messed up in someway), and sometimes people put themselves under pressure by holding themselves to high standards.
Separating the source goes along way to being able to manage it.
100% stress can be FINE under the right circumstances. With a supportive boss and team, you feel like you won't actually drown in the work. But when the team is wishy-washy and distant... well, then you get a situation where something has to give.
In a giant corporation that is comfy and has 3 levels of middle management. I currently hate life and trying to find a new job.
Everyday I wake up to rejection letters reminding me that I can't find anything better. At least I can fall between the cracks sometimes at work, but ultimately it is will be spent on applying to new jobs.
Its getting harder to get out of the bed in the morning.
A physical manifestation is an ugly and unwelcome reminder to get on top of things.
When work is going well and is fairly stress-free then I will not spend a single second thinking about work outside of work.
I'm working on a project called Performetric (https://performetric.net) that aims to help objectively measure levels of fatigue and stress and help manage some situations mentioned here. I am not doing my “pitch” here, but trying understand if a solution like our can help you
1. Job insecurity. Politics ramp up as employee mobility goes down.
2. The technology is trash. The internal tech is often riddled with excessive abstractions, confused organization, lack of purpose, and other unnecessary qualities that generally slows people down. Its a real bummer when 10 minute task takes 2 weeks to complete in the office.
I can only speak to large software companies and unfortunately the demand for employees will often exceed the available supply of confident AND experienced developers available in the market.
Meetings, talking to folks, writing documentation, meetings, drawing diagrams in visio, and meetings is my life now.
It's stressful because
1.) I'm not coding (So, I literally have to whip out my laptop and code something every day to maintain my sanity)
2.) It's really hard to tell if I'm doing a good job or not (i.e., I don't know the rules of this new game).
The pay is good, but I really miss being able to code in solitude for hours at a time during the workday.
Also, I'm starting to get headaches, a lot. They used to be rare.
1) Turnover percentage
2) Number of mandatory recurring meetings factor (divide top line by # of meetings?)
3) Strictness of "Core Hours" (meaning, does it cover the entire work day, or just part of it) Perhaps this is a percentage?
4) Leave policy (multiplier for good policies)
5) Work From Home policy multiplier (flexible? routine? abnormal?)
6) Hours worked per week
7) For Software add: Test Coverage %, Automated Deploy Apps divided by Total Apps %, Uptime %
8) Open Office penalty factor
9) Team Room # factor (number of rooms / number of teams)
Most of the stress in my life is caused by commuting to and from work, or not relaxing after work (ie: Not going home right after work).
Job wise - It's fairly stress free probably around 25%.
The majority of that percentage is from waiting on other people or answers to questions, or things that I feel are out of my control. I enjoy the work I do, and it hardly feels like work (which is great), but I feel like I could be challenged more.
Would you move 2 workdays to the weekend so you can work in peace? Would you move to another town if there was a less stressfull job, all else equal?
In the last 3/4 months the level of stress was 100%: a lot of overtime, a lot of nightly works and on duty calls. Furthermore my manager is part-time (the only case in my whole careeer) and it's under big pressure; the company is in the middle of a big reorganization and there is a lot of politic wars.
I also work a reasonable schedule, generally 40-45 hours/week, rarely more than that, and maybe 2-3 weekends in 15 years at my employer. Good vacation policy, flexible daily schedule, and a short commute as well.
Any time you actually feel stressed, you're unlikely to feel that it's 'less stress' than some previous experience; I think it inherently feels each time like you're discovering what '100%' might be, or perhaps it's less than that - a thought that in itself only adds to the stress.
I get stressed out when I need to work because I need money. And then I get work and money and I stress because of the work so I stop for a bit.
It's a poorly choreographed dance between wanting money and not wanting to work.
There's significantly more 0%s than 100%s though. Probably close to 5:1.
Reminds me when my employer asked me to rank my level of happiness at work.
I hesitated between 7 and 8, the other guys in my team answered from 5 to 9.