
Ask HN: How would you quantify the level of stress at work? - bsvalley
Are you stressed at work? How would you quantify the level of stress from %0 to %100?<p>Take the average of a typical week at work.
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treehau5
I feel 100% stress because of the noise and distractions. It is 100% beacuse

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.

~~~
ddorian43
.. why don't you complain dude ? what's the worst that can happen ? hell, ask
everyone so you can form a group-complain or something ? fuck it complain
everyday, making them stressed that you complain ? shit like, please lower a
little the volume or stay a little quitter ? do it persistently and stress
them back? fucking take a note from a doctor ? go around the office with noise
detector to find the quietest desk and ask to transfer there? report
anonymously for bad working conditions ? put cameras with movement detectors
and keep stats on each desk ? but at least you'll find some closure instead of
going insane

source: experience

~~~
treehau5
I bring it up to managers and co-workers as often as I can, without sounding
too bitchy or out of place, because I know how fickle some humans can be, I
don't want to be a constant source of negativity -- you have to be in an
exalted position to bring up these things, because otherwise you'll just be
brushed aside -- _well Frank over there sits in the noise and he 's twice as
productive as you_ \-- well I am not Frank. That's part the reason I don't
quit. I am hoping to excite some kind of change. There are enough
psychological studies and evidence based claims I can make to fill a boardroom
on the negative effects of distraction on productivity, it's just finding the
right opportunity and having the right leverage.

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freddyc
I realize this doesn't necessarily answer the original question, but in my
mind I view two major buckets of stress:

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.

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teekert
No stress. I work at a large healthcare company in the Netherlands, we do
science, oncology. There are no real hard dead lines because stuff either
works or it doesn't and is killed before it does (us scientists are known to
keep trying for too long apparently). I get motivated when stuff gets hard and
I get to learn new things. Currently I just had my second child and my project
allows for me to work in public transport or at home easily (doing data
science on our Linux cluster) making it easier to get to 8 hrs a day and still
be at home to assist my wife (who was quite "damaged" during the delivery) as
much as possible. This is important because I have an insane commute of 80
min. I like my job.

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.

~~~
kzisme
I was speaking to someone the other day who has recently retired, and it took
him 25ish years of working at a large company to get 5 weeks of vacation time
:/

I think many people should get vacation time more quickly, or it should be a
standard of five weeks just like the Netherlands.

~~~
teekert
But they way, people still have stress here. But the way I read this comments,
it's less than in the US and you can often work less of be less achieving,
earn less but still be able to come by easily and loose the stress. Stress
seems to be more implicit at any level in the US. We still have people burning
out here though and occasionally there are departments that almost develop a
japans "stay a work as long as the boss then drink together culture", somehow.

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.

~~~
kzisme
That sort of culture exists at my company, but I wish there was more team
atmosphere at work. (or free time outside of work to do this)

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.

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tcgarvin
I read this question as "How would one go about quantifying the level of
stress at work?", which is what I was hoping I would read about after the
click.

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.

~~~
hosh
I thought the same too.

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.

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byoung2
0%...I work remote and make my own schedule. I'm on my way to the airport for
a month long vacation. As a contractor I can take a month off without needing
approval from anyone. I can take a Tuesday off and go to Disneyland with my
daughter without needing to lie about being sick.

~~~
throwaway2016a
> I can take a Tuesday off and go to Disneyland with my daughter without
> needing to lie about being sick.

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

~~~
foliveira
> 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 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.

~~~
byoung2
Exactly this. When you just get 2 weeks, you save those up for a week long
cruise and Christmas. You wouldn't take a random Tuesday off and burn a
vacation day.

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clueless123
Long ago, after a life event, I decided to ban stress as an "illogical
activity".

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")

~~~
patothon
This. The only moments I feel stressed now is when I have to stand in front of
200 people.

~~~
clueless123
Try picturing them all in their underwear ;)

~~~
ci5er
Oh, great! 200 nearly naked people, each with stern looks of disapproval!

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dogmata
Surly the question is not how much stress full stop, but how much undue
stress?

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.

------
magic_beans
Before I quit, I felt like I'd hit 100% stress at work. It was an unfriendly
environment, my manager was so stressed that she stressed everyone else out
just from talking to her, and I got a strong feeling that my project manager
hated her job (and me). The work itself was tedious and poorly spec'ed out by
the requestors.

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.

------
TheOneTrueKyle
Stress level is at 100% for sure.

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.

------
iamben
Honestly sometimes it's zero stress. I feel absolutely fine. But stress creeps
up on me - and I know it's hitting a peak when I start to get alopecia holes
in my beard. It's only then I realise what's going on and how I'm feeling. A
bit like boiling a frog, I guess.

A physical manifestation is an ugly and unwelcome reminder to get on top of
things.

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mcjiggerlog
Stress is hard to quantify. I generally find if I am having fleeting negative
thoughts about work flashing though my mind outside of work hours then I am
stressed and need to do something about it.

When work is going well and is fairly stress-free then I will not spend a
single second thinking about work outside of work.

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apimenta
Hi,

I'm working on a project called Performetric
([https://performetric.net](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

------
austincheney
I cannot speak to my current employer as my handle is not anonymized. I will
say that in prior employments the level of stress was directly correlated to
the incompetence of the staff and developers. Incompetent people tend to
create two problems:

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.

------
jcadam
I'm currently in my first 'non-programming' programmer role. I was hired to
provide 'subject matter expertise' on software development issues and to help
define requirements and design architecture.

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.

~~~
clueless123
Get a pet project in open source. Fast!

------
sailfast
If pressed to find some numbers, one might measure it using a few metrics:

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)

------
kzisme
As you sort-of eluded to - it varies by week.

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.

------
anotheryou
From the title I understood you meant "how to quantify stress in general".
It's something so subjective and you can never know how whimpy or brave people
are. I really like the idea of asking for what one would sacrifice for the
discomfort to go away.

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?

------
lormayna
My level of stress at the moment is around 50%, just because I have resigned a
couple of days ago.

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.

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alistairSH
50%. I have periodic stress - approaching major releases, major changes in
staffing (up or down), but my day-to-day stress level isn't very high.

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.

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OJFord
I'm not sure how this can be well-answered.

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.

------
debt
0% right now because I'm not working.

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.

------
nunez
Despite being in quite stressful situations at the moment (consulting with
tight deadlines and unclear deliverables), I actually feel quite at ease. Team
is great, client and location are great and my weekends are protected.

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lowmagnet
I'd say you don't since stress is a subjective and qualitative thing.

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shawabawa3
I've found I can quantify my overall stress level quite well by the length of
my fingernails. The more stressed I am the shorter they get (through
subconscious biting/chewing on them)

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koolba
It oscillates as a square wave between 0% and 100% depending on what's on
fire, what's due, and who I have to deal with.

There's significantly more 0%s than 100%s though. Probably close to 5:1.

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ggregoire
> _How would you quantify the level of stress from %0 to %100?_

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.

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zwieback
5% of hours in a typical work week. The occasional machine-down situation due
to a bug I put in the software or a disagreement with a higher-level manager.

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thescribe
Extreme, the open office plan means I'm constantly interrupted no matter what
I do.

