How Do You Deal w/ User Induced Stress?

Anonymous asks: "I've worked as a Network/System Administrator at a small company for two years now. It's my nature to remain calm and collected while trying to accommodate everyone, even when having a particularly stressful day. After two years though, I've recently found myself being stressed all the time and my calm, cool exterior is starting to show some cracks. How do Slashdot readers cope with the stress induced by a highly demanding job and being stalked by users asking for the same thing over and over (i.e. password resets, login problems, how do you...)?"

Re:Easy...

[Wolfrider]

BOFH: http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/ [theregister.co.uk]

--That, and you NEED to be able to take TIME OFF from work to recover your sanity. Motorcycling helps. Martial arts may help. Spongebob might even help. :)

--And if all else fails, get the Hell out of your current job and try something different - don't wait until it's too late.

Re:Here's what I do...

[spiff42]

>Passwords are reset to "IForgotMyPasswordXXWeeksStr8" where XX is the number of weeks on the whiteboard.

Remember not to do this with old-style crypted (DES-based) passwords, since only the first 8 characters (and only 7LSB of these characters) are used, so "IForgotM" will work too. ;-)

/Spiff

Blow off some steam ... seriously

[KlaymenDK]

If you're stressed, there are two hormones you need to watch: adrenaline and cortisone. Adrenaline gives you that rush when you're busy, but it subsides slower than it builds up, so extended crunch time will give you too much adrenaline. Then, cortisone kicks in. Sadly, cortisone is just like that acid in your muscles (I forget the name) -- it's short-term relief that only adds to your hormonal imbalance.

So, what you need to do is mentally relieve yourself once in a while. I realize that's not the best thing to say on Slashdot, but I am in fact quite earnest.

How you do it (playing a computer game, reading a book on your lunchbreak(!), going bowling or walking the dog) is up to you, as long as you get your mind on something else entirely.

What really works well is sleeping (obviously), or just a nap if you cna manage one mid-day, and also laughing og yawning. Honestly.

If you feel your stress is beginning to become a problem, talk to your manager and see if you can get a couple of wednesdays off -- then your work week will be only two days long, with short and long "weekends" in between. I know from personal experience that this is a great way to recover from work burn-out.

Hope it helps, and good luck to you!