[Maxatar]

This is a take you'd only hear on a site like Hacker News.

Software development consistently ranks among the least stressful jobs you can get and it's really out of touch to compare this profession to genuinely stressful jobs.

Looking over surveys of most stressful jobs, it looks like the common theme are those that deal directly with people like customer service, sales, nursing/health care, or working in physically demanding environments like cook, construction, fire fighter.

Software development is an incredibly stress-free job in the overwhelming majority of circumstances.

[EthanHeilman]

> Software development consistently ranks among the least stressful jobs you can get and it's really out of touch to compare this profession to genuinely stressful jobs.

I've worked a number of different jobs. Software development isn't the most stressful job, but it can be very stressful.

[blooalien]

It 100% depends upon who you work for, and what you're hired to do, and how that work is performed. I've worked jobs at both ends of the "stress scale" and most everywhere in-between, and it mostly comes down to the boss bein' the main decider if it's stressful or not to work there. A good boss can turn even the most stressful tasks into a fun challenge that everyone's on-board with solving. A bad boss can make even the simplest most routine tasks a daily nightmare that must be dealt with and tolerated for the sake of the paycheck.

[derkster]

I just wanted to bring up the stress caused by "passive" bosses, who attempt to be everyones buddy, avoiding even the faintest whiff of having to actually "manage" employees. Especially employees unable to integrate themselves, after months, into a workflow wothout causing an equal amount of work for others to decipher and clean up.

I'm not bitter, you're bitter! :)

[blooalien]

My favorite bosses jumped in on a fairly regular basis and worked alongside their teams, and knew their business well enough to actually be useful and helpful in that regard. They also treated their employees like actual fellow human beings, and when they profited, so did their employees, so it was kinda all-around win-win scenarios for everyone involved. Sadly, those bosses were a bit of a rarity. :(

[bryanrasmussen]

I've worked in physically demanding environments like cook and construction - there were lots of injuries in the construction job, and a few people died, of course this was when I was young and extremely physically fit, but it was not as stressful as programming can be. More stressful than programming generally is, but not anywhere near as stressful as it can be.

The difference between relatively difficult programming and a lot of jobs is that a lot of jobs have a pretty steady level of stress, whereas the programming stress level can vary incredibly.

[poulsbohemian]

Then consider yourself really lucky because I ended up in the hospital back in 2010 from the stress. Yes I hear there are lovely places with fat salaries, massages, and free lunches, but that's not the majority of software development or tech work.

[vages]

Saying that a profession is less stressful than others, doesn’t imply it’s stress free.

Most professions have a much higher risk of physical violence, for instance.

[poulsbohemian]

This is fair, but I feel like HN is often an echo chamber of people who have a common experience that I'm not sure is representative of industry or society writ large.

[mnky9800n]

The only part of washing dishes that was stressful was the amount of money washing dishes paid me. The job itself had great hours and I could zone out washing dishes and not worry about things except running out of dishes to wash.

[Sohcahtoa82]

> customer service

You could offer me double my current tech job salary and I still don't think I'd go back to my old retail service job.

People were shitty when I did it 20 years ago, and they've only gotten shittier today.

[strangescript]

This is sooooo dependent on where you work and your current outside of work situation (ie, you need the money bad)

[kamaal]

>>Software development consistently ranks among the least stressful jobs you can get and it's really out of touch to compare this profession to genuinely stressful jobs.

I've done 48 hr on-call work days, and a decade back my average sleep hours were like 3 - 4 hrs/day. Needless to say, even the best case sleeping hours are/were 5-6 hrs even till date. Writing code gets as stressful, as it gets.

But I guess you are talking more on the lines of most other professions putting same effort but not getting paid anywhere near we do.

That's a different problem and has a lot more to do with overall life directions, where you started and where you are going than something to do specifically with Software development.

[bluSCALE4]

I believe the most stressful part of IT is that the job itself is stressful at times. I believe that in most jobs, the job itself isn't stressful, it's the people and the stresses of life due to low pay.

[cultofmetatron]

> Software development is an incredibly stress-free job

laughs from a bootstrapped startup

[joquarky]

It's not worth it

I was the second developer at a startup, got a nice bundle of stock options that kept me highly motivated for 12 years but were ultimately worthless when the company sold

[ghfhghg]

I've done construction, masonry, retail sales, barista, deli, a line cook, aiding the mentally challenged and Software development. Id say all those jobs can be stressful.

[Clubber]

Did you miss the part where a multi-decade, A-list actor with millions of dollars who can call his own shots was the one saying that? It's not the work, it's the constant financial shenanigans and horse whipping from the executives.

I'd take earning a million dollars for 3 months of work and then taking the rest of the year off over what I have to put up with. Constant 24/7 unpaid support, having to work long hours because the company decided to do layoffs, having to work long hours because someone in sales promised the world for his commission that I don't see a dime of. Having to fix work of bad hires because said hire was related to the boss. Dealing with very strict government regulations that change every few years. Having to implement an absolutely horrible idea in a dead language because some boss had a bright idea. Dealing with hacker-kiddies constantly trying to compromise the system. Having to constantly learn the latest fad abstraction, on my own dime and time, that will only be relevant for a few years. Have to fix massive data issues because some executive decided to read the first chapter in a SQL book run a query in production? Having to deal with unrealistic deadlines and half ass specs. Having to deal with whatever scrum implementation some nitwit who took one online course came up with. Getting a couple weeks or three off every year, including sick days, and having to practically beg for it, and still getting calls anyway. Talk about being out of touch. What exactly do you think programmers do all day, write "Hello World," in every language ever invented?

Do you think Gene Hackman ever had to sit in a one-on-one meeting with is boss where the boss asked him to rank himself on various things, from 1-5? Getdafuqouttahere.

[thejazzman]

i strongly disagree as a SWE of 16y working silicon valley remotely

there are times it's great. there are times it's awful. and there are times i'm prepared to starve rather than continue working for ____

no one in my extended family went into this industry and none of them deals with the endless stress that i do

i envy those who can't relate

[pjmlp]

Unless one is on consulting, high integrity computing, trading,....

[sososore]

> Software development consistently ranks among the least stressful jobs you can get and it's really out of touch to compare this profession to genuinely stressful jobs.

Most devs already came from enough privilege to afford never having to do truly painful jobs, so they are a pampered whiney bunch. At lunch today I sneakily surveyed 13 20-something devs (all white, all male). Every single one went to college and didn't need a part-time job to pay for it. I've been at this for 30 years, and sure that was a pretty biased sample: there are plenty of Indian, Thai, Chinese women devs that I've worked with, but most everyone from overseas is already of a higher-caste.

I'd love to see your typical dev do even mildly physical labor 40 hours a week for a little over minimum wage. Lol.