Stress Is Peaking for High-Tech Workers in the Silicon Valley

The fast-paced world of computer technology is leading to stresses and strains and even defections from a pressure-cooker environment that psychologists say will get worse before it gets better.

In an industry that prides itself on having “user friendly” chips, circuitry and communications gear that is always getting speedier, smaller and smarter, there is a frequent breakdown of a most valuable resource--its people.

In Northern California’s hectic Silicon Valley area of Santa Clara County, there’s a new buzzword--balance--that comes from an innovative but vague concept called stress management.

Balance, says Jean Hollands, a psychotherapist and director of Growth and Leadership Consultants in Mountain View, is the valley’s “newest, trendiest culture theme” and simply means gaining an equilibrium between work and leisure, mind and body.

Higher-Than-Average Stress

“It’s to let employees know they can balance their jobs and home life; that it’s all right to go to Little League and so on,” Hollands said. “Companies aren’t practicing it, but they’re beginning to talk about it. It doesn’t mean that it’s all right if there’s a major project.”

Hollands, whose clients include about 150 Silicon Valley firms, said those working in the high-tech industry, from keyboard operators to hardware engineers, generally encounter more stress than the average person and exhibit more mental and physical symptoms as a result. She sees the main source of stress to be attitudinal. For relief she relies on a training program that teaches basic communications--or how to relate to others--for people lost in the nanosecond culture of machines and linear thinking.

“Communications skills are necessary,” Hollands says. “People with built-up stress don’t even realize it until they’ve had a heart attack, stroke or ulcer.”

Even physical exercise, she said, is often a manifestation of stress for overachievers. Instead of jogging, for example, they are attracted to ultra-endurance events such as triathlons.

‘They Work at Play’

“I believe this is the most conscientious group of human beings in any one geographical location on Earth,” Hollands said. “If there was a test for perfectionism, this group would pass with flying colors.

“People down here don’t know how to play. They work at play.”

An expert in relationships and author of a marital survival guide, “The Silicon Syndrome,” Hollands said the soaring divorce rate once prevalent in the valley has slowed down and is nearly at the national average today. However, she said the stresses haven’t decreased and may even be greater because of the financial pressures of living in the expensive region and the percentage of families with both partners working.

“I think we are in the forefront here of acknowledging that changing partners doesn’t always fix a stressful situation. The disease AIDS has also created a sexual depression.

“People are not sexually acting out anymore, so they have to stay with what’s at home. They’re attempting to make their marriages work here in the valley and I think in the United States, and that adds to stress--there’s no relief valve of reaching out to someone else.”

Stress on the job isn’t always bad. A little stress can make the adrenaline flow, give spark to creativity and edge the psyche toward peak performance. On the negative side, stress can lead to a variety of illnesses, the use of drugs or alcohol or even total mental or physical breakdown.

But in Silicon Valley, said Hollands, heavy drinking is often shunned by the health-conscious young urban professionals.

“Alcoholism isn’t a popular sport here.”

In a study by the National Center for Health Statistics, about half of 40,000 workers surveyed reported feeling “moderate” or “a lot” of stress. The insurance industry estimates the cost to business of stress-related problems and mental illness at $150 billion annually.

Alan Brauer of the Brauer Medical Center in Palo Alto said there is a wide variety of stress-related ailments, both physical and mental, that he treats with biofeedback, massage, hypnotism, acupuncture and electrotherapy.

“Silicon Valley is a real hotbed for stress-related problems--the great masquerader in medicine today,” said Brauer, an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Pressures in the technological terrain, he said, included earning top pay because of the area’s extremely high standard of living. Competition in product development is also deadly, leading to long hours on the job with resulting strains on relationships and family life.

“There is a competitive element in the valley of needing and wanting to get ahead faster,” Brauer said. “There is this ‘Alice in Wonderland’ sense that no matter what you do there is so much more you can do and that is possible. They’re creating change that is new and exciting--and rapid change automatically creates stress.”

When people don’t adapt to stress, he said, their system simply overloads, resulting in such physical symptoms as headaches, high blood pressure, ulcers, heart disorders, asthma, allergic reactions and digestive problems.

“Almost any problem a person would seek medical attention for could be stress-related,” Brauer said. “There are emotional problems as well that may not be recognized as relating directly to stress such as depression, phobias and sleep disorders.”

At the clinic, he said, people are given a complete examination and every possible physical cause for the problem is looked at to determine if there is a treatable medical condition present.

“This gives us the confidence to go ahead and look at the ways we can influence the imbalance that’s occurred in the body. We look at a person’s energy systems, their thinking style, the way they eat and how they handle time and conflict.”

After pinpointing stressful areas that need changing, Brauer uses combinations of techniques to accomplish the goal. In one treatment called “electrorelaxation,” two sensors are attached to the earlobes and electronic signals are relayed to the brain to stimulate the production of endorphins, which are the body’s natural sedative.

Combined with hypnosis and other relaxation methods, Brauer said, the brain and body become integrated and balanced, resulting in a calmer, healthier person.

Often, he added, a purely physical approach is taken, such as acupuncture for acute headaches.

To prevent stress, said Brauer, people should take breaks on the job and do simple exercises, take a walk or even jog. People at computer terminals, he said, can learn mini-relaxation processes that only take a minute or two but can be extremely helpful in relieving unneeded stress.

“Some stress allows a lot of creative work and productive activity to occur. It’s not entirely negative, but it’s a question of balance,” Brauer said. “You can function more efficiently if you take a break from it.”

Brauer said the machines he uses at the clinic, such as a galvanic skin response unit--a fancy lie detector--are appreciated in Silicon Valley by people used to relating more to technology than to their cohorts.

“They’re intrinsically comfortable and respectful of the process.”

Brauer said big companies, especially with soaring health insurance costs, should take the forefront in evaluating areas of stress and in using intervention programs as a form of preventive medicine before their best workers get sick or burned out.

Or quit?

Oakland psychologist Craig Brod said the demanding pace and stress, which most companies go out of their way to ignore, are causing a massive defection or “brain drain” from the nation’s high-tech zones.

To stem this migration of discontent, Brod said he has tried without success to interest computer companies into funding a study of stress and technology similar to those being done in Japan, Scandinavia and Western Europe.

Although companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Apple, AT&T; and Safeway have programs to encourage employees to wind down and exercise with spas, laughter clinics and “beer busts,” Brod says the broad problem is avoided.

“It’s the old story, the vendors didn’t want any association with the word stress. There’s a great big denial going on. They could implement technology more effectively, but instead they’re repeating a proverbial ill.”

Brod, author of the book “Technostress,” said the 1980s have been hyperachievement years in high tech and that people are now “stepping off the fast track,” the title of his latest work-in-progress.

“Life in the information cyclone is only partially living,” Brod said. “It’s not the kind of life that fosters an inner sense of peace or of self.”

Many in the technoculture are moving away to become consultants or entrepreneurs and making mid-career changes, Brod said.

“One programmer told me he was going to a small town in Idaho. ‘What’s in Idaho?’ I asked. He replied, ‘Listen, it’s peace of mind. Not only am I going to where I can afford to live, but I need to rest my mind.’

“This is not atypical. There’s a lot of burnout going on.”

People who work with information all day, he said, become “couch potatoes” at night because they’re so tired they need to relax and recuperate.

“Instead of exhausted muscles, they have exhausted minds,” Brod said. “That’s why there’s an incredible burnout cycle in Silicon Valley. Some people are desperate just to leap out and do some gardening. The valley and other technological zones are losing a lot of talent because of the pressure.

“The leaping out is very common, and it’s a phenomenon that’s going to increase exponentially in the ‘90s.”