Up All Night

Regardless of whether respondents felt empowered by their daily challenges or overwhelmed by them, they all acknowledged that the challenges exist. Every day, database professionals face technology and business challenges that can become serious points of stress. Figure A shows a list of the top 15 most stressful business problems reported by this year's respondents.

At the end of the day, most respondents admit they don't leave their work concerns at work. Individual respondents said they lay awake worrying about such problems as racism and other forms of discrimination, abusive bosses, and their workloads. As Figure B shows, the common problems that keep respondents up at night still include technical and business concerns but often take a more personal slant than the business concerns they deal with during the day.