Data center uptime is an obsession by any enterprise who has measured the revenue loss when their data center is down. Unfortunately, this can turn into turning up the pressure and stress on the data center staff as they could lose their job for a mistake.

MSNBC and LiveScience have an interesting study that discusses job stress is worse for your health than no job.

Worry over job is worse for health than no job

Uncertainty can lead to health woes, depression, study finds

By Robert Roy Britt

updated 1:53 p.m. PT, Fri., Aug 28, 2009

Simply worrying about losing your job can cost you your health, a new investigation of data from two long-term studies finds.

Surprisingly, the effect is worse than actually losing your job, the research suggests.

"Based on how participants rated their own physical and mental health, we found that people who were persistently concerned about losing their jobs reported significantly worse overall health in both studies and were more depressed in one of the studies than those who had actually lost and regained their jobs recently," said Sarah Burgard, a sociologist at the University of Michigan.

What I challenged any data center operator to do is to measure the mental health of its staff as an indicator of the potential risk to the site. Human error is still the largest cause of data center outages, and job stress is a leading contributor to problems.

The article continues with another point about a tough job.

If you're feeling good about your job's prospects, here's one more thing to stress about: Other research has shown that the stress of a tough job — long hours and high pressure to perform — can also ruin your health.

This reminds me the good data center managers I’ve met have a genuine concern for their employees well-being.