A conversation with a SHARE colleague yesterday got me to thinking about how we’re all working differently this year. Usually “working differently” carries connotations of “working smarter,” “being more innovative,” “finding a good work-life balance” or otherwise improving what we do and how we do it.

Not so this year.

Many colleagues I talk with are mentioning more intensity, a greater sense of urgency around projects and a general sense of “more work to do”. And it’s compounded by an underlying sense of employment angst - thankfulness that we have jobs combined with the stress of needing to do everything possible to ensure that we keep them - that simply makes us more intense and more focused on whatever task is right in front of us.

We’re working differently in other ways, too. Management is putting everything under the microscope. This means more scrutiny of anything that could possibly be perceived as non-essential and the added burden of justifying every activity.

It can all become quite stressful.

It’s a natural consequence of the economic times. Despite some effects on our profession, it seems that IT is feeling less of an impact than in previous recessions. Perhaps this will have some long-lasting positive results. In recent years, interest in IT as a profession has been waning considerably among the younger generations. Perhaps the fact that our businesses view IT as important to weathering the downturn will rekindle interest in technology careers.

We may be working differently in a different sort of way for the moment. But it’s because IT is strategic to how our organizations will survive and succeed. And that, it seems to me, bodes well for us all.