The Work "High"

Tackling such challenges keeps IT leaders engaged. They are not alone: The CWLP study found that many of the most extreme professionals don't feel exploited; instead, the long hours make them feel exalted. Sure, many who keep these hours are exhausted at the end of a long week. For some, however, this exhaustion is a badge of honour.

Dr Betsy Williams, clinical program director at the Professional Renewal Centre, a behavioural health services centre, explains that the drivers for this kind of behaviour differ for everyone. In some cases, she says, certain high performers simply "have the Type A personality" and derive pleasure from working long and hard.

Eric Goldfarb, CIO and executive vice president of BearingPoint, a management and technology consulting firm, regularly puts in 70- and 80-hour weeks handling technology for company offices in more than 60 countries. On the afternoon he spoke with CIO, he had been in the office since 6am.

Goldfarb considers himself a "turnaround specialist". He was brought in last year to help BearingPoint expand its business and IT capabilities. His responsibilities are always changing, and he likes it that way. He says turning around an underperforming IT department is a high.

In his first 12 months at BearingPoint, Goldfarb's primary challenge was to provide structure, direction and motivation for his team. Once he achieved that, the challenge was to rebuild the corporate intranet. Next, he was charged with opening offices in several countries, including Afghanistan.

Goldfarb looks back on these accomplishments with enthusiasm. "Some people consider what they do professionally as 'work' or a 'career', but I chose a profession that was my hobby — working with IT and helping businesses use it to become profitable," he says. "It's never easy, but then again, when something is easy, it's usually pretty boring." Of course, not every CIO thrives on the pressure. In some cases, Williams says, that hunkering down at the office can indicate a lack of fulfilment elsewhere. Perhaps a CIO's home life isn't as good as it once was. Perhaps work is the only place a CIO can feel on top of things. Williams says that in some instances, a "hearty dose of narcissism" might even be at play.

"Some people have this view that if they don't do it, nobody will," she says. "That's not a healthy way to run anything."