Experts agree: Updating IT skills is a good thing. But for many IT professionals, the constant changes in technologies--<A HREF="http://searchcio.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid19_gci1270957,00.html?track=sy183&asrc=RSS_RSS-14_183">and the need to stay on top of them--stresses them out.</A>

Nicole Haggerty, an assistant professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, said constant innovation in technology often "destroys the competencies" of IT workers because new technologies come along that require new skills. Legacy technologies remain relevant, but the demand for those skills shrinks.

Haggerty and her colleagues closely studied more than a dozen IT professionals and assessed how they deal with stress on the job.