IT directors continue to find their job stressful, but now look towards outsourcing as a means of lightening their workload.

With 44 per cent reaching the upper end of the European Working Time Directive's 48-hour working week limit, many now consider outsourcing more as a means of helping them in their jobs, rather than resisting its use.

Russell Flower, managed services director at Synstar, which conducted the survey, said: "Last year IT directors felt their jobs were a lot more under threat and that outsourcing was a challenge to their business models.

"But this year there has been a big shift, focusing on selective outsourcing as a way of assisting the IT director in their management of the day-to-day fire fighting tasks."

Flower puts this change of heart down to the increased pressures of the job and its impact on the work/life balance.

Two out of five respondents often skip breaks and miss lunch to make up work backlogs, 83 per cent lose sleep through worry about their jobs and 62 per cent exist on a diet of ready meals.

"The trend towards selectively outsourcing some of the business IT function is a dual win for IT directors," said Flower. "This is because it will greatly relieve the pressures of the job they so obviously feel."

The survey solicited the views of 700 European IT directors towards IT, and external and internal business issues.

Some eight per cent of UK respondents, who made up the greatest proportion of IT directors surveyed, cited one activity as a regular means for relieving the stress of the job - sex.

None of the German respondents even mentioned it.