Recognizing the Signs of Data Quality Depression

Data quality depression has been described as an emotional state characterized by feelings of sadness, despair, and discouragement – often accompanied by a strong desire to bang your head against the wall… repeatedly. For your mental health, early detection of data quality depression is key and requires that you be aware of the signs or symptoms which may include:

• Difficulty focusing or concentrating on the same mundane and repetitive data quality tasks for 10 hours a day 
• A sense of impending doom each day when turning on the computer and seeing the exponential explosion of data quality issues 
• Feelings of worthlessness caused by ineffective attempts to beg, bribe or otherwise coerce users to comply with firm data quality standards 
• Intense frustration with professionals who use their BlackBerrys to enter hundreds of new contacts with only first names and mobile phone numbers or e-mail addresses 
• Dizziness caused by running in circles trying to get correct contact information from assistants 
• Energy loss caused by jumping through hoops to try to get the firm’s leaders to commit the necessary resources 
• A major pain in the posterior region caused by dealing with data quality 

Symptoms may be mild at first and may initially improve after consuming large quantities of chocolate or alcohol. However, as the condition worsens, the only hope is to seek a more effective - and permanent - remedy…