RESUMEN
Background: Occupational st res s has become a major and costlierprobl em in modern life. Software profession and teaching profession are two most discus sing professions of the time. Object ives: The study was conducted to evaluate the professional l ife stres s level among software professionals and school teachers in Trivandrum dis trict of Kerala, India and to compare their stress level s. Material and Methods: A cross sectional survey was carrie d out among 504 software professionals and 504 s chool teacher s using a closed ended Professional Life Stress questionnaire which consists of 24 questions. Mann- Whitney test and Chi-square test were used for the comparison. Resul t s: Out of 504 software professional s and 504 school teacher s, for 23% of software professionals and 85% of school teacher s, stress was Not a Problem in their life. 71% of software professional s and 15% of school teachers were in Moderate Stress level. For 6% of software professionals Stress was a Problem in their life. Conclusion: Both software professional s and school teachers were experiencing stress due to their occupation. The software professionals were suffering higher stress than school teachers.