Technology problems are causing a bigger headache for US stock traders than their stressful hours or the pressures to generate higher returns.

Just over half of US traders surveyed by Crisil Coalition Greenwich said internal tech issues were their biggest source of fatigue and burnout. Of the 83 respondents, 27% said regulatory and compliance requirements were the biggest source, while career uncertainty and lack of work-life balance came in at 25% and 20%, respectively.

The finance industry has been known for the long hours bankers spend handling cumbersome deal calculations and spreadsheet revisions. Some startups have tried to capitalize on the use of automated systems that can take the grunt work out of the process. Other banks have developed their own artificial intelligence tools spanning everything from trading to compliance and monitoring.

A frustrating part for traders is the lack of control they sometimes have over those systems, especially since they often shoulder the responsibility for outcomes such as price and timing, according to the study. Traders said internal tech issues derail productivity, cause burnout and consume their time, leaving them with less capacity to perform essential job functions.

“Internal tech problems create a persistent cognitive load that traders say is uniquely exhausting,” according to the report written by senior analyst Jesse Forster. “Instead of simply trusting systems, traders have to verify them. That means remembering workarounds, tracking exceptions and double-checking data that should be reliable.”

Outages have been hitting banks and exchanges during a volatile time for markets, including one Tuesday that affected UBS Group AG’s trading business. Electronic trading on the London Metal Exchange was also halted earlier this week at a critical moment in the metals calendar.

While such disruptions require an immediate response, many technology challenges are “persistent but just tolerable enough” that they aren’t fixed right away, according to the report. That forces trading desks to deal with the issues regularly.

Written by: Nino Paoli and Katherine Doherty @Bloomberg

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