UK Companies Love IT Workers, Love Not Returned

Roblimo writes "'The study, completed in early July, showed that U.K. employees working in the information technology industry are more valued than they think they are,' says a story at ITMJ.com, but it also says, 'According to the results of the survey, only 45% of IT workers feel valued at work, and 70% don't believe that their job reflects their true potential.' Not only that, but 'Seventy-five percent feel discriminated against because of their age; 43% say their bosses think they are too young, and 32% feel too old.' That leaves only 25% who believe they're the right age for their jobs, and only 30% who feel they're working to their true potential. Does this mean U.K. employers need to worry about a mass exodus from the I.T. field, or is this just normal griping?"

Comments

Re:It's just normal griping.

[DenDave]

ROFL!

Actually I think the biggest problem is the lack of "pat on the back", alot of IT folks end up doing alot of jim'l'fixit's and it becomes an expectation. I personally don't think I am underpaid but sometimes a hoot of "you da man" would do miracles for my smiling...yes, we have egos, yes they need stroking..

Re:IMHO

[malkavian]

Interesting viewpoint.
The difference between the chap keeping the air conditioning working, and the guy who keeps the servers running is that when the air con fails, people open the windows to the street to let air in, and feel hot and bothered.
When the servers go down, the people who bring in the money suddenly can't contact by email the people they need to talk to, to get money in.
The secretaries can't produce documentation, or access their calendars. Meetings fall off the face of the earth. Important messages don't reach their destinations.
The IT dept are responsible for making sure the history of the company is recorded, and to make sure people get the information reliably that makes the company operate. No, they're not the whole of the company, but if they screw up, it can almost kill a company stone dead, or at least damage it badly.
I'd hazard a guess from this, that you're someone who's never worked in a high availability server environment, with sensitive data, and having to translate business requirements into infrastructure.
By your argument, the 'guy who brings in the money', i.e. the sales department staff, would be just fine if you cut their email, phone and mail services. After all, those sections don't bring in any money do they? So they don't count do they?

And before you talk about company structure, I've run my own company for a considerable time, hired staff, and run it from the perspective of MD.
Everyone in that company is there to bring in money efficiently, and without communications, you may as well shut up shop and go home.
IT, lest it slip your mind is 'Information Technology'. The technology part is not the big part. The information is. And when you trust someone with ALL your information, that's a hell of a responsibility to carry.

So, IMHO, you're pretty far off the mark.

Re:Just Griping.

[Phisbut]

They are labeling jobs as "junior" but the skill set for the job is somewhat more advanced.

That is so true. When I got out of college with my software engineering degree, looking for "junior" jobs (knowing that I shouldn't aim for intermediate and senior positions anyway), I found a whole lot of openings with descriptions like "Junior progrogrammer position, requires 5 years of experience in C# as well as 3 years of database management experience". A whole lot of companies expect people to come out of college with 5 or more years of experience somehow. Honest to god, I've even seen, back in 2003, an opening that required 5 years of experience in .NET programming... meaning you needed to be "junior", but have been doing .NET programming since 1998! Those HR people just like to fill their openings with loads of buzzwords, but they tend to stick to it during the interview, and they don't care for whatever reason you couldn't get those 5 years of experience during college...

Actually, they just want to hire an intermediate-level coder with a junior salary.