Slashdot Mirror
Most IT Admins Have Considered Quitting Due To Stress
Orome1 writes "The number of IT professionals considering leaving their job due to workplace stress has jumped from 69% last year to 73%. One-third of those surveyed cited dealing with managers as their most stressful job requirement, particularly for IT staff in larger organizations. Handling end user support requests, budget squeeze and tight deadlines were also listed as the main causes of workplace stress for IT managers. Although users are not causing IT staff as much stress as they used to, it isn't stopping them from creating moments that make IT admins want to tear their hair out in frustration. Of great concern is the impact that work stress is having on health and relationships. While a total of 80% of participants revealed that their job had negatively impacted their personal life in some way, the survey discovered some significant personal impact: 18% have suffered stress-related health issues due to their work, and 28% have lost sleep due to work."
Only 73% have considered quitting? The other 27% are lying to you, probably because they're worried that the survey is being snooped on by the corporate Barracuda firewall.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
It seems to me that it's a little worse with IT support than with many other comparably skilled jobs. In recent years, there's been a competitive race-to-the-bottom. No one wants to pay for IT, and so there's been a trend towards MSPs instead of in-house IT. Those MSPs are competing by promising clients the moon. They can't deliver on the moon, obviously, but they push their employees to try. Meanwhile, the MSPs are making their money by being understaffed.
At least that's what I'm seeing. It seems like the MSPs are going in saying, "We'll provide full support 24/7 365 days a year." Meanwhile they have 3 employees, all of whom work full time during business hours, but are asked to also be on call 24/7 without taking real vacations.
I'm not saying that's unique to IT support workers, but it doesn't seem to be the norm.