Almost Three Quarters Of IT Administrators Report Considering New Careers Due To Stress

By: David Mielach, BusinessNewsDaily Staff Writer

Many people believe they have a stressful job, but a new survey shows that information technology administrators may have it the worst. That's because stress has caused almost 70 percent of IT professionals to say they've consider changing careers. Additionally, nearly 85 percent of respondents felt that this stress affected their personal life in some way.

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Nearly 40 percent of workers reported working at least eight hours or more of overtime a week, which averaged out to nearly 10 extra weeks of work a year. According to IT professionals, the demands of their job caused them to lose sleep, miss social functions and miss time with their kids. Additionally, nearly one-quarter of respondents said that stress caused at work led them to feel physically ill and one in five respondents said that they experienced health-related issues such as high blood pressure due to the stresses of their job.

"IT is a critical component of a company's success, yet many small and medium-size businesses, particularly those with between 50 and 100 employees, are not equipping IT managers with the budget, staffing and resources they need to be effective," said Phil Bousfield, general manager of GFI Software's infrastructure business unit. "Not only is this creating a high-stress environment for IT administrators to operate in, but as evidenced by the survey results, it's also resulting in long overtime hours and impacting their professional and personal lives."

IT professionals were able to identify the source of this stress easily. According to the poll, management, tight deadlines and employees were the top three causes of stress. Workers were most stressed in the northeast and at companies with between 50 and 99 employees. At companies that size, nearly 85 percent of IT professionals reported being stressed. 

"Small-and medium-size businesses need to take these findings as a wake-up call, and ensure their IT staff is supported, productive and armed with the tools they need to be successful," Bousfield said. "Doing so will deliver business value and help IT administrators have a better work-life balance."

The information in this survey was based on the responses of 204 IT administrators at organizations with between 10 and 500 or more employees. The research was conducted for GFI Software, a provider of IT solutions to small-and medium-size businesses, by Opinion Matters. 

Reach BusinessNewsDaily staff writer David Mielach at [e-mail]. Follow him on Twitter @D_M89.

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Comments

[3cg]

08:40 AM on 05/18/2012

I've been in the field for 32 years. Thought about quitting many times and actually took several months leave between jobs twice. In spite of the pressure and long hours, I end up back because I enjoy what I do. And, I like the money. And, most importantly, I'm not creative or talented enough to do much else unless I go back to school and start over. Too old for that.

[derickma]

02:05 PM on 04/24/2012

this must be why you never see old IT guys ..or at least it's rare

[Robyndanne]

10:32 AM on 04/24/2012

Ever think of taking a look at working with a startup? Might be equally long hours in some cases, but also might be a great opportunity. www.startuphire.com Over 14K jobs at venture backed startups on there this morning. Mostly engineering/dev/science, but also marketing, biz dev, PR. Opportunity to wear different hats, contribute something that's appreciated and maybe be part of building something new.

[WhinerX49er]

01:06 AM on 04/24/2012

X1000 if you work on the Service Desk, Desktop Support or other front-line, customer facing IT positions. "Users" have become downright brutal in their interactions with front-line staff. In the large hospital system I work for, I'd say we're lucky if 25% of people who call to the service desk are pleasant to work with. 50% are "grumpy" and complaining the whole time, and a full 25% or greater are down right abusive. No matter that the tech on the end of the phone, or standing at their desk, had absolutely nothing to do with the events (decisions, purchases, policies, procedures) that brought them to their issue - people seem completely comfortable using the service desk and\or desktop support as the cr@pper for all their negativity and anger in their jobs. (Its a f'n password change people!!! How angry can you be?) Trying to hire, retain and manage qualified techs - who get beat down all day long is -increasing hard to do. Would leave IT today if I knew what else to do after 25 years in the industry.

[Drama Llama]

11:53 PM on 04/23/2012

WOW....... Glad I am not alone.. I have been telling my wife for 6 months I do not think I want to be in the IT field after 14 years in it. I have been looking at everything from being a police officer to motorcycle mechanic. I know the pay is half what I make now but the thought of dealing with this for the next 25 years... UGH!

Anyone in IT will tell you it is a complete thankless job.. You are burned at the stake for every second of downtime. I am soo tired of the phone calls at 10pm on Fridays....7AM on Sundays.. Weekend hours.. Late night maintenance.. I have no doubt at all that my career choice was the number one contributor to a failed marriage and several failed relationships.

[wtf is this]

12:24 AM on 04/24/2012

You're absolutely not alone. Can no longer count the number of India counterparts I've trained (only to have them move on & be replaced with someone else needing training), early mornings, late night meetings, projects with inadequate resources & immoveable deadlines, trying to support the latest apps on old hardware. The average IT employee is saving their company from hiring another with the excess hours worked. I've started calling mine a charitable donation due to all the "volunteer" time they insist upon. 2% average annual raise doesn't make up for it.

[Lechiffre]

07:54 AM on 04/24/2012

Hi, I have been preparing my exit for the past two years ( secretly ) . Its been 9 years and I am totally burned out and 2012 and 2013 will be the last years in the business for me, 3 years tops and adios .I only get emails from the front desk , then drive to companies and fix their stuff , come back and do the same thing at work. I no longer want to ressurect networks .Late night maintenance is awful . I have it "up to here" .

Over the past 9 years, I have had users look for me on social network or track me down on flickr. which I think is creepy.

God help us.

[Computer Geek]

10:12 PM on 04/23/2012

And they also threaten your very job at every opportunity with outsourcing and forcing your wages down at the same time. Why shouldn't we hire 4 programmers from another country that will do the same amount of work as you do (with all your experience) for the same price it costs to have you around? Gee, I have no idea why we would be 'stressed'.

[wtf is this]

12:25 AM on 04/24/2012

lol. & then they hire the programmers & want you to train them. Gotta love it.

[BBackSoon]

05:02 PM on 04/23/2012

Nothing like being 'So Important' that Management can't let you move onto other tasks, yet they can't really justify a nice raise, ever.

[JoeBlough]

05:09 PM on 04/23/2012

Been there.

[Lechiffre]

07:55 AM on 04/24/2012

I feel ya !

[fozzi58]

03:53 PM on 04/23/2012

Absolutely. Missed my older daughter's birthday 2 years in a row at the last company I worked for cause I was "needed" b. s. No one in management wanted to hand off the work to my back up. Needless to say I don't work there any longer.

Us "creepy" guys in IT are creepy cause we're kept in those data center dungeons for so long!