Info: Workplace stress for IT admins in the U.S. & U.K.

Worth Reading … click on URLs to view all 8 slides … and detail results of survey.

 

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/survey-indicates-improved-outlook-on-it-administrator-stress-in-us.html

 

US Key findings from the survey include:

• 65 percent of all IT administrators surveyed consider their job stressful, down slightly from the 2012 survey, which revealed 69 percent of IT admins found their jobs stressful.
• Nearly one-third of those surveyed work more than eight hours of overtime each week in order to keep on top of their workload. That is the equivalent of working more than 10 weeks a year in overtime.
• Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of respondents feel the same level of or more stress than others in their social circle. This is more than a 10 percent decrease from last year’s findings, when an astounding 72 percent said this was the case.
• The top three sources of stress for IT admins are: management (29 percent), lack of IT staff (24 percent) and tight deadlines (20 percent). Users are the smallest source of stress, contributing to the stress level of 12 percent of IT admins.

Negatively impacted their personal lives in a general way :

• Of great concern is the impact that work stress has on health and relationships. The 2013 numbers show a slight improvement, but the problem is still pervasive among IT administrators. While 73 percent of participants revealed that their jobs have negatively impacted their personal lives in a general way, the survey discovered some specific impacts
• 21 percent of IT administrators have suffered stress-related health issues – such as high blood pressure – due to their work. This number actually slightly increased from 20 percent in 2012.
• More than one-third (36 percent) of respondents have missed social functions due to work issues. That number was 40 percent last year.

Biggest challenge as in future IT Support is moving towards 24/7 :

•  “The increasing importance of IT in the workplace and the 24/7 availability paradigm that has been created obviously creates a stressful atmosphere for many IT administrators,” said Phil Bousfield, general manager of IT Operations at GFI Software. “Companies are more reliant than ever on IT innovation, uptime and speed of deployment, and thus, IT staff members are under extreme pressure to deliver for the benefit of the whole business.
• The top U.S. cities in which respondents work more than eight hours of overtime are: Philadelphia (47 percent), Boston (43 percent) and Dallas (40 percent).

UK   Key findings from the survey include:
http://www.sourcewire.com/news/77017/gfi-survey-shows-rise-in-it-administrators-wanting-career-change        
• 68% of all IT administrators surveyed consider their job stressful.
• 21% of those surveyed work between three and five hours of overtime in order to keep on top of their workload. 12% work eight to 10 hours a week. In total, almost half (49%) are working six or more hours overtime a week.
• Over a third (35%) of respondents have missed social functions due to work issues. A further 30% of those surveyed have missed out on planned family time because of work demands.
• Over 63% of staff surveyed feel they are either as stressed or more stressed at work than their friends and colleagues.
• 28% of IT admins point to a lack of budget and staff needed to get the job done as their primary reasons for job stress.
• Of the 73% of respondents considering changing their role, 36% do so on a regular basis.
• The top three sources of stress for IT admins are: management (35%), tight deadlines (19%) and lack of budget (17%). Interestingly enough, users dropped from the second biggest stress cause in 2012 (21%) to only the fourth biggest cause (16%).

GFI Software™ recently announced the results of its second annual IT administrator stress survey, which revealed that the number of IT professionals considering leaving their job due to workplace stress has declined from 67 percent last year to 57 percent in 2013, a 10 point drop in one year. While the percentages are still staggeringly high, the results suggest a measure of improvement in working conditions and attitudes over the past 12 months. The outlook is not so rosy in the UK (see this related announcement: GFI Survey Shows Rise in IT Administrators Wanting Career Change Due to Stress), where 73 percent of IT professionals are considering leaving their job due to workplace stress, an increase of four percentage points from last year’s figures.

The independent blind survey of 207 IT administrators in U.S. organizations with more than 10 employees was conducted from March 5-12 by Opinion Matters on behalf of GFI Software. The survey gauged respondents’ stress levels at work and revealed their opinions on their main stressors, as well as how their stress level compares to friends and family, and how it affects their personal and professional lives.

Nearly one-third of those surveyed cited dealing with managers as their most stressful job requirement, particularly for IT staff in organizations with fewer than 50 or more than 500 employees. The other top sources of workplace stress for IT managers were lack of IT staff and tight deadlines, with 24 percent and 20 percent of respondents, respectively, citing these as primary contributors to their stress levels.

Cheers!

Chirag Gandhi

"To create more positive results in your life, replace "if only" with "next time"."

~~~Author Unknown