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."

Lying liars and the lies they lie about

[ZaMoose]

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.

Re:It's about being "Always on"

[nine-times]

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.

Re:IT admins are special

[Anonymous Coward]

No, if your employer told you that he was lying. Maybe for a junior admin... But most junior (unix) admins I know make 50k to start. By the time you're middle tier you should be at 70-75 (In the Philly area no less) and a senior admin makes 90-100 (sometimes even more depending on what special application they support). This is all based on sampling in the Philadelphia area, I'm a CTO in that area.

Re:IT admins are special

[BrokenSoldier]

Ugh. Been there done that. 36,000 a year as a support/sucktomer service manager for a laptop reseller. Took it because I was coming off being unemployed for 2+ months and I have 4 kids and a house. Left it after 10 months when a recruiter briefly mentioned that I could probably do better and helped me massage my resume a bit after answering 80+ emails a day, phone calls from whiny needy gamers that were too dumb to re-seat RAM in their 3000 dollar laptop, and expected 24 hour or less contact resolution based on the timestamp of the email. Most of which was not put out to me during the interview and first 2 weeks or so...... Interview your boss, don't just 'be' interviewed, and if you can gather some intelligence about the place first so much the better.