It’s the holidays and nearly one-third (29%) of IT Pro’s will be too busy to take time off according to a new study. Unified security management vendor AlienVault noted the IT Pro stress in an article at Infosecurity Magazine. They report that industry skills shortages will have a major impact on IT professional’s time off (paid or unpaid) this holiday season.
The AlienVault study polled over 400 IT pros to better understand their workplace stresses. They found that half of those that can afford to take time off this festive period will spend it worrying about work.
Other factors adding to IT Pro’s holiday stress included:
- 53% said they thought their colleagues are overworked and overstretched.
- 41% claimed to have had unfilled vacancies in their teams for a month or more in 2016.
AlienVault security advocate, Javvad Malik, argued that shortages are not always down to a lack of available talent. He told Infosecurity:
On the other side of the coin is the willingness of companies to invest into more staff … Particularly in small, but growing companies where we often see a company’s infrastructure may grow rapidly, yet the IT team doesn’t scale at the same rate.
Data breach stress
Another reason leading to holiday workplace stress cited in the article is data breaches. Almost a quarter (21%) of respondents said that when a security breach happens the IT teams are blamed. The author speculates that might explain why 14% said that would cover up a breach and not report it, if it didn’t involve regulated data.
IT teams are also increasingly ready to turn a blind eye to users bypassing security controls. If it makes their job easier in the short term. AlienVault’s Malik explained there could be several reasons why some IT staff turn a blind eye to employees bypassing controls. He told Infosecurity:
It could very well be because controls may be too rigorous in the first place. Sometimes this is as a result of controls being implemented by those unfamiliar with the day-to-day operations, or even because of compliance regulations. In smaller companies, it is sometimes because of agreements they may have in place with larger companies who dictate stringent security controls as a condition of business.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.