{"id":16424,"date":"2012-09-04T21:55:24","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T01:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2021-08-12T12:50:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T16:50:59","slug":"it-admins-switching-careers-due-to-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/it-admins-switching-careers-due-to-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"IT Admins Switching Careers Due to Stress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20171109091137\/http:\/\/www.businessnewsdaily.com:80\/3136-work-stress-genetics.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-103865\" title=\"IT Admins Switching Careers Due to Stress\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/stressed_worker-1.jpg?resize=134%2C110&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"IT Admins Switching Careers Due to Stress\" width=\"134\" height=\"110\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/stressed_worker-1.jpg?resize=150%2C123&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/stressed_worker-1.jpg?resize=75%2C62&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/stressed_worker-1.jpg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 134px) 100vw, 134px\" \/><\/a><em>Help Net Security<\/em> highlights a <a title=\"Most IT admins considered switching careers due to stress\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120611105000\/http:\/\/www.net-security.org:80\/secworld.php?id=12780\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report<\/a> from <a title=\"GFI Software\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gfi.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage noopener noreferrer\">GFI Software<\/a> which reports that <strong>67% of IT administrators have considered switching careers due to job stress<\/strong>. IT administrators cited managers, users (employees), and tight deadlines as the biggest job stressors. GFI&#8217;s survey <a title=\"Two-thirds of IT admins considered switching careers due to stress\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120515021058\/http:\/\/www.gfi.com:80\/documents\/stress-survey-2012.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">results<\/a> (PDF) also revealed that IT professionals tend to work long overtime hours, with one-third working up to 10 extra weeks per year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gfi.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-103867 size-full\" title=\"GFI Software logo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/gfi_logo-1.png?resize=74%2C35&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"GFI Software logo\" width=\"74\" height=\"35\" \/><\/a>The independent blind survey, which polled 204 IT administrators in U.S. organizations ranging from 10 to more than 500 employees, gauged respondents&#8217; <strong>stress levels at work<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p>Key findings from the GFI Software survey include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nearly<strong> 70%<\/strong> of all IT administrators surveyed <strong>consider their job stressful<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Greater than <strong>67%<\/strong> of IT administrators <strong>consider switching careers<\/strong> on either an occasional (43%) or regular (25%) basis due to job stress.<\/li>\n<li>72% of respondents consider themselves either j<strong>ust as stressed as or the most stressed<\/strong> compared to others in their social circle.<\/li>\n<li>While less than half (47%) of IT admins at companies with between 10 and 49 employees say their jobs are stressful, that number skyrockets to <strong>83% when those at companies with between 50 and 99 employees<\/strong> are polled, representing the most stressed group in the respondent base.<\/li>\n<li>The top three <strong>sources of stress<\/strong> for IT admins are <strong>management<\/strong> (28%), tight <strong>deadlines<\/strong> (20%), and the <strong>users<\/strong> they support (18%).<\/li>\n<li>IT admins in the Northeast are the most stressed in the country (74%). Midwesterners are the least stressed, with nearly two-thirds (64%) still saying their job is stressful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-103869\" title=\"their job has affected their personal life\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/stressed_out1-1.jpg?resize=69%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"their job has affected their personal life\" width=\"69\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/stressed_out1-1.jpg?resize=104%2C150&amp;ssl=1 104w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/stressed_out1-1.jpg?resize=52%2C75&amp;ssl=1 52w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/stressed_out1-1.jpg?w=175&amp;ssl=1 175w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 69px) 100vw, 69px\" \/>In addition to the stressors themselves, IT admins also told GFI that they routinely put in many <strong>overtime hours<\/strong> beyond the traditional <a title=\"Working time\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Working_time\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener wikipedia noreferrer\">40-hour workweek<\/a>. More than one in three (36%) say they work eight hours or more of overtime during an average week, which adds up to <strong>nearly 10 extra weeks per year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nearly 85% of respondents feel as though their job has <strong>affected their personal life<\/strong> in some way. According to the survey results, respondents have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lost sleep<\/strong> over work (42%)<\/li>\n<li>Missed out on <strong>social functions<\/strong> (40%)<\/li>\n<li>Missed time with their kids (39%)<\/li>\n<li>Canceled commitments to friends and family due to work (35%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Additionally, many GFI survey respondents say their jobs have even <strong>affected their health<\/strong>. Nearly one in four (22 percent) say they don\u2019t feel great physically and 20 percent say they have experienced s<strong>tress-related health issues,<\/strong> such as <strong>high blood pressure.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>rb-<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The article concludes with <a title=\"Phil Bousfield\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20130729104129\/http:\/\/www.crunchbase.com:80\/person\/phil-bousfield\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"crunchbase noopener noreferrer\">Phil Bousfield<\/a>, general manager of GFI Software&#8217;s Infrastructure Business Unit who says; &#8220;IT is a critical component of a company&#8217;s success.&#8221; He says, &#8220;firms &#8230; 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. Doing so will deliver business value and help IT admins have a better <a title=\"Work\u2013life balance\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Work%E2%80%93life_balance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener wikipedia noreferrer\">work-life balance<\/a>.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a title=\"Ralph Bach\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/new-resume\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ralph Bach<\/a>\u00a0has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his\u00a0<a title=\"Bach Seat\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bach Seat<\/a> about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on <a class=\"broken_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/rb48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ralph.bach.14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rbach48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:\/\/bach.seat@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over two-thirds of IT workers have considered switching careers due to job stress from managers, users, and tight deadlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2197,32,2462,591,1360,726,1925,1359,1431,1924],"class_list":["post-16424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-2197","tag-business","tag-career","tag-employment","tag-gfi","tag-health","tag-information","tag-stress","tag-technology","tag-workplace"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16424"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128518,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16424\/revisions\/128518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}