The technology industry faces a ‘burnout crisis’ as chronic workplace stress and exhaustion hammers IT workers.
A study of more than 36,200 IT professionals across 33 counties by mental wellbeing platform Yerbo found that two in five workers are at high risk of burnout, prompted by longer hours, more demanding workloads and conflicts in work-life balance.
Likewise, 42% of IT workers who are facing high levels of burnout are considering quitting their company in the next six months, Yerbo found, while 62% of IT professionals report being “physically and emotionally drained”.
The researchers said the findings “point towards a burnout crisis in the tech sector, with poor outcomes for workers and employees”, including loss of motivation and engagement with work, high staff turnover, absenteeism and damage to the company’s reputation – not to mention making organizations more vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Overall, one in four tech workers wants to leave their workplace in the short term, Yerbo’s The State of Burnout in Tech report found. “The pressure of working against the clock to feed the global tech frenzy often force employees to work late hours, leaving little time for personal life and creating work-life conflicts,” said the researchers.
These time pressures also force workers to resort to “short-term fixes to get the job done” – or ‘antipatterns’ – that ultimately lead to bigger problems and additional work later down the line.
“When this happens day after day, allowing no space to recover mentally or physically, the ghosts of burnout – exhaustion, self-inefficacy, cynicism and depersonalization – start closing in,” the report said.
March 4, 2022
By Owen Hughes