EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For IT professionals—from managers, to ITOps practitioners, to developers—an
always-on, available culture perpetuated by mobile devices and multiple screens has
become the norm. In addition, increased consumer expectations of the performance
and quality of the digital services they use places added stress on the always-on
IT professional. This new normal makes the management of digital operations,
which includes tackling unplanned interruptions, a daunting responsibility for any
organization that aims to provide high quality digital offerings 24/7.
Incident responders must be prepared to drop what they are doing—and even
interrupt sleep or other parts of their personal lives—in order to engage if something
goes wrong with a critical system. As a result, IT personnel are at high risk for
burning out under hard-to-manage working conditions, leading to poor work-life
balance and costly turnover outcomes for companies. The health of a company’s
digital services impacts many parts of the organization—from business leaders and
sales to marketing departments and HR. It also affects the work-life balance of IT
professionals responsible for ensuring the health of these digital services.
A new survey on the State of IT Work-Life Balance reveals that poor work-life balance
affects an IT professional’s ability to manage stress, leading to high turnover as
professionals seek a better work environment. The survey also shows that IT teams,
including managers, have little or no visibility in knowing when their teams are
experiencing a difficult on-call period. The business outcomes of this can be costly,
affirming that a healthy work-life balance is essential for attracting and retaining
developer and IT operations talent.
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KEY FINDINGS
1
More than half (51.3 percent) of IT professionals surveyed experience sleep and/or
personal life interruptions due to a digital service disruption or outage more than 10
times per week.
2
Ninety-four percent of IT professionals said the responsibility for the management of
always-on digital services impacts their family life.
3
Similarly, 94.5 percent of IT professionals believe personal life and sleep interruptions
impact their work time productivity.
4
One in four IT professionals said the responsibility for the management of always-on
digital services impacts their families enough to make their job unmanageable at times.
5
Additionally, nearly a quarter (24.9 percent) of IT professionals believe personal life and
sleep interruptions adversely affect their work productivity enough to make their jobs
unmanageable at times.
6
Almost 1 in 4 respondents (23.1 percent) reported they are more likely to look for a new job
as a result of poor work-life balance.
7
The majority (84.1 percent) of IT professionals rate their work-life balance as good, very good
or excellent. However, of this 84.1 percent, nearly half (40.4 percent) agree their work-life
balance isn’t the greatest, but they deal with it anyway. More than half (56.7 percent) believe
that poor work-life balance is just part of the job.
8
Seventy-two percent of IT professionals indicated their managers have little to no
visibility in knowing when they are experiencing a difficult on-call period.
9
Of the respondents who said their managers have slight to no visibility into their difficult
on-call period, nearly 1 in 5 (18.1 percent) rated their work-life balance as fair to poor.
10
Additionally, over half (54.8 percent) of these respondents also said their
organization’s practices and tools are only somewhat reliable for ensuring their
teams are engaged in their work and thriving in their roles.
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