Cloud Communications

Are You Wearing Your IT Admin Too Thin? Cloud Communications Company's Survey Says Yes

By Carrie Schmelkin TMCnet Web Editor

If you are an IT administrator, your day might sound a little like this: Wake up and check your work email, praying that nothing catastrophic happened overnight. Head to work and spend the majority of your day putting out fires. Try to convince the higher ups to adopt some of those great new technologies like cloud, VoIP, SIP or virtualization – and explain to them what those terms mean. Head home and pop in two Tylenol and go for a run on the treadmill, desperately trying to rid yourself of the stress of the job.

The life of an IT administrator is becoming overwhelming, according to industry experts, particularly as companies demand these employees to do more with less while still remaining ahead of cutting edge trends.

Recently, GFI Software – a leading provider of cloud communications solutions – as part of National stress Awareness Month, conducted the first ever IT Admin Stress Survey, which found that 67 percent of IT administrators have considered switching careers due to job stress. The leading causes for stress? Managers, employees and pressing deadlines.

“IT is a critical component of a company’s success, yet many SMBs, particularly those with between 50 and 100 employees, are not equipping IT managers with the budget, staffing and resources they need to be effective,” said Phil Bousfield, general manager of GFI Software’s Infrastructure Business Unit. “Not only is this creating a high stress environment for IT admins to operate in, but as evidenced by the survey results, it’s also resulting in long overtime hours and impacting their professional and personal lives.”

“SMBs 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,” he added. “Doing so will deliver business value and help IT admins have a better work-life balance.”

The survey polled 204 IT administrators in U.S. organizations which ranged from 10 to more than 500 employees. Among the topics covered were respondents’ stress levels, how respondents’ stress levels compared to their friends and family and how this stress is affecting their personal and professional lives.

Some of the key findings of the survey include the fact that: nearly 70 percent of all IT administrators surveyed consider their job stressful; more than 67 percent of IT administrators consider switching careers on either an occasional (43 percent) or regular (25 percent) basis due to job stress; 72 percent of respondents consider themselves either just as stressed as or the most stressed compared to others in their social circle; and one-third work the equivalent of 10 additional weeks per year in overtime.

The survey also found that while 47 percent of those in companies with 10 to 49 employees feel their jobs are stressful, the number skyrockets to 83 percent for IT admins working in companies with 50 to 99 employees.

So with employees feeling so stressed at work, is this carrying over to their personal lives? Well, according to the GFI survey, nearly 85 percent of respondents feel as though their job has impacted their personal lives in some way. Specifically, 42 percent have lost sleep over work, 40 percent have missed out on social functions, 39 percent have missed time with their kids, and 35 percent have canceled commitments to friends and family because of work.  

If your IT admins are running ragged but you still have serious business goals to meet, what are you to do? According to GFI, SMBs need to seriously start considering cloud-based services, if for no other reason than to give the IT admin more time to focus on pertinent issues. According to GFI, there are a multitude of reasons why SMBs should go the way of the cloud, the simplest of answers being that “everything is done for you,” according to David Kelleher, communications and research analyst for GFI Software.

Simply put, the cloud cost structure is dependable: there are no software licensing costs, upfront hardware investments to be made or unexpected costs. Moreover, there is no need for ongoing maintenance because the solution/service is updated and maintained automatically by the vendor. Further, the SMB does not need to invest in hardware on premise, manage the software, patches or product upgrades with cloud communications.

“Because the service is hosted by the provider, the speed at which services/products can be improved is significantly greater, allowing for more frequent updates,” Kelleher said. “The customer does not need to reinstall the product every time there is a new update or version.”

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