By Andy McCue, 16 August 2006 14:15
NEWS
Three-quarters of IT staff hate their jobs so much that they go to work wishing they had a different one, according to a new survey.
IT managers are a particularly unhappy bunch with half registered with headhunters or recruitment agencies and 80 per cent checking job websites and vacancy listings during work hours more than once a week.
Are IT workers so badly off?
Read our take - and tell us what you think - about whether IT deserves to be hated.
And half of IT managers also admitted to being deliberately unhelpful or obstructive with colleagues.
Two-thirds of IT professionals say they have an up-to-date CV and are actively considering changing jobs, with the biggest gripes being that they are bored and don't earn enough money.
The survey of 308 IT workers was carried out by SWNS for web-based learning company SkillSoft.
Kevin Young, European general manager of SkillSoft, said employers need to do more to develop their staff in order to improve retention and productivity.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Stuart Fawcett
If recruitment consultants knew how to use the skills rating from http://www.sfia.org.uk/ then maybe they would do better at meeting expectations on both sides.
2. anonymous
Couldn't agree more.. I have to deal with people who are past their expiry date, and they just don't understand computers - what would be a two minute tech support call, turns into a 40 minute argument with a 65 year old women who "shuts off" to the thought of having to do something other than type a letter. Not only that, most people don't listen and think they know better - sometimes, I'll give a fix to one lady in the office for her specific computer - all of a sudden, she thinks she's 'knows it all' and does the fix on two or three other computers - then the others girls call me, moaning about problems! Drives me nuts. The fix was for ONE SPECIFIC COMPUTER, not any others!
Yeh, then theres the money. I don't get paid enough. If I could walk out of this job to be a London cabby, I would do it right now (it's the three years London-Cab training that stops me).
I'm almost finished - then their's "change". When something "changes", they need to know what to do. So, we write them a shortened manual, shortened from the 300 page manual the vendors provided, into a 3 page reference guide. The manager says to me "We don't have time to read a 3 page document" - OK, suit yourself. Go without reading it. Waste of space. It was YOUR choice to try the new software - NOBODY forced you.
Thats just my thought. It's underrated and hard-work. When you're working till 3 in the morning, just so we don't disturb the 'working day', its hard.
3. Sarah
As an IT consultant, I see this attitude all the time. If you don't want to do the job, MOVE OVER FOR SOMEONE WHO DOES!
It also says to me that the industry is full of people who entered it just for the money, rather than because it was a choice of career.
It is no wonder that so many high-profile IT projects have gone off the rails.
I have worked in IT for over 20 years and love it as much now as I did in 1981!
4. Radical Meldrew
I don't hate my job at all, its just the people, the processes, the building, the network, the customers. Arghhhhh, get me out of here.
OK, you were right, I do hate my job.
5. Simon
I think Anonymous the SysAdmin must have had my job !
All that sounds familiar - plus the good old favourites like :
"We've changed the way we're running the warehouse, so this afternoons pick list will need to be done like ..." - coming at 2pm when the pick list is run at 4 and there's some major changes required which they COULD have told you about a week before.
"I need these figures" says the FD handing over a scrap of paper with some doodles on, " and I've promised them for the management meeting first thing on Monday" - he says at 3pm on Friday ! So what's 800 lines of SQL between friends ?
But to top it off you just need your director to look you straight in the eye, with no hint or irony or sarcasm, and tell you "I've asked around and I can't see that you actually do anything !". Apart from getting him his figures, making sure the main business app has the resources it needs so doesn't crash (and trash it's database) anymore when it runs out of disk space, made the email 'just work fine', made all the network services work 'just fine' so that he can plug his laptop in at any site and 'it works fine', sorted out resiliant links for all the remote sites, designed some control panels for the factory to reduce the number f machine operators required, and loads more.
No, all this is 'invisible' to clueless management up and down the country who seem to think that reliable networks and systems build and maintain themselves.
The job is usually great, it's just the s**t you have to take from mismanagement that makes it a pain.
As for the pay, well it's little enough to make me consider bus driving !
6. John
I wonder just how representative this survey is.
Open-source projects rely on tens (hundreds?) of thousands of people who love working in and around IT. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t devote their time and energy voluntarily contributing to projects.
At the other end of the scale, I work for a commercial IT shop which commisions an annual staff opinion survey. Over 80% of folk agree that their "work is interesting". Around 90% agree that "the people I work with are willing to help each other, even if it means doing something outside their usual activities."
This is the reality of life in IT - it's a great profession - get out there and spread the message.
7. Steve
Anonymous and Simon seem to think that the business owes them a favour. From experience, this is a common theme running through many IT departments and I have a feeling that this could be what makes IT’ers hate their jobs.
If the IT department makes the effort to get out and engage with the business, then it’s usually a very different and thoroughly enjoyable job.