Security News > 2022 > August > Burnout and attrition impact tech teams sustaining modern digital systems

Digitalization and rising consumer expectations are having a major impact on the working conditions of the technology teams sustaining the digital operations that drive the modern economy, and burnout and attrition are on the rise, according to PagerDuty.

Technical employees are more likely to leave certain kinds of teams based on after-hours expectations and inconsistent workloads.

Modern digital systems are complex and always-on, but as customers require more reliable systems, demands on technical teams increase, including after-hours and overnight responses to issues.

The earlier findings indicated that employees were already working 2+ hours more in 2020 than they did in 2019, so there's a significant increase in hours worked over the two-year period.

Retail: 62%. Financial Services: 59%. Telecoms: 58%. Travel & Hospitality: 51%. Media & Entertainment: 48%. Software & Tech: 48%. "Those reporting their teams had seen turnover in 2021 also worked more hours. This cycle can easily continue; when employees feel burned out and leave, remaining employees often work more hours to compensate for the attrition; this in turn can cause the same burnout of those remaining, triggering further leavers, all contributing to a loss of knowledge and expertise. Recovering from this cycle can be a major, long-term challenge," said Jill Brennan, VP EMEA at PagerDuty.

"Respondents reported they were given less time for breaks between shifts plus increased job responsibilities. Teams that had experienced turnover in 2021 were also more likely to see increased critical incidents. This implies that organizations must expect more alerts and interruptions impacting their business as the cycle continues. Our data shows that overall, critical incidents have increased 6% in 2021 from 2020. This may be the tip of the iceberg as the longer term effects from rapid digital transformation and remote working play out."

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/08/02/burnout-tech-teams/