Attention
Technological development has made the IT sector to become the fastest-growing industry in the world. Using technological applications in all walks of life requires the amalgamated efforts of IT personnel who work strenuously to make those applications perform seamlessly. If you are an employee or manager in the IT sector, then you might very well know about your dependency. So, eventually, such hard and meticulous efforts lead to burnout at work. Recent surveys show that the number of IT employees facing physical and mental exhaustion is surging day by day. It is vital to understand the causes of IT job burnout to eradicate that issue. Even with remote IT jobs taking over during the pandemic period, exhaustion among employees still exists. Let us know about this issue in detail to understand the root causes and remedial measures.
Interest
Are you a manager working in the IT sector? Then, as a good leader, you need to understand your employees’ concerns, especially burnout at work. Or are you an employee working for an IT organization? Then, it is high time you understand the risks and prevalence of IT job burnout. Such comprehension is the first step towards something better for both the employees’ wellness and organizational productivity. After all, employees are the cornerstones of the organization. Hence, top organizations these days are ensuring periodic checks on work-life balance in IT employees. Did you know the reason why a majority of IT companies have training modules on workplace ergonomics and also incorporate employee mental well-being programs? It is to ensure that the work pressure does not cause physical and mental exhaustion among employees. Read on further to know in detail the 5 most common reasons for IT workers’ burnout.
Desire
On examining the work environment of IT organizations and based on employees’ opinions, we have identified the top 5 reasons for burnout at work affecting IT employees.
- Workload
Extremely high workload and dependency on a single resource is the topmost cause of IT job burnout. Having one employee as a critical resource and relying on him/her to carry the load of the whole team is physically and mentally exhausting. Some managers do not consider the amount of work assigned to the employees. Some even expect the employees to work overtime. Such overworking causes exhaustion, weight loss/gain, high cortisol levels, and, in some cases, even death.
- Monotonous Tasks
Overworking is one thing, but working mechanically every day on monotonous tasks can cause severe mental exhaustion. This cannot be simply disregarded as boredom! For people with pre-existing mental health issues like ADHD, anxiety, or depression, such monotony at work might lead to serious health complications. Repetitive work will put significant pressure on employees’ minds. Employees who are highly skilled and expect new challenging tasks will soon become disengaged and fail to be productive.
- Poor management and lack of control
Though workload and boring tasks may be some of the vital reasons, the root cause behind these issues is poor management. The work allocation and supervision are done by managers and some of them make impractical promises regarding deadlines and team capacity for project completion. In such cases, employees feel the inability to control task allocation leading to high physical and mental exhaustion. So, the workers’ lack of control over their tasks and deadlines forces them to proceed with working despite extreme burnout. Such exertion is fatal to physical and mental health. Hence, bad and ineffective management is the ultimate root cause of these problems.
- Lack of rewards and recognition
Despite IT employees’ meticulous efforts and productive performances if they are denied adequate rewards and recognition it leads to demotivation. Demotivation can also cause severe mental burnout and has been widely accepted by most IT workers as one of the main causes of disengagement from their job.
- Work-life imbalance
Just like the organization aims to work towards growth and profitability, employees have objectives to maintain a good lifestyle. But, lack of work-life balance in IT jobs has become a questionable subject in recent days. Even employees working in remote IT jobs feel such imbalance and their inability to allocate time for their personal life leads to severe burnout at work. What’s the use of being paid higher, if you cannot spend it with the ones you love? So, many IT employees suffer a work-life imbalance and blame the management for their exhaustion.
Action
Having known the top 5 causes of IT employees’ burnout at work, it is understood that an instantaneous action is the need of the hour. Implementing favorable actions for employees to maintain their work-life balance and avoid risks due to physical and mental exhaustion must be a significant part of every organization’s management team. If you are a manager, get on board with experts to identify possibilities of workers’ burnout in your organization. Take frequent surveys on employees’ physical and mental well-being. Address employees’ concerns related to workload and exhaustion immediately. Encourage seamless communication among team members and supervisors. Conduct health check-ups, and seminars/webinars on physical and mental well-being as part of employee wellness programs. Acknowledge the good performers consistently with rewards and recognition to avoid boredom and monotony in their work. Plan effective strategies to maintain good employer-employee relationships and ensure that employee burnout never occurs. If you are an IT employee, take immediate steps toward self-evaluation on the extent of your exhaustion at work. Even if you find small signs of burnout like fatigue, weight loss, obesity, unhealthy appetite, anxiety, depression, blood pressure variations, or other health complications get immediate medical help. Cut off the problem in its roots. Even remote IT jobs cause health complications due to bad working posture and haphazard work timings. So, do not ignore the symptoms of burnout. Also, make sure to communicate your physical or mental burnout situation to your manager and ask for immediate resolution. Never tolerate extreme workloads and high dependency.IT job burnout will lead to fatal complications! Work-life balance in IT is a need of the hour! Start acting on it now!
