The real cause of IT burnout
I don’t know if any data backs this up. This is based entirely on my own experience and observations after twenty-five years of working in IT. Burnout isn’t caused by anything having to do with tech itself, but rather, it’s due to having to deal with end users.
The tech side is relatively easy, but still challenging enough to keep from getting boring. It’s fun and interesting getting to learn new things, and play with new technologies.
The people side is a whole other story. The biggest challenge is protecting users from themselves. It’s getting them to read/watch/listen to the safety and security information provided, and follow those recommendations. Most people don’t.
I haven’t just seen this in my own organization, I see it online, all the time, every day, everywhere. The overwhelming majority of users will ignore all the information provided, if they look at it at all, and they will go for whatever is most convenient, even going so far as to try to circumvent security, because it’s easier, or it’s more fun.
If this were not the case, no one would still be using Facebook. Yet, it continues to be as much a part of daily life as eating.
It should go without saying, that this is a generality. Some people learn, most don’t. Some people learn after getting hacked. Most don’t. Some people learn after getting hacked more than once. Most don’t.
People don’t care about security. They say they do, but when it comes down to actually following through, they will choose convenience. They’ll say, “It won’t happen to me”. They want what they’re used to, and they want it to be all shiny and cool, even after they get burned. Even after their bank account has been cleaned out, and their private conversations and sex videos have been circulated all over the internet, most people will go right back to ignoring all security recommendations, because it’s inconvenient to do so. They find change more scary than being personally violated.
I’ve seen people who have been hacked, doxxed, and robbed more than once, laugh and say “What are the odds that it’ll happen again, to the same person?”.
It turns out, pretty good.
This is where burnout comes from. Working so hard to teach people to protect themselves, providing the tools and the training, and being ignored over and over again. Worse yet, being ignored, and then being held responsible for the ensuing mess, and being expected to clean it up and prevent it from happening again. Luckily, this hasn’t happened to me, yet, but I’ve seen it happen to a lot of other sysadmins.
I am burnt out.
I’m no longer providing choices to my users. I’m enforcing things. I’m making decisions for my users. I’m treating them like children, because that’s how they’re behaving, and my job depends on them behaving like adults.
This is what IT burnout looks like. Now, get off my lawn.
Filed under: Social Networking,Uncategorized - @ February 15, 2023 12:08 pm