Techies work hard-maybe too hard. When technology site Tech
Republic.com surveyed nearly 4,000 tech workers in February, 67
percent claimed they worked too much, and 81 percent felt they
lacked work-life balance. Their reasons are even more startling.
About 40 percent cited understaffing, and 18 percent said
management didn't understand how much time their tasks really
took.
Ann Estabrooks, founder of Catapulta LLC, a Durham, North
Carolina-based consulting firm, blames this strain on "scope
creep": when companies' lack of planning forces their IT
staffs to juggle too many things at once. "Nobody ever stops
to ask 'What can we do to best support you? Are you burning
out?'" she says. "[Managers] just keep piling it
higher and deeper. There need to be processes in place that support
these people."
Taking a Load Off
Content Continues Below
Last year, Michael Kogon, CEO of 70-employee software and Web
consulting firm Definition6 in Atlanta, didn't like what he was
seeing. The company's help desk was disorganized, and IT
workers were spending too much time fighting small fires, like
helping co-workers reboot their computers.
To ease the load, Kogon, 31, hired a manager with a technical
background to supervise the IT department and act as a buffer
between it and the rest of the company. Employees who used to call
every time they had a computer problem were told to send e-mail
instead so the IT staff could prioritize its workload. The IT
department was also allowed to bring in contractors for
trouble-shooting.
Bradley Dick, a research and development engineer at
Definition6, says the changes made a big difference. "It's
taken 50 percent of the strain off our day," he says.
"We're not being pulled in 30 directions at once."
Good thing, or else the company would have a tougher time with its
growth from sales of more than $2 million in 2000 to a projected $5
million this year.
Turning on a Dime
Cindy Miller, 36, understands being pulled in too many
directions. When she was a network specialist in the late 1990s,
the pace was brisk and the hours long. A typical day began with 100
new messages, and Miller never had more than 10 minutes without an
interruption. She carried a pager seven days a week and postponed
all her vacations. "In a small company, you can be the only
game in town," she says. "You're supposed to perform
miracles."
Two years ago, Miller founded Bedrock Concepts Inc., a
10-employee technology consulting firm in Zebulon, North Carolina,
to regain some control over her life, but not before learning some
valuable lessons about how companies fail to connect with their IT
departments. Managers may not understand that changing technology
means the needs and goals of a project may turn on a dime. Then
there's the struggle over priorities. If you expect your IT
person to take care of every computer in the office, he or she
won't get to other projects. Something's got to give,
especially when the goal posts keep moving.
Taking a Tech Timeout
To avoid techie burnout, consider creating a rotation so no
single employee is always on call. Offer backup, too. Techies like
to know help is on the way, whether it's an outside consultant
or even just an intern who comes in on Thursday afternoons.
"When no one else in the company can understand what you do,
that's not a good place to be," Miller says.
Entrepreneurs need to understand the techie mind-set, says Bob
Artner, vice president of content at Tech Republic. These employees
will inflict the long hours on themselves because they're used
to being the only people in the company who can solve the problem.
"There's no one holding a gun to their heads and saying
they have to work 80 hours a week," Artner says. This
self-imposed pressure means that it's up to you to pay
attention so that your IT people don't burn out. You need to
make sure they're not constantly burning the midnight oil and
that they receive uninterrupted vacations. They may thank you for
it: In the Tech Republic survey, 54 percent of respondents said
they'd prefer an extra two weeks of uninterrupted vacation time
to a $5,000 increase in salary.
Keeping your IT staff from feeling overworked can be as simple
as hiring a consultant who comes in once a week to help out because
you're understaffed or training a non-tech co-worker or intern
to do simple backups and updates. Ask your tech workers what kind
of structure they need to make their jobs easier. It will save you
from a load of technical difficulties down the line.
Chris Penttila is a freelance journalist in the Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, area. Contact her at chris@sitting-duck.com.
Contact Sources