A tough workload may seem like a great thing in a soft economy. But according to a new survey by Robert Half Technology, many IT managers think these demands are too big—and causing way too much stress.
Of the 1,400 CIOs polled in the survey, 36 percent think too much work is the No. 1 worry in the IT marketplace right now. This, of course, is happening because fewer IT pros are being hired amid fears of a recession and as more managers are being asked to cut costs in general. Worse, many of these IT managers are being asked to improve efficiency—at the same time.
There is one upside to being asked to do more with less: IT staff will get experience performing some tasks that they may not have had otherwise. But in a recent discussion in Network World’s online community, which was mentioned in The New York Times, many posters argued that the negatives still outweigh the positives.
“I have seen a lot of people burn themselves out, become experienced in everything and good at nothing,” one poster rumbled.
Yet another problem is simply poor job performance. “Overstressed IT workers are unlikely to perform their best,” said Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of Robert Half Technology.
There’s no doubt IT departments are being asked to do more with less. This was happening before the recent credit crisis.
So how can you cope with this trend? One way is to outsource, especially on a project basis. Yet another is to make the jobs of your IT pros easier. Automation is a key weapon in this effort. IT performance management solutions, such as our own Integrien Alive, that automatically tell you when you are going to have a performance problem with root cause symptoms, can significantly reduce manual efforts in troubleshooting. There are other IT automation solutions that support a variety of repetitive manual tasks.
These practices can not only make your IT staff more efficient but can substantially reduce operating costs in the process.
IT departments always need to do everything they can to meet their budgets and performance goals, especially in times like these. By not giving your IT staff the best technologies they need to accomplish these tasks could be a recipe for failure.
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