IT staff work some of the longest hours in the country,
according to research by the Trades Union Congress, and it could be
damaging productivity, destroying their health and harming personal
relationships.
On average, IT staff put in the equivalent of an extra day of
unpaid work every week, with late nights and weekend working a
regular feature of life in the IT department.
Over the past two years employers have cut back their core IT staff
and reduced their use of IT contractors. As a result, staff are
coming under pressure to work harder and longer just to perform
their day-to-day duties.
Colin Beveridge, an interim IT director who has worked in a wide
range of IT departments, said long hours were becoming the norm for
a growing number of organisations.
"Long hours are a problem and in my experience it is getting worse
rather than better," he said. "A lot of organisations want to sweat
their IT assets - in other words, people - harder and to get more
out of them without necessarily paying them more money."
The TUC's research found that IT directors work an average of 9.3
hours unpaid overtime a week; IT managers work an extra 6.8 hours;
and IT support staff work an extra 5.5 hours a week. Only chief
executives, teachers, health professionals and agricultural
managers put in more hours.
Occupational psychologists claim that sustained long hours, rather
than helping the business, damage the productivity of employees and
increase the likelihood of them making mistakes.
Cary Cooper, professor for organisational psychology and health at
Lancaster University Management School, carried out a five-year
study into the working practices of 5,000 people. He found a direct
relationship between long hours, poor health and lower
productivity.
"We know that long hours damage people's health," said Cooper. "We
know from looking at people's perceptions that it damages
productivity and damages relationships with families. In the IT
business the problem is even worse because people frequently take
work home.
"Different people react differently to the pressures of long hours.
Some have physical illnesses, some have emotional breakdowns. Or
they have inappropriate health behaviours such as excessive alcohol
consumption or too much smoking."
Research by Cranfield School of Management found that UK
professionals regularly put work before their personal lives, far
more so than managers in other countries. In a survey conducted two
years ago, it found that 75% of UK managers had cancelled
pre-booked holidays to cope with the pressure of work.
Beveridge said he had often encountered IT staff working
dangerously long hours. "I regularly see people who are showing
signs of fatigue, not just the odd week but week-in, week-out," he
said. "They are probably burning out. I have seen enough instances
of this to make me think that it is storing up trouble for the
future."
This can be damaging to the business, said Cooper, because tired
and stressed workers are more likely to make mistakes - and in IT
mistakes could lead to the failure of a costly project.
So what can businesses do? Ben Booth, IT director of market
research firm Mori, said he tried to discourage his IT staff from
working long hours regularly during the week. "You often have to
take systems down when people are not at work at the weekend and
the evening. If you need to carry out controlled and difficult
operations, you cannot do it if your people are exhausted and
stressed out," he said.
The Institute for the Management of Information Systems said
businesses should give their senior IT staff more training in time
management and delegation to combat the long-hours culture.
"IT people are not normally brilliant at delegating. A lot of IT
managers have come up from the IT ranks and they have had very
little opportunity to get management training," said Imis chief
executive Ian Rickwood.
But for others, such as John Handby, chief executive of CIO
Connect, long hours, provided they are not carried to extremes, are
just part of the job.
"Some people thrive on stress and you would not become a senior IT
director unless you wanted challenges," he said. "People expect to
work long hours within reason, certainly when major changes are
happening. In fact, I think quite a lot of them thrive on
it."
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