Red Shirt Survey: Network Pros don’t get no respect

Over half of all network professionals lack job recognition with many admitting that more empowerment would help them to do their jobs better.

Ipswitch’s Red Shirt Survey saw 51.4 per cent admit that recognition for their job is sorely lacking and it is a number that has doubled compared to the previous year.

“Today we need to recognise the dedicated SysAdmins and other IT professionals who work night and day to keep our networks and applications humming along,” championed Ennio Carboni, Executive Vice President, Customer Solutions, Ipswitch.

A lack of technology isn’t a cause for this though, with just 25.1 per cent admitting that the ability to choose and buy technology would help them to feel more empowered – down from almost 50 per cent last year.

Another way that network adminstrators could be made happier in their jobs would be for more users to reboot machines before asking for help [20 per cent] – down from 36 per cent the year before.

“These IT heroes need to equip their colleagues with the technology and support they need to innovate, collaborate and do their jobs and that’s a lot of pressure to work under. So when you see one of your SysAdmin colleagues today, a simple ‘thank you for everything you do’ would go over well. Treating your IT folks to pizza and ice cream wouldn’t hurt, either,” Carboni added.

Bring your own device [BYOD] is having a clear effect as 13.5 per cent admitted they would find it better if employees shared the applications from home that have been downloaded onto their laptops. 14.8 per cent of administrators want employees to share what personal devices have been synced to the firm’s numbers – triple the amount from a year ago.

Ipswitch’s annual Red Shirt Survey questioned 150 systems administrators and has been released on the same day as its 15th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day.