PagerDuty today announced a new study which found the work-life balance of UK IT professionals is lagging behind US counterparts but match Australia’s data.

The global leader in Digital Operations Management found that twice as many US respondents (36%) said their work-life balance was excellent versus just 15% of IT professionals in the UK and 16% in Australia.

The findings contradict the general perception by many in the UK that Australians enjoy a better work-life balance than workers in Britain, and that American employees suffer even more because of fewer days off.

‘More capable of managing stress’

UK IT pros say they are more capable of managing stress than their counterparts in the US and Australia, however. More than half (52%) of IT pros in the UK indicated that a fair or poor work-life balance affected their ability to manage stress versus 68% of survey respondents in the US and 64% of respondents in Australia.

The impact of today’s always-on culture is far-reaching, the survey shows. Nearly all of those questioned across the three countries said that being responsible for the management of digital services impacted their family lives.

Nearly all respondents said that personal life and sleep-interruptions when on call impacted their work productivity.  One in four (25%) went as far as saying that a poor work-life balance made them more likely to search for new job opportunities.

‘Helping workers avoid burn-out’

Steve Barrett, country manager for PagerDuty, commented: This always-on, always-available world has become the norm for IT professionals around the globe. But it¹s taking a toll on the employees who have to drop everything to address problems.

“Without a healthy work-life balance, organisations will have employees who are either unable to perform to the best of their ability or choose to walk away.  It’s time for companies to take more responsibility for the welfare of their technical and operational teams to help workers avoid burn-out.”

The survey was conducted by over 800 IT professionals across the UK, the US, and Australia.

Written from press release by Leah Alger