Dashboard dependency leads to burnout among IT staff
A new study from Liquid Web shows IT professionals spend an average of 77 minutes per day checking dashboards, which equals about 468 hours per year or nearly 20 full workdays.
This is leading to stress and a risk of burnout as one in three say they can’t relax unless they check their server dashboard at least once an hour. 51 percent say they check dashboards during the night, at weekends, or on vacations, blurring the line between work and personal time.
In addition 68 percent have never gone longer than 48 hours without checking their dashboards, underscoring compulsive use. 59 percent say past outages made them more obsessive about checking dashboards, even when systems are functioning normally. So it’s not surprising that 44 percent feel anxious or tense when the dashboard is down or inaccessible, while only seven percent feel indifferent.
Although 76 percent of IT professionals say alerts disrupt their personal life, especially during evenings or weekends, 62 percent report that a dashboard alert has helped prevent a major outage or revenue loss at their company. The flip side of this is that 30 percent say they’ve experienced downtime because they didn’t review their dashboard within the critical
window for action.
The volume of alerts is an issue with 43 percent receiving alerts multiple times per day, often leading to notification overload. AI could help, 54 percent believe AI-generated summaries would save time, while 53 percent say they’d speed incident response. 35 percent believe AI summaries would reduce stress, and 26 percent say AI would increase confidence in handling incidents.
Ryan MacDonald, chief technology officer at Liquid Web says dashboards need to be better, “The next generation of dashboards won’t just monitor infrastructure, they’ll restore control. If your UI causes friction, you risk losing your customers. Dashboard design should no longer be an afterthought. Forward-looking companies must prioritize UX, unified views, and AI to boost confidence and reduce noise.”
This is backed up by the survey findings, 44 percent of IT professionals have left a hosting provider due to poor dashboard UX, and nearly one in four have switched providers because of frustration with their dashboard. 51 percent cite slow performance as a top reason for leaving, while 35 percent cite pricing increases or hidden fees. 78 percent say a better dashboard UX would make them more loyal to their provider.
You can find out more on the Liquid Web site.
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