The proportion of cybersecurity professionals reporting low "Happiness ratings" has risen sharply over the last 12 months, raising concerns about increasing burnout rates in the industry. According to 14,865 global infosec workers surveyed by ISC2, the largest portion fall into the "Low employee experience" bracket, indicating low levels of happiness at work. By contrast, the proportion of workers that fell into the medium and high employee experience brackets was recorded at 31.8 percent and 31.3 percent respectively. The data indicated overall workplace happiness is falling across the board, with both medium and high-satisfaction ratings dropping and "Low satisfaction" ratings the only bracket that grew, increasing by more than five percent. Issues such as departmental cutbacks, the ever-looming threat of layoffs, and lack of managerial support were cited as the main reasons contributing to a reduction in overall happiness. "Having a strong culture within cybersecurity is critical for organizational success. Happy workers are more motivated, more focused, and are less likely to make mistakes," ISC2 said in its report. The data suggests that the threat of layoffs may have a more profound impact on a cybersecurity pro's job happiness than the layoffs that have already happened and the ongoing skills shortages. Those who expect job losses to come in the next 12 months reported a happiness score of just 38.9 compared to those who don't expect any layoffs, with the latter group scoring 59.5. "68 percent of those who experienced layoffs said those layoffs significantly hurt team morale, and 62 percent reported that cybersecurity cutbacks have a negative effect on productivity," ISC2 said. The majority of pros reported a heavier workload in the past year, with the most commonly cited pain points being excessive emails and tasks, and lack of resources to do the job effectively, as well as staffing and skills-related issues. Both the overabundance of emails and tasks, and the general feeling of being overworked, were reported in significant numbers by staff at organizations that were suffering from personnel and skill shortages, as well as those at organizations that suffered from neither of these issues. A much larger gap in reporting was observed when looking at the adequacy of resources available to workers at organizations struggling with staff numbers and skills. Nearly half of respondents said resources were an issue compared to just 13 percent at well-staffed and sufficiently skilled organizations. Such issues weren't as common across the board as heavy workloads, but those with managers who either didn't support or respect their workers most often reported the lowest levels of workplace satisfaction. "Those at organizations with staffing shortages and skills gaps are considerably more likely to report a lack of support from managers/executives, a feeling that their employers don't value - or even listen to - their input, and more." This year's estimated total number of security pros has risen 8.7 percent to 5.4 million, with growth particularly evident in North America and Japan with respective rates of 11.3 and 24 percent year-on-year. The Middle East and Africa also both reported growth of more than 11 percent, but this year's study considered responses from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, and South Africa for the first time, so the year-on-year results are based on estimates for these four and therefore may not be entirely reflective of the entire regions. Only a handful of countries reported a decline in hiring growth: Mexico and Germany saw slight reductions with -1.2 and -1.9 percent respectively. Singapore's growth shrank a tiny -0.6 percent, while Australia's slowed the most at -3.4 percent. Although hiring is up almost everywhere, that industry skills gap has grown wider again - as it seems to every year - this year by 12.6 percent, according to ISC2's estimates.
This Cyber News was published on www.theregister.com. Publication date: Thu, 30 Nov 2023 23:19:27 +0000