Why IT teams are burning out and what leaders are getting wrong  

Our latest research finds six in ten large Irish enterprises are seeing stress and mental health issues in their IT teams. The cause is not workload alone. It is a broken delivery model.

Our research finds six in ten large Irish enterprises are seeing stress and mental health issues in their IT teams. The cause is not workload alone. It is a broken delivery model.

The numbers are striking, but they will not surprise many IT leaders. What the research makes visible is something most already feel: IT teams are being asked to deliver more, faster, with less clarity, and it is taking a toll.
Scope creep is a significant stressor in 61% of large organisations. Talent shortages are driving unsustainable hours in the same proportion. Legacy systems are holding back innovation in 57%. And AI expectations are outpacing reality. Only 58% of IT leaders say their leadership team has a realistic view of what AI can actually deliver.

This is not a wellbeing problem with a wellbeing solution. It is a delivery problem with a governance root cause.

The AI pressure is real and it is landing on already stretched teams
Organisations across every sector are under pressure to move on AI. Boards want progress. Competitors are announcing initiatives. And IT teams are expected to deliver, often without additional resource, clearer priorities or any reduction in existing commitments.
The problem is not AI itself. It is that AI initiatives are being layered on top of environments that were already under strain. When leadership expectations are disconnected from operational reality, IT teams absorb the gap. They work longer hours, cut corners on governance and defer the problems they cannot solve today until they become crises tomorrow. Until organisations build a realistic picture of what AI can and cannot deliver in their specific context, the pressure will continue to compound.

Legacy debt is not a background issue
59% of IT leaders admit they are running too many legacy systems. The number reflects decades of accumulated technical debt that makes every new initiative harder than it should be.
Legacy environments force teams into workarounds. They slow delivery, create security exposure and make integration with modern platforms disproportionately complex. When AI or digital transformation programmes are expected to run on top of this infrastructure, the difficulty is not just technical. It is a daily operational burden carried almost entirely by the IT team.

Pay rises are a symptom, not a strategy
When 59% of organisations have handed out pay increases of 50% or more to prevent IT staff from walking out, something structural has gone wrong. Retaining talent matters, but if the conditions driving people out remain unchanged, compensation buys time, not stability.
The real issue is that too many IT functions are operating without the structures that make complex delivery manageable. Clear scope boundaries, formal change control, realistic capacity planning and governance that gives IT leaders the authority to push back when the business asks for the impossible.

Without those structures, work accumulates informally, priorities shift without process and technical teams absorb the consequences. Over time, that becomes the normal operating environment and people leave, or burn out, or both.

The authority gap sits at the top
Many IT leaders know exactly what needs to change. The harder problem is that the authority to change it rarely sits with them alone. When boards and senior leadership teams set expectations without resourcing them properly, IT leaders are left managing a gap they did not create.
This is where the disconnect becomes most damaging. IT is no longer a back office function. It is central to how organisations operate, compete and grow. When the business demands transformation but is not willing to govern it properly, the cost is not just missed deadlines. It is the gradual erosion of the teams expected to deliver them.

Project management is underrated as a pressure valve
Almost a quarter of IT leaders in our research (24%) say outsourced project management can help reduce stress among technical teams. Senior IT leaders already recognise that bringing in structured delivery expertise is part of the answer.
Good project management does more than keep timelines on track. It creates the conditions for IT teams to do their best work. Defined scope, controlled change and honest planning based on real capacity rather than optimistic assumptions. It also gives IT leadership a credible, independent voice in conversations with the business about what is achievable and when.
When an independent party is managing delivery governance, the conversation about trade-offs becomes less political. IT leaders can have a direct discussion about priorities without it becoming a test of their authority.

“IT has become the backbone of every organisation. If it ceases to function healthily, then so does the rest of the organisation. Pay rises alone cannot cure sleep deprivation.”
Justin van der Spuy, co-founder and co-CEO, Saros Consulting

The fix starts with strategy, not sympathy
The organisations managing this well are not simply working harder. They have treated delivery capability as a strategic investment rather than an operational overhead. They have built governance structures aligned their IT strategy to business goals and created the conditions for their teams to deliver consistently without burning out in the process.
For CIOs and CTOs trying to make the case for change internally, this research provides useful external validation. The problem is systemic, not isolated. And the solution is structural, not motivational.
That means a proper IT strategy aligned to business goals. It means portfolio governance that gives IT leaders genuine authority. And in many cases it means bringing in structured project management expertise, not to replace internal capability, but to extend it and protect it.
IT teams will continue to face pressure. The question is whether the structures around them make that pressure manageable or let it compound until people walk.

How Saros can help
Saros works with IT leadership teams across Ireland, UK and South Africa to bring structure, clarity and independent expertise to complex delivery environments. Our work is vendor-neutral and outcomes-focused.
In practice that means helping organisations build IT strategies that are realistic and aligned to business objectives, establishing governance frameworks that give IT leaders the authority and structure they need, and providing experienced project management capability through our Managed Professional Services model to take delivery pressure off internal teams.
We combine strategic advisory with hands-on delivery, giving your organisation access to senior expertise that scales with your needs without the overhead of permanent headcount.

Ready to take the pressure off your IT team?
Talk to us today. Our team is available for a confidential conversation about your delivery challenges.