Why IT and Security Teams Burn Out—And How Automation Can Help?

What should you do when your defenders need some support? 

A recent report from 1Password reveals that over 65% of IT and security professionals are experiencing burnout in today's fast-paced digital world. It's not just about working long hours; it's the constant pressure of preventing breaches, the stress of always being on alert, and the feeling of being overwhelmed. 

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Security and IT teams face tough challenges while trying to defend against hidden threats in a fast-changing and complicated world. With the rapid rise of SaaS, cloud services, and remote work, the situation leads to mental exhaustion. 

In this blog, we will understand what’s driving burnout in IT and security teams, its effects on your organization, and how automation is a crucial solution that your teams require to increase efficiency. 

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TL;DR 

• IT and security teams face burnout from constant pressure, alert fatigue, and an "always-on" culture, leading to mental and physical exhaustion.
• Burnout not only lowers productivity but also increases turnover, operational errors, and compliance risks, jeopardizing security and the organization’s reputation.
• Automating repetitive tasks like ticketing, incident response, and user provisioning can significantly reduce stress, improve efficiency, and enhance consistency in IT operations.
• Companies like Segment, Devo, and Emerson have successfully implemented automation to reduce burnout, improve team focus, and boost operational efficiency.
• To successfully automate, map out current workflows, identify bottlenecks, and choose the right tools like CloudEagle.ai, Okta, or Zapier to streamline processes and alleviate strain on your teams.

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1. What’s Fueling Burnout in IT and Security Teams

Burnout doesn't happen all at once; it is a gradual process of overburden that eventually leads to extreme fatigue, both mentally and physically. For IT and security professionals, the causes are rooted in both systemic pressures and the nature of their daily work. 

It's not just about the long hours,  it's the nature of the job, the pace, and the pressure to always be alert and ready. Over time, these factors create a cycle that’s incredibly hard to break unless addressed intentionally. 

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A. Alert Fatigue and Cognitive Overload

One of the primary causes of burnout is alert fatigue. Security professionals are routinely overwhelmed by the volume of alerts generated by monitoring systems such as firewalls, SIEM platforms, endpoint detection tools, and SaaS security applications. 

The majority of these alerts are either false positives or low-priority notifications, but they still require manual review and triage.

a. Key challenges include:

• Security teams often receive thousands of alerts per day, yet fewer than 20% demand actual intervention. 
• Reviewing a high number of irrelevant alerts leads to desensitization, making it easier to overlook real threats.
• Cognitive overload reduces the team’s ability to focus, make timely decisions, or prioritize effectively.

SOC teams get about 4,484 alerts every day and spend around 3 hours sorting through them to figure out which ones are real threats and which ones are just background noise. This level of multitasking creates unsustainable working conditions that accelerate exhaustion and reduce productivity.

B. Always-On Culture and Lack of Work-Life Balance

The demand for 24/7 operational readiness in IT and security departments contributes significantly to chronic stress. Many professionals are expected to be available outside of business hours to respond to outages, investigate incidents, or address user issues.

a. Key challenges include:

• Critical incidents can interrupt rest hours, including nights and weekends.
• The fear of operational disruption or security breaches forces professionals to remain vigilant even during off-hours.
• Since not everyone is trained to handle all tasks, a few people end up doing most of the work.

This "always-on" expectation prevents employees from fully disconnecting, which has long-term implications for mental and physical health. Over time, not having enough time to relax can lead to burnout and sometimes even cause people to leave their jobs.

C. Increasing Complexity and SaaS Sprawl

Today's IT environments are really complicated, which adds to burnout. Companies are using more cloud tools, hybrid systems, and a lot of SaaS apps. This makes things harder to manage and creates a lack of clear visibility. 

a. Key challenges include:

• Managing different systems, like on-site servers, public clouds, and hybrid setups, takes a lot of work.
• Each tool has its own configuration requirements, permission structures, and update cycles that must be monitored and maintained. 
• Many organizations still rely on manual processes for tasks such as onboarding, offboarding, license tracking, and compliance enforcement.

The lack of centralized control or automation leads to inefficiencies and increases the likelihood of human error. These recurring manual tasks consume valuable time and prevent teams from focusing on strategic initiatives, leading to frustration and burnout.

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2. The Hidden Costs of Burnout

At first, burnout might look like a personal problem. However, its effects can spread throughout your organization, causing both immediate and long-term issues.

When someone on the team is mentally drained, productivity suffers. Tasks get pushed back, mistakes happen more often, and innovation stalls. In the field of security, this isn’t just a hassle, it can be risky. A single error or missed alert could result in a data breach or service failure.

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Burnout also fuels employee turnover, which is expensive and disruptive. Training a new IT or security professional can take 6–9 months, not to mention the loss of institutional knowledge. And when team members leave, the remaining staff inherit their workload, accelerating the burnout cycle.

On top of operational issues, there are reputational risks. Customers, partners, and regulators expect strong cybersecurity practices. If your team is too burned out to keep up with necessary controls, failing to comply with regulations becomes a real threat, especially in sectors like healthcare and finance.

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3. How Automation Reduces Burnout

Automation plays an essential role in minimizing burnout, not by replacing human roles, but by lightening the operational burden, allowing individuals to focus on more valuable tasks. 

It aids in providing essential efficiency and consistency to overburdened IT and security teams by eliminating repetitive, labor-intensive tasks. 

A. Automating Repetitive, Low-Value Tasks 

A substantial portion of IT and security responsibilities consists of repetitive tasks. Tasks such as resetting passwords, updating systems, analyzing logs, and basic ticket triaging. 

• Automation tools that operate end-to-end will free your teams from these duties and conserve your valuable time. 
• This reduces mental exhaustion by allowing professionals to shift their attention toward resolving issues and managing threats. 
• By minimizing routine work, organizations decrease error rates and improve response consistency.

For example, automation in automated ticketing systems like ServiceNow and Jira Service Management helps route, prioritize, and assign support tickets without manual intervention, thereby reducing the need for continuous monitoring. 

B. Streamlining Incident Response

Handling incidents manually is tedious and exhausting. Analysts often follow multi-step processes for every alert, validating it, correlating it with logs, escalating it, and documenting actions.

• Automation platforms like SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) tools enable the execution of predefined playbooks to address the threat. 
• This reduces the Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and the Mean Time to Respond (MTTR), which are key metrics of importance for Security Operations. 
• This guarantees that every type of threat will be managed uniformly, allowing analysts to have time off without the need to execute each step manually. 

For instance, a phishing email reported by an employee can automatically trigger a workflow that checks email headers, isolates the message, and blocks the sender, without human involvement unless escalation is required.

C. Automated User onboarding and offboarding 

Managing user access manually carries a risk, especially when dealing with various SaaS applications. Mistakes in access control often lead to privilege escalation or unauthorized access. 

• Identity Governance platforms can automate provisioning according to various job roles and departments. 
• This indicates that access can be deactivated instantly without requiring manual monitoring, immediately after an employee changes roles or departs from the company. 
• This reduces the administrative burden on IT teams and helps enforce security compliance automatically.

For example, using tools like Okta or Azure AD, you can auto-assign application access during onboarding and revoke access upon termination, avoiding manual permissions auditing.

D. Enhancing Visibility and Reducing Context Switching

When teams rely on siloed tools, they often spend significant time toggling between dashboards, consolidating reports, and syncing data manually.

• Automation allows for centralized logging, monitoring, and reporting across systems.
• With integrated dashboards, there are no manual correlations between your logs, applications, and endpoints.
• This improves situational awareness and allows faster decision-making, reducing mental strain caused by constant context switching.

For example,  a centralized SIEM tool that ingests logs from all endpoints, cloud services, and user activity can automatically generate insights, saving time spent on report creation.

E. Providing Proactive Security and IT Operations

Instead of spending their entire time proactively reacting to issues, automated systems allow teams to take a proactive approach.

• This enables scheduling compliance checks, deploying patches, and monitoring the health of the system automatically.
• This minimizes the chance of unplanned outages or ad-hoc fire drills, which are significant causes of stress and burnout.
• With that, teams can spend more time on strategic planning and process improvement.

For instance, Patch management tools can schedule and deploy updates during off-peak hours without manual input, ensuring compliance without overloading your staff.

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4. Real-World Case Studies

Now that you’ve understood the concept of burnout and the role of automation in alleviating it, 

Let's explore some practical examples to further illustrate its effectiveness.

A. Case Study 1: Segment's Approach to Reducing On-Call Burnout

Segment, a customer data platform, faced challenges with on-call burnout among its engineering teams due to frequent and repetitive alerts. To address this, they implemented a strategy focusing on partial automation of their incident response processes.​

a. Key Strategies and Outcomes:

• Prioritization of Frequent Alerts: Segment identified and automated responses to the most frequently triggered alerts, maximizing the impact of their automation efforts.​
• Partial Automation: Instead of fully automating complex playbooks, they focused on automating the initial, repetitive steps, allowing for quicker resolution of common issues.​
• Reduced Manual Intervention: By automating early steps in the response process, many incidents were resolved before requiring human intervention, significantly reducing the on-call burden.​

Segment's strategy shows that even partial automation can result in notable enhancements in operational efficiency and employee welfare. By effectively automating repetitive, simple tasks, organizations can ease the burden on their staff, resulting in less burnout and enhanced job satisfaction. 

B. Case Study 2: Devo’s Implementation of SOC Automation to Alleviate Analyst Burnout

Devo, a cloud-native company specializing in logging and security analytics, identified that their Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts were facing burnout as a result of the extensive number of repetitive tasks. To address this, they incorporated automation within their SOC activities. 

a. Key Strategies and Outcomes:

• Automated Identification of Recognized Threats: By building playbooks to automatically detect and respond to known threats, analysts were freed from routine monitoring tasks.
• Emphasize Essential Tasks: Automation enabled analysts to focus on intricate, high-priority incidents that demanded human insight, improving job satisfaction. 
• Enhanced Efficiency: Automating routine tasks resulted in quicker response times and a more effective SOC operation. 

Devo's tactical implementation of automation not only alleviated burnout but also enhanced the overall efficiency of their security operations. By automating standard tasks, they allowed their analysts to concentrate on more significant work, resulting in higher engagement and retention. 

C. Case Study 3: Emerson's Use of Robocorp for Operational Efficiency

Emerson, a worldwide technology and engineering firm, aimed to improve operational efficiency and lessen employee burnout by adopting Robocorp's open-source Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools. 

a. Key Strategies and Outcomes:

• Integration with Current Tools: Robocorp's digital workers were combined with Emerson's existing tools, including Microsoft Power Automate, to enhance processes without needing to change current systems significantly. 
• Cost Savings: The execution resulted in a significant decrease in operational costs, enabling employees to concentrate on more strategic activities. 
• Scalability: The automation tools offered by Robocorp allowed Emerson to expand their operations effectively without extra costs. 

Emerson's case demonstrates the significant effect of automation on both operational effectiveness and worker contentment. Utilizing Robocorp's RPA solutions, they realized considerable cost reductions while also fostering a more stimulating work atmosphere for their staff. 

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5. Steps to Start Automating Your IT and Security Workflows

As you handle more IT systems, users, and security risks, even simple tasks can become stressful. This is where automation comes into play. However, for automation to work well, it requires a structured and organized plan to ensure your teams can adapt smoothly. 

This section will guide you through a detailed process for successfully setting up IT and security automation.

A. Understand Your Current Workflows

Before you start automating anything, it's important to know what you're already doing.

1. Start with a complete inventory: List all manual IT and security tasks performed weekly or daily. Examples include:

• User onboarding/offboarding
• Access provisioning
• Endpoint configuration
• Ticket triaging
• VPN setup and MFA resets

2. Document the process: For each task, break it down into:

• Trigger points (e.g., employee joins the company) 
• Steps involved (e.g., send welcome email, assign licenses)
• Stakeholders involved (e.g., IT admin, HR)
• Tools used (e.g., Okta, Jira, Google Workspace)

3. Use visuals: Tools like Lucidchart or Miro can help map workflows into digestible diagrams. This makes it easier to identify dependencies and bottlenecks.

Mapping gives you visibility into the tasks that are ripe for automation. You can’t fix what you don’t understand.

B. Identify Bottlenecks and Repetitive Tasks

Once your workflows are visible, your next step is to identify what’s slowing your team down.

1. Look for pain points:

• Are tasks often delayed due to approvals?
• Are you manually transferring data between systems?
• Are there tasks being repeated across multiple departments?

2. Analyze historical data: Check ticketing systems (like Zendesk or Jira) to identify which tasks take the longest to resolve or are most frequently reopened due to errors.

3. Engage your team: Ask engineers and admins where they’re spending the most time. Their feedback will reveal not only the pain points but also what they want to automate.

Pinpointing the tasks that require more time than usual ensures that your automation delivers measurable impact from day one.

C. Choose the Right Tools and Platforms

Now that you know what to automate, the next step is selecting the right automation tools. This decision can make or break your automation strategy.

1. Define your needs:

• Does it need to integrate with your identity provider (e.g., Okta, Azure AD)?
• Does it require custom workflows or low-code features?
• Are compliance and audit trails necessary?

2. Popular automation platforms:

• CloudEagle.ai- Excellent for automating SaaS management, procurement, and license tracking.
• Okta Workflows- Great for identity and access automation.
• CrowdStrike Falcon Fusion- Ideal for incident response automation.
• Zapier or Make (Integromat)- Useful for smaller teams automating repetitive admin tasks.

3. Ensure compatibility: Check integration support with your existing stack (e.g., Google Workspace, Slack, ServiceNow).

The right tools should be secure, scalable, and designed to integrate seamlessly with your environment. Don’t go for popular ones; choose based on your workflow needs.

D. Conduct a Controlled Pilot Implementation

Transitioning to full automation immediately can result in complications. Adopting a gradual, pilot-first strategy allows you to assess the situation and gain confidence.

1. Select a high-impact, low-risk process: Look for something repeatable, measurable, and not business-critical. Common examples:

• Automated deprovisioning using CloudEagle.ai
• Setting up automatic alert triaging in CrowdStrike
• Automating user onboarding with Okta + Google Workspace

2. Define success metrics:

• Time saved
• Error reduction
• Fewer support tickets
• Improved SLA adherence

3. Monitor closely: During the pilot, gather feedback and measure performance. This will guide your next steps.

A pilot program assists in confirming your configuration and provides the assurance needed to implement it organization-wide without causing significant disruption.

E. Monitor, Optimize, and Expand

Automation requires ongoing attention and refinement; it is not a one-time setup. You must consistently oversee and enhance your workflows.

1. Review performance monthly or quarterly:

• Are there new bottlenecks?
• Has anything changed in compliance requirements?
• Are employees using the automation as expected?

2. Gather end-user feedback: Use surveys, team retrospectives, or ticket follow-ups to learn what’s working and what’s not.

3. Expand gradually:

• Add more workflows gradually.
• Move into more complex automations like security incident response or SaaS license optimization.
• Don’t forget to document everything for compliance and training purposes.

Continuous improvement ensures that your automation stays efficient as your organization and technology infrastructure develop. It is an ongoing process rather than a one-off initiative.

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6. Final Thoughts 

By now, it is fair to say that burnout in IT and security teams isn’t just a personal problem; it’s an organizational risk. The pressure to manage constant alerts, maintain 24/7 vigilance, and navigate increasingly complex environments is unsustainable without structural change. 

That’s where automation becomes more than just a tool, it helps in strategically streamlining tedious tasks. By eliminating repetitive tasks, reducing alert fatigue, and simplifying complex workflows, automation empowers your teams to work more efficiently and effectively. 

So, how can you automate these processes and help your teams focus on high-priority tasks?

CloudEagle.ai provides a comprehensive solution by automating key aspects of SaaS management. It streamlines onboarding, enforcing least privilege, or auto-renewal management, all within a single platform.

Schedule a demo today and prevent burnout with CloudEagle.ai. 

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7. Frequently Asked Questions 

1. What is burnout in the IT industry?
Burnout in IT refers to physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion due to high stress, long hours, and demanding workloads, leading to reduced productivity and job satisfaction.

2. What is the burnout rate for CISO?
CISO burnout rate is high, often due to intense pressure from overseeing security threats, long hours, and managing high-risk responsibilities, with many leaving roles after 2-3 years.

3. What is automation in security?
Automation in security involves using tools and processes to automatically detect, respond to, and mitigate threats, reducing human intervention, improving efficiency, and enhancing security posture.

4. What is automation in the IT industry?
Automation in IT refers to using software and systems to perform repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and improve efficiency, reducing manual labor, and increasing productivity across IT operations.

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