The sleepless sentinel: factors that predict burnout and sleep quality in cybersecurity professionals

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which a sample of the Australian cybersecurity industry is impacted by burnout.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the review of the literature, this research investigates the following three hypotheses. Gender will significantly predict burnout scores. Those who identify as women will score higher on average than those who identify as men (because of being in a male-dominated industry). Self-reported burnout will differ across job roles. In addition, the authors expect these relationships to hold across the three dimensions of burnout, namely, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and professional efficacy. Sleep quality will be associated with burnout.

Findings

Gender and job role were significant predictors of emotional exhaustion, but not depersonalisation or professional efficacy. The interaction between gender and job role was also significant. Senior managers experienced poorer quality sleep, and poorer sleep quality was associated with greater reported emotional exhaustion at work. For emotional exhaustion, female respondents who worked in security consultant roles tended to score higher than their male counterparts.

Practical implications

Left unaddressed, the high level of workplace burnout may add to the well-being and retention problems developing within the cybersecurity community. These results indicate that organisations should look to measure the well-being of their own cyber workforce and implement meaningful changes if they wish to keep their cyber talent and enable them to thrive at work.

Originality/value

This research paper is an extension of a previous paper by the same authors which is titled “Is Your CISO Burnt Out Yet”. This paper examined the demographic differences in workplace burnout among cybersecurity professionals.

Citation

Reeves, A., Pattinson, M. and Butavicius, M. (2024), "The sleepless sentinel: factors that predict burnout and sleep quality in cybersecurity professionals", Information and Computer Security, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICS-11-2023-0222