Cybersecurity professionals and IT leaders are facing mounting pressure from rising digital demands and an always-on work culture. Security incidents require immediate, coordinated responses from multiple parties, often with little time for recovery before the next crisis.
Teams must also document and manage the aftermath, with little opportunity to reset. Sustained stress leads to hypervigilance, sleep disruption, and burnout, especially for security operations center (SOC) analysts, incident responders, and on-call engineers, often forcing time off for recovery in an already overstretched sector.
Organizations need to focus on creating healthier work environments, not just protecting systems. Effective policies, shift design, post-incident care, and culture change help reduce stigma and support team well-being.
Cybersecurity is an always-on work environment that expects perfection
Martin Astley, a public speaker on cybersecurity strategy and CISO and CEO at managed IT security provider Astley Digital Group Limited, makes the case for more tailored support for teams experiencing burnout, given that stressors in cybersecurity are distinct from those in many other industries.
“There’s a constant expectation of perfection. In most roles, you can make small mistakes and recover. In cybersecurity, one missed alert or misconfiguration can lead to a major incident, creating constant background pressure,” said Astley. “If we want resilient security programs, we need resilient teams.”
The threat landscape creates an always-on expectation. Attackers are often most active outside standard hours, increasing pressure on security teams to remain vigilant around the clock. Security roles carry significant responsibility for company assets, often without full control.
“Security leaders are accountable for risk, but they often don’t control budgets, development decisions, or legacy systems,” said Astley. “Fixing risks depends on broader business decisions, which can be frustrating. There’s also incident fatigue: Teams work long hours under pressure, knowing the organization, its reputation, and jobs are on the line.”
Over time, these factors can cause exhaustion and burnout if organizations do not actively support their teams.
Of the 3,800 cybersecurity professionals surveyed in a 2025 State of Cybersecurity ISACA report:
- 66% say their job is more stressful than five years ago
- 58% say their cyber teams are understaffed
- 47% say high stress levels are the top reason for employee attrition
- 65% say they have unfilled cybersecurity positions
The skills gap among cybersecurity professionals
The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Cybersecurity Outlook found that only 14% of organizations have enough talent to meet cybersecurity goals, with the gap widening by 8% annually.
“With skilled employees in such high demand, it is in companies’ best interests and simply the right thing to do to make sure the tech workforce feels supported, motivated, and invested in,” said Chris Dimitriadis, Chief Global Strategy Officer at ISACA.
“Younger IT professionals are switching jobs at a much higher rate, highlighting the need for better retention strategies, including clear career growth pathways and a focus on work-life balance. At the same time, experienced professionals must have access to the support they need to stay engaged and continue contributing their expertise. A balanced, well-supported workforce is key to sustaining the industry’s growth and innovation.”
How organizations can better support their security teams
So long as the cyber skills gap continues to affect employee well-being, mentorship, effective talent development, and suitable career growth opportunities are essential to sustain progress.
Sarah Orton, U.K. and Europe lead for ISACA’s SheLeadsTech initiative, said: “There are practical steps businesses can take. By creating mentorship programs, investing in training and certifications, and establishing more accessible entry-level programs, they will relieve common pain points and improve areas of employee fulfillment and satisfaction.
With this kind of support, businesses can build a more motivated, productive, inclusive, and equitable workforce, in turn building cyber resilience.”
Organizations can bolster support through protected recovery time after incidents, mandatory offramps, blameless postmortems, incident-rotation policies, and proactive mental health support.
Other measures include using metrics that connect operational efficiency, such as mean time to repair (MTTR) and alert noise, to workforce well-being. High MTTR, poor alert-noise ratios, or high employee assistance program (EAP) use can signal burnout risk early.
Can AI help with burnout?
The 2026 U.K. Mental Health Burnout report found that one in five U.K. workers needed time off last year due to stress.
Employers who successfully supported staff returning from burnout cited planning and open communication as critical, along with phased returns, flexible working, and regular well-being check-ins focused on support rather than performance.
“My focus on mental health came from seeing the human side of cybersecurity that often gets ignored,” said Astley. “Cybersecurity is usually discussed in terms of technology and threats, but behind every operations center and risk decision, people carry huge responsibility. I’ve seen talented professionals struggle with pressure and exhaustion. In some environments, asking for help can feel like weakness, pushing people to suffer in silence.”
As the U.K. ranks among the top countries for burnout, many are turning to AI tools to address overwork and skills gaps. A GoTo study found four in five workers believe it would be easy to offload simpler tasks to AI.
This comes with its own problems.
The same study revealed that 50% of employees think they rely too much on AI and 39% believe it is making them less intelligent.
From a security standpoint, AI tools introduce hidden risks that many companies are still grappling with. To be efficient enough to help employees, AI tools need greater access and higher permission levels that can leave the company exposed to threat actors who compromise these tools or an employee’s account.
The human side of cybersecurity
Cybersecurity professionals face constant pressure to protect assets. Even advanced tools cannot compensate if people are exhausted or fearful. When that happens, security weakens.
“Leadership modeling is important because culture starts at the top. If leaders openly talk about workload, boundaries, and mental health, it gives everyone else permission to do the same,” said Astley.
“Recognizing human limits is also critical. Security teams cannot operate in permanent crisis mode. Sustainable security comes from good processes, proper resourcing, and realistic expectations, not from heroic burnout.”
Cybersecurity requires both technical skills and human resilience, yet workforce well-being receives far less investment than protection.
Building sustainable security teams is a strategic priority. Organizations that invest in recovery time, mental health support, and realistic workloads are better positioned to retain talent, respond effectively, and maintain the kind of consistent vigilance that cybersecurity demands.
How Zero Trust security controls can help cybersecurity burnout
Zero Trust operates on a prevention-first approach to reduce operational strain and alert fatigue on security teams.
This begins with an emphasis on whitelisting (allowlisting) instead of blocklisting. Application Allowlisting enforces strict policies that block any unknown software or script from executing, including ransomware. This helps cut alert noise, lowers triage works, and reduces the scope of incidents before they escalate.
Application containment is also critical to limiting damage and preventing malicious activity from spreading across an environment. This gives security teams time to respond in a calm manner.
Zero Trust is all about returning fewer false positives, shrinking the blast radius, and giving security teams greater visibility and control, meaning they spend less time fighting and have less stress in their day-to-day work.
To see how the ThreatLocker Zero Trust Platform can prevent burnout for your IT team, schedule a demo today.
Read Cyber Hero Frontline, a magazine by ThreatLocker, for more insights into Zero Trust and cybersecurity.
