The Leadership Burnout No One Talks About: IT Executives Who Are Afraid to Ask for Help
TechTarget, Tuesday, August 19th, 2025
Foundry research finds 15% of IT executives burned out and 33% partly so, most hiding it from peers.
Foundry's 2025 research found 15% of IT executives describe themselves as burned out and another 33% report some burnout, yet most conceal it from colleagues and boards.
Executive coach Kyle Elliott attributes the silence to IT culture specifically: entrenched long-hours expectations, an engineering habit of avoiding emotional conversations, and the added weight of recent layoffs and AI transformation pressure.
The consequences are concrete, including extended medical leave, eroded performance, and strained family relationships. Elliott's advice is to use peer communities and therapy, and to reframe asking for support as a skill upgrade rather than an admission of weakness.