IT CASE STUDIES
Paul the demotivated programmer
Paul is 38 and he has been working on the same project for five years. He gets on well with his team and likes his manager. He really likes the work he does and doesn’t want to change projects. He’s learning lots too - each week they have a book club and they talk about the latest programming book they’ve been reading.
Recently though he’s been feeling a bit down. He still enjoys the challenges of programming, he still loves learning and he definitely feels he’s getting better at his job, however sometimes he just doesn’t feel happy at the end of the day like he used to. He doesn’t know why, but there are days when he feels he’s just ticking things off a list, and often he feels he doesn’t know why he’s doing them.
Ahmed the overlooked analyst
Ahmed is 29 and works as a data analyst in a growing IT consultancy. He’s skilled and often the person who finds the insights that shape the team’s projects. His manager recognises his work, but most of the time his contributions aren’t visible to the wider company.
He spends hours cleaning data, finding trends, and creating reports, but when project updates are presented to clients, someone else delivers them. His colleagues are friendly, but they work remotely most of the time, and he sometimes feels like he’s “just a name in a spreadsheet.”
Ahmed is proud of the difference his work makes, but lately he’s started feeling invisible. He wonders if anyone would even notice if he wasn’t around.
Carlos the cautious contractor
Carlos is 32 and works as a contractor in IT. He’s been hired to join a well-established engineering team at a big company. On paper, the job is perfect: the pay is good, the technology is interesting, and the team seems friendly.
But Carlos rarely speaks up in meetings. He has lots of ideas and has spotted a couple of technical risks, but he doesn’t feel comfortable sharing them. Everyone else on the team seems to know each other well, and as a contractor he feels like an outsider. He worries that if he suggests something and it’s wrong, he’ll damage his reputation or even risk not having his contract renewed. So instead, he keeps quiet. Over time, this is leaving him frustrated and disengaged
Laura the tired tester
Laura is 29 and works as a software tester for a fast-growing start-up. She’s proud of her role – she knows her work directly helps improve quality for customers. Her manager values her, and her colleagues often thank her for spotting bugs before release.
The problem is the workload. The company is moving fast, with constant new releases, and testing is always the last step. That means she often gets tight deadlines, sometimes staying up late at night or logging back on at weekends to finish checks. She doesn’t resent the work, but it’s exhausting. She’s noticed she has less energy to see friends or exercise, and even though she likes her job, she’s starting to feel worn out.