84% of IT Professionals Must Work During Thanksgiving

November 22, 2006; 05:51 AM

84% of professional IT workers will have to work for some or all of Thanksgiving this year, new research reveals. The poll of 500 business workers, by IT hosting provider Intermedia.NET, shows that 28% of IT professionals will get no time off at all, or will have to work overtime to catch up after the break.

As well as being more hard-working, the survey found IT workers to be more honest than their non-IT office worker counterparts:
•   Only 6% of IT professionals will "pretend to work to avoid relatives" -- where 14% of office workers are planning to do the same.
•   Only 7% of IT pros will use work as an excuse in some way, such as to avoid helping out in the kitchen.
•   Only 9% of IT professionals will deliberately ignore all work calls and emails, compared to 19% of office workers.

The bleak situation for IT workers points to their growing importance within American businesses. According to the survey, IT professionals are 17% more likely than senior executives to receive urgent calls for help from the office this Thanksgiving.

"With IT becoming so critical, it is perhaps no surprise that so many IT professionals plan to work over the holiday," said Rurik Bradbury, VP marketing for Intermedia.NET.

"Outsourced IT -- such as our hosted Microsoft Exchange service -- can be helpful in freeing IT staff from routine maintenance and risk-prone in-house servers. We highly encourage overworked IT personnel to browse www.intermedia.net this Thanksgiving as they strive to keep their companies running."

Intermedia.NET offers hosted Microsoft Exchange to small and medium businesses, with affordable plans starting at $9.95 per month for each user. This press release is also available on the Intermedia.NET Web site.

About Intermedia.NET
Intermedia.NET (www.intermedia.net) is the worldwide leader in Exchange hosting and Web hosting for small and medium businesses. A Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, we are committed to best-in-class 24x7 service. With three locations around the world, Intermedia.NET offers its growing customer base an outstanding technical team, guaranteed service levels, and ease of management through its unmatched HostPilot® Control Panel. Founded in 1995 and hosting Microsoft Exchange since 2000, its extremely reliable service and support have earned Intermedia.NET a reputation as one of the premiere providers of Exchange and Web hosting solutions.