Infosec Engineers Are Suffering to Keep Us Safe
A growing industry concern over mental burnout is leading engineers to seek out healthier work environments
Back in 2002, Chris Hood had just started what he thought was an extremely cool new engineering job, calibrating software designs to improve car security. But he soon realized the culture at the company, based in southeast Australia, promoted profit above everything else — including quality control and the mental health of its workers. It lacked proper human resources and took shortcuts in process modeling. His concerns started to weigh on him, but one colleague took the stress even worse.
“He’d been drinking late one time when we were supposed to start work at 4 a.m. He thought I told our boss he couldn’t drive because he was drunk (which wasn’t true), so he pushed me against a wall and threatened me,” Hood tells OneZero. “But the boss said ‘let’s ignore it, get through this, and deal with it when we get back.’”
Chris was appalled. His unstable co-worker could have killed someone, if not through sloppy engineering then through his own drunk driving. He felt that his manager’s decision revealed a deeper problem with the company’s values, and shortly after he left for the relative stability of the airline industry.
