Technical culture only compounds the silence. Engineering and IT organizations are notorious for avoiding conversations about feelings. At the same time, few IT leaders have practiced saying they’re struggling, and many worry that talking about it will be read as weakness.

IT also occupies an unusual position in the enterprise. As one client put it to me recently, IT rarely makes the company money in a direct way. Rather, it serves as what she described as the company’s internal customer service department, absorbing pressure and complaints from every stakeholder while the credit flows to the revenue-generating functions.

Layoffs have added even more weight, which few outsiders ever see. Tech companies cut more than 120,000 jobs in 2025 alone, according to Layoffs.fyi, and the cuts have continued into 2026. My clients consistently report that IT departments have taken some of the hardest hits within their organizations. Many of the IT executives I coach have helped make the call—in partnership with their CEO, board, CFO, CHRO, and executive peers—to cut hundreds or even thousands of jobs. They carry those decisions, coupled with their own survivor’s guilt, and the combination is taking a real toll on their mental health. They share with me that they feel they can’t talk about that toll because they were part of the decision.