Just about every midsize or large company has an IT department, but it’s often seen as broken or unhelpful. Sometimes, this lack of support (or perception thereof) forces employees to quit or seek their own unapproved solutions. Workflow and content automation firm Nintex recently queried 1,000 full-time employees across various industries and departments to get a robust sampling of where companies go wrong when it comes to administrative and back-office practices. While the study spans several disciplines (including HR, sales, and administration), IT was most interesting to us. Overall, 62 percent of those who responded to Nintex's survey say they've "observed" broken processes within the IT departments at their company. The biggest complaint is “troubleshooting,” an area where 59 percent of employees feel their tech department can do better. Some 43 percent say “equipment onboarding for new hires” needs work, with 42 percent suggesting the flow for getting new equipment is just terrible. Around 36 percent of employees say the department just doesn’t seem to know how internal apps or services work, and 23 percent report resetting their password is more trouble than it’s worth (which may be why passwords are still terrible). Employees leaving the company also had something to say; 19 percent thought “deprovisioning” someone who has left (or is about to leave) is a process that needs help. IT is so bad that 76 percent of respondents say they simply Google their questions rather than bother tech pros for an answer; 64 percent ask someone else in the office, and 19 percent say they query someone outside the company if they can help. In-office support teams are considered “prompt” by only 24 percent of respondents. Remote IT departments are seen as responsive by seven percent of those queried, which might be a side-effect of outsourcing to outside vendors handling multiple accounts (or an undersized internal team). That clashes with how IT teams view themselves: 43 percent of staffers in the tech department say they are able to handle requests in an "extremely prompt" manner. Factoring in age, Millennials are the boldest employees: some 46 percent say that, in the face of their information technology team being slow to respond to their issues, they will use “unsanctioned” apps or services to solve their problems. Around 23 percent of Baby Boomers do the same. If you’re in IT and thinking “how dare they!”, slow your roll: some 60 percent of IT employees admit to breaking their own rules in order to troubleshoot or solve problems. Overall, 58 percent of employees felt their company’s IT processes, rules and overall performance are “broken.” That number skyrockets to 72 percent amongst employees looking to leave their jobs. Information technology woes were found to be the largest contributing factor in employees looking for new jobs; 58 percent report broken IT practices played a “significant role” in their decision to seek new employment.