Highlights:

  • According to a recent report by 1Password, 43% of employees found a way out or gave up on tasks due to login challenges.
  • Nearly one in five (19%) employees have avoided using employee-provided benefits intended to lower workplace stress because of complicated logins.

Logging in, frequently regarded as one of the most boring but crucial aspects of work, has become all the more tedious for employees. Employees frequently find the process overly difficult, disruptive, and frustrating, ultimately putting important data and information at risk as employees undergo password fatigue.

This is what was summed up by a recent report by 1Password, which revealed that 43% of employees admitted to sharing login information (16%), some assigned tasks to others (11%), some skipped work altogether to avoid the hassle of logging in (13%), some found a workaround to the task without logging in (17%), and some gave up logging into a non-critical app as it was time consuming (19%). These are risky behaviors that can jeopardize the security of companies.

The report surveyed 2,000 North American adults who worked full-time primarily at a computer. It found that complex login procedures can waste time and stifle productivity: More than a quarter of respondents (26%) have simply given up on doing something because of the hassle of logging in, and 38% have delayed, delegated, or skipped setting up security apps due to the burdensome steps required to log in.

Password fatigue is an HR problem too

Complicated logins have also kept nearly one in five (19%) employees from using employee-provided benefits intended to lower workplace stress. Due to login issues, they have missed employer-provided perks and discount marketplaces, skipped open enrollment, and overlooked requesting time off.

In this period, where employees are already complicated due to burnout and “quiet quitting,” more than a third of workers (37%) say that the onboarding process at their current job was time-consuming and challenging because of logging into new work-related accounts.

The survey also revealed that many employees are unaware of what a secure login procedure entails. While 89% of workers believe they generally abide by their employer’s policies, there is a lot of misunderstanding regarding what being secure actually entails in 2022, given the influx of new threats.

Overall, despite employers’ best efforts to safeguard their businesses, password fatigue is draining workers’ energy at a difficult time marked by widespread burnout and uncertainty.

In the words of Karen Renaud, Ph.D., Chancellor’s Fellow, professor, and human-centric security expert at the University of Strathclyde, the research confirms that “security has become such an onerous and arduous task that people don’t even want to log in.”

Making the login process second nature and more human-centric will help companies become less susceptible to security breaches while improving employees’ mental health.