For a lot of IT people -- everyone from software developers to tech writers to network support folks -- telecommuting is the best personal option. They get a flexible schedule, they aren't bothered by noisy cube-mates, they can code during whichever hours work for them (with the help of IM and email), and so on. Many of us are lucky enough to live this lifestyle; I include myself in this set, as I've been a full time telecommuter for several years.
So I proposed to my boss that I write another in my "5 Things the CIO Should Know..." series (along with "5 Things the CIO Should Know about Fighting Spam" [http://www.cio.com/article/101475] and "...about Software Requirements" [http://www.cio.com/article/29903]), this time about telecommuting. He was enthusiastic about the idea, and I'm anxious to get started. My question has two parts: * If you telecommute, full- or part-time, what *one* thing do you wish the CIO or IT Management would understand that they don't currently "get"? * If you don't telecommute, the question is the same -- what do you wish the CIO would understand about telecommuting -- but I expect the answers will be different (such as "they should let me do it"). Or perhaps you want to tell management something about the difficulty of dealing with telecommuters ("I really hate that THEY always seem to do email during teleconferences but nobody would let us get away with that in person.") Note, though, that most of my attention will be given to the people who DO telecommute because my context is "if you're going to do this, we'll tell you how to do it right." There is, of course, a manager's view to the same question. (I can imagine a manager saying, "Telecommuting doesn't mean you can stay home and play with your baby. You still need to get your work done.") But mostly I'm trying to represent the concerns of the telecommuter herself. I realize that you may have more than one "...and THEN I'd say...!" item. But I ask people to keep it to one answer to help me clarify priorities. As you can probably tell, I will collect opinions from a wide variety of people who work in IT, over the next week or so. I'll collate the results and then turn them into a <modest cough> brilliant essay which will be published on CIO.com. I promise to post the URL when the article is posted, too. I'm happiest when I can quote someone specifically ("Esther Schindler is a programmer at the Groovy Corporation") but it's okay to have an indirect reference too ("Esther is a programmer at a financial services firm in the midwest"). I can even accept anonymity if necessary ("a programmer named Esther said..."). You can write to me privately if you like, but I suspect the question is of interest to the larger community, so feel free to respond to the thread here. (It does help if you cc me so that I see your message sooner.) Esther Schindler senior online editor, CIO.com http://advice.cio.com/taxonomy/term/34 -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
