Cynthia Morgan Quotations

With all the talk of telecommuting, ... it's not a hugely widespread practice, even among techies. A survey like this one about telecommuting would naturally draw a high percentage of telecommuters. But we found only 48 percent of respondents saying that they actively telecommute.

Seventy-two percent said they'd use their ex-supervisor as a reference in finding a new job,

We qualified 700 tech workers who've been laid off within the last three years, ... and used their responses exclusively.

Respondents in the mountain states -- where self-employed technologists are proportionately rare -- were the most optimistic, regionally.

The best for me is word of mouth, because all who know my work know how good I can be at what I do. It also makes the interview easier, because they've heard about me from someone else and know it's not just me boasting. I still dread looking. It's troublesome to be turned down for any reason, good or bad.

Just about everyone wants to strike out on their own sometime. But they won't do it for the money -- what they're looking for is more control over their professional lives.

We also saw a lot of differences according to pay levels. In general, workers making $100,000 annually wanted government to keep out of the temporary non-U.S. worker situation.

The Northwest also has a high percentage of self-employed tech professionals: They may be speaking from sad experience.

And 39 percent said they'd take a pay cut if they were allowed to telecommute. Even if they had to take that pay cut, ... our telecommuters might come out ahead, since several also told us that telecommuting has reduced their costs for gas, auto maintenance, parking, tolls and even clothing.

Most agree the present environment makes it harder to succeed with self-employment.