Ever wonder how your telecommuting colleagues really live? Turns out, many of them actually do work in their pajamas. They also tend to love their work-life balance – to the point where they’d take a pay cut to maintain the status quo.

We have some fascinating facts from separate surveys by CIO Insight Magazine and Staples (office supplier who sells furniture). CIO Insight survey addresses out of office employees in general while the Staples survey is more focused on those who work from the home (and, of course, concerned with their office furniture, which most employers ignore with their remote workers).  The top item on the wish list for a home office is a more comfortable chair!

We have our own survey results from LinkedIn. Some of our questions are similar to those asked by CIO Insight and Staples, but some are different. We used three LinkedIn Groups involved with EDI/Electronic Commerce/Supply Chain and one “neutral” Group (university alumni).

Important to our discussions is the “Virtual Team”: A Virtual Team is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. They have complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose, have inter-dependent performance goals, and share an approach to work for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

We have contacted managers of remote workers to discuss “Mobile Workers Are on the Rise –
Is Your IT Strategy Up to the Challenge?”

We have interviewed a “home worker” and a “road warrior” (who works from home when not on assignment). This is a “must read” for both remote workers and for their office-bound managers.