No Respect for IT?

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TechRepublic has a new 'Dear Abby'-esque feature where IT professionals write in with tough questions. The first letter lamented the fact that as a CIO, the reader gets no respect. It is signed 'R. Dangerfield.' Patrick Gray, aka Dear Abby, suggests that the following 3 factors are at work:

1. IT is perceived as having little value.
2. IT is not demonstrating 'the right kind of' success.
3. IT doesn't 'talk the talk.'

In another piece, Gray raises the issue that IT is often perceived as a cost center instead of a profit center. A press release announcing the results of a study of IT professionals speaks volumes about how people perceive them: IT Employees Are Grumpy the World Over. In fact, we have our own Grumpy IT Guy at Journyx who wears the moniker with pride and even contributes his musings to our blog.

So who is right? Do IT people get no respect because people find them grumpy, or are they grumpy because they get no respect?

Curt works for Journyx, which has solutions for project management and execution.

Curt Finch has more than two decades of software development and distributed workforce management experience. In 1997, Curt created the world's first internet-based timesheet application and the foundation for the current Journyx product offering. Curt has a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech. His book, All Your Money, is available on Amazon. @curtfinch