Mike Shaw wrote:
Hear! Hear! I love how the IT business in general loves to promote itself as family friendly but anyone with a family who has been in IT knows it is all just K-rap.
Not necessarily. I'm currently contracting at IBM and the work-life balance here is very real. If I need to take some time off to take my kid to the doctor for some shots, no problem. I took off 2 weeks for paternity leave when baby #3 was born. No problem. Telecommuting is encouraged. Unless something goes drastically wrong or I have change management planned, I usually work ~40 hour weeks.
I think a lot of this is because of the flexibility given to first line managers here... I think that I just lucked out and got a great boss. I know other people are going to have completely different impressions as I've seen some taskmaster bosses who will schedule meetings to START at or after 5pm, at or before 8am, etc, on a regular basis without thinking anything of it.
We do things together as a team outside of the office from time to time but it is often during business hours. We went as a department to see Superman Returns at IMAX. Two weeks ago, it was bowling on friday. These team building activities don't infringe on our precious after-hours time.
I'd probably renew my contracts here indefinitely if it weren't for my contracting agency, who gets in the way of an otherwise good thing.
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