In addition to the responses to our multiple-choice questions, we received detailed answers to several open-ended questions. You and your peers spilled your guts on the topics of IT respect, executive-level technology understanding, and projects you're working on for your organization without spending a dime. True to form, your answers were both informative and, shall I say, blunt. Here are just some of the gems.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

On the subject of the whether your IT organization is respected within your company, we got some descriptive feedback. One response from a "relaxed" workplace was, "I'll say 'yes' because the general manager respects us, but the rest of the organization is asleep." Shhhhh.

Most felt like royalty and are treated as such: "IT is king. Users respect our ability to help them solve their business problems."

"I am a department of one. People actually bow at times. It is done in humor but it is a sign of respect nonetheless."

Others demand it: "We are worshiped--or I take away their computers."

One person seemed to have an inferiority complex: "Upper management thinks of us as overpaid staff."

And we found some work environments are downright dangerous: "We're often forgotten until there is a problem. Then users descend like a pack of wolves to complain."

Techies at the Top

When we asked about the importance of your company's upper management having technical expertise, the answers were revealing. Most think it is a requirement: "Without a technology understanding, it is hard to bridge the gap between business and the technology, but it must be done to enhance and grow [your organization]."

Tech-smart upper management "would be more respected among engineers and technology types, and they would be less susceptible to bulls#$t."

Others provided a quick analysis of those who try to get by by just reading the headlines: Technical expertise is "important for the understanding that technology is complex. Reading Red Herring is not enough."

Extracurricular Work

When we asked which projects you were working on, just about every technology area was represented. The most interesting responses were to the question about unfunded projects. These are what I call the "cost of doing business" projects that always seem to fall off the budget. But despite not having a penny to spend, things still magically get done. Projects like "PKI deployment" and "DNS redesign" But my personal favorite responses to that question were: "job hunting" and the charitable "I don't work on unfunded projects (except this)."

Yup, these are our readers, and we're damn lucky to have them.