They spend their days elbow deep in the latest and greatest that technology has to offer, including, of course, every personal electronic gadget that can possibly be justified in a corporate IT budget (and a few that can’t be).
Yet if your mom, dad, spouse or significant other happens to carry the title of chief information officer at work, there’s a two out of three chance you’ll have to depend on Santa Claus for that new iPod or Playstation3 this holiday season.
According to a survey of 1,400 CIOs commissioned by Robert Half Technology, 64% of the CIOs answered in the negative when asked, “Do you plan to give technology-based products, such as computers, electronics or technology gadgets, as gifts for the holidays?”
So what gives with this tech-exec tech-free giving?
“IT managers may be experts on all things technology-related, but it doesn’t mean their personal or professional gift giving has to be limited to electronics and technology gadgets,” offers an excessively politic Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director of Robert Half, in a press release.
So what might the real reasons be? Let’s venture a guess or three.
Simple resistance to being typecast?
Could it be that many CIOs shy away from giving tech gifts because they get their fill of tech problems at the office and don’t relish the idea of filling their off hours the same way?
Is it a matter of expertise in action? They know most of this stuff is marketing hype in a box?
Does the survey reveal a crisis of confidence? Let’s face reality; more than a few CIOs have let their techie chops wither and they may not want to have Junior find out that dad can’t configure a home network, after all.
Or how about the most simple answer: Most CIOs are men and most men leave the holiday shopping to the women in their lives; they aren’t buying tech gifts because they aren’t buying gifts.
What say ye, tech execs?
