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My wife and I visited China from April 12 to the 24th. Our primary reason for the trip was to visit my son and his family in Shanghai. My son, Geoff and his wife, Bria, are the proud parents of their three month old daughter, Ava Patricia.

In February, IBM announced that it is reversing its 10 year old policy that allowed telecommuting. All marketing employees must now report to six IBM offices or be terminated. The offices include New York, San Francisco, Austin, Cambridge, Atlanta, and Raleigh. Other employee groups will be affected over the next six months. Employees have 30 days to make their decision. The policy will also be implemented throughout Europe.

Realcomm, the technology focused real estate web site, recently published an article entitled “The Data is Coming In: Corporate America is Using Less Than 50% of Its Real Estate.” This is no surprise; I remember from my own experience that our offices were nearly 30%-50% vacant at any one time.

In March of this year, Sodexo released a study of the corporate real estate profession, focusing on its image and value as a viable career path. Having practiced in the profession for over twenty-five  years, I experienced first  hand the challenges and rewards of corporate real estate as a junior manager, a senior executive and as a broker and consultant . For many years, corporate real estate didn’t enjoy the cache or prestige of other corporate functions such as marketing, finance, and even Information Technology. But this is changing with the advent of new leasing standards and workplace strategies.  So it was with this personal back ground I took a special interest in the Sodexo survey and report.