But Zweig said that telecommuting may be difficult when it comes to processes that require "heavy-duty interaction," especially when a company is starting a new IT project. "The kickoff, the process-definition requirements -- that's far more difficult to do from a telecommuting perspective," he said. From that standpoint, HP's decision to limit telecommuting by its IT staffers didn't surprise Zweig.

Still, he said he sees the ability to offer employees some workplace flexibility as a continuing requirement, especially among younger workers. Northwestern Mutual is currently exploring the idea of instituting a formal telecommuting program within IT, which lacks one now, Zweig said.

Industry analysts said that telecommuting is on the rise and that younger workers in particular expect it to be available as an option.

Indeed, 36% of the 27,108 IT workers who responded to a survey conducted by Computerworld in January gave telecommuting's importance as a job benefit the highest possible ranking on a scale of 1 to 10. That put it fifth on the list of benefits deemed to be "extremely important" by respondents to the survey, which is conducted annually as part of the process of choosing Computerworld's 100 Best Place to Work in IT.

Gil Gordon, a telecommuting consultant in Monmouth Junction, N.J., said he gives Mott the benefit of the doubt and assumes that HP's CIO inherited "a situation where there was some kind of a problem that he was brought in to fix, and he chose to deal with it with an all-hands-on-deck approach." If that isn't the case, said Gordon, then the decision to curb telecommuting "looks terribly shortsighted."