Distance Work

Over the last decade and a half, distance work has been known by a variety of terms – telecommuting, telework, teleconferencing, virtual work, alternative officing, hoteling, remote work, flex work, mobile work, distributed work, just to name a few. Of course, the best known term is telecommuting. But that is swiftly falling by the wayside. To date, no one other term has taken its place, mostly because each term in common usage describes a portion or version of distance work and thus is not all encompassing.

Telecommuting’s demise is not because people are telecommuting less. In fact, quite the opposite, it is on the increase. No less noted a source than Time Magazine in its May 25, 2009 issue has a cover story on “the Future of Work” and in it sites a Gartner Dataquest data point that: “28% of the workforce is estimated to telecommute full or part-time, up from 12% in 2000.” This same part of the articles touts the demise of the cubicle, which I am extremely happy about. Though only a brief summary, they do a good job by pointing out both the pros and cons of this evolution. I urge you to read the entire article. I think there predictions will surprise you.The problem with the term “telecommute” is that it is limiting.  more …

For the full version, click the link to our audio blog ‘distance work’ http://www.newworkplaces.com/podcast_blog.html