The Prominent Questions Raised by the Novel Concept of Telecommuting - Term Paper Example

Though there is no denying the fact that a large section of the workforce in the West uses digital gadgets like computers, cell phones, fax machines, etc., it is a pity that a majority of the people subscribe to the old world idea of work that involved leaving ones home to go and work at definite and fixed office premises. A typical employee’s work life used to be predominantly confined to one’s office premises and ‘work’ and ‘home’ were considered to be two utterly incompatible words.

However, a marked shift in the business environment in the last three decades from being labor-oriented to being knowledge-based has opened the doors for telecommuting. A knowledge-based economy is the very source of the concept of telecommuting. Telecommuting or telework basically involves the process of working from a remote location other than one's office premises, by using various telecommunication technologies like computers, telephones, fax machines and the internet (Wise Geek, 2008). The term telecommuting or telework was first of all coined by Jack Nilles in the early 1970s, while he was working in the University of Southern California, on the projects that specifically focused on eliminating the need for driving to office by simply enabling the employees to work at home, using telecommunications links.

Considering the fact that more than 40 percent of the workers in the USA are knowledge workers or information workers, the scope for telecommuting in the future economies appears to be mindboggling (Mears, 2007, p.1). Many aspiring telecommuters get carried away by the popular notion of working from home. People consider the homebound aspect of this job to be immensely attractive and often end up believing that most of the telecommuting jobs are simply a piece of cake. However, in a realistic scenario, things are not as puerile as they seem to be.

Telecommuting, as any other regular career demands specific personality traits and an innate aptitude on the part of an employee (Gilbert, 2008, p.2). To be a successful and productive teleworker demands an immaculate sense of self-discipline and vigilance on the part of an employee.