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"Telework", "Telecommuting", "Distributed Work", "Remote Work"; all these terms refer to working
from a location other than the central office at least part of the time. Few teleworkers
work remotely all of the time.
There is nothing new about the idea of working remotely. For years, companies have had employees
who worked from home at least some of the time. It was once very common for small-scale piece-work
to be done from the home ... hand work with hand tools. When machinery replaced hand tools, workers
had to work from central locations. But today we can work at home again, only today's hand tools
are laptops and PDA's, and it is now people who work with their minds instead of their hands who
are most likely to work remotely.
Telework may be "regular" or "occasional". Regular teleworkers work from an alternate
location (usually the home office) on a regular schedule; most often 1, 2, or 3 days a week.
There are some employees who telework full-time, only visiting the office for occasional meetings or
other events. Occasional teleworkers don't have a regular schedule for teleworking, but
work from home, a client's office, or other remote location as needed.
Other concepts that are frequently linked to telework are "Flextime", "Hot Desking", and "Hoteling"
(See related concepts).
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