Telecommuting, working at home (WAH), or working from home (WFH) is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy limited flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Telework is a broader term, referring to substituting telecommunications for any form of work-related travel and eliminating the distance restrictions of telecommuting. The terms telecommuting and telework were coined by American Jack Nilles in 1973.
Long distance telework is helped by such tools as private virtual networks, videoconferencing, and VOIP technology. It can be efficient and useful for companies as it allows staff and workers to communicate over a large distance, saving significant amounts of travel time and cost. As broadband Internet connections become more commonplace, more and more workers use these tools to link their home office to their corporate intranet and internal phone networks. Today, telecommuters can carry around laptop PCs which they can use both at the office and at home (and almost anywhere else). Telecommuters are linked to their home office by using groupware, virtual private networks, and similar technologies to collaborate and interact with team members. As the price of VPN-capable routers, high-speed Internet connections to the home, and VOIP technology has decreased in recent years, the cost to connect a telecommuter to their employer’s intranet and telecommunications system has become negligible when compared with the operating costs of conventional offices.
