Telecommuting Is Old School, Nomadism Is New School

The modern workplace is shifting towards a more ad hoc approach vs. a scheduled interaction according this The Economist’s excellent article Labour movement.  This article defines nomadism in the current work world: Today’s work nomadism descends from, but otherwise bears little resemblance to, the older model of “telecommuting”, says Mr Ware. That earlier concept became popular in the 1990s thanks to cheap but stationary telecommunications technologies—the landline phone, the fax and dial-up internet. Because it still tied workers to a place—the home office—telecommuting implicitly had people “cocooning at home five days a week”, he says. But people do not want that: instead, they want to mingle with others and to… Read More

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The End Of Telecommuting?

Perhaps the telecommuting trend will end before it truly gets established?  I doubt it, but this Wall Street Journal article discusses some bellwether technology companies that are calling back a portion of their telecommuters. A few big promoters of home-based and mobile-office work arrangements, including AT&T, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and parts of the federal government, have called some home-based workers back to the office, causing some to quit. The callbacks are small and don’t reflect a full retrenchment, but the factors at work — a push to consolidate operations, and the notion that teamwork improves when people work face-to-face — suggest other employers might follow suit as recession clouds loom. I… Read More

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Fast Facts About Telecommuting

Seems like our small-sized companies are catching on to the telecommuting option this year which is a bit of a change.  I think a good post would be one that lays out a salesperson’s tools of the trade for today. Included in that list would be a web-based CRM and a VPN connection for telecommuting.  No?  Check these stats out from a recent Wall Street Journal article (h/t to Lee): Seventy percent of Cisco Systems employees regularly work from home at least 20% of the time. So do 34% of workers at Booz Allen Hamilton and 32% at S.C. Johnson & Sons. Those stats, from a recent Fortune companies survey… Read More

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