What is "telecommuting"

by 1975, as a hypothetical workplace set-up; verbal noun from telecommute. Said to have been coined by Jack Niles of USC.

n. telework, teleworking vb. (present participle of telecommute English)

n. employment at home while communicating with the workplace by phone or fax or modem [syn: teleworking]

Telecommuting, remote work, telework, or teleworking is a work arrangement in which employees do not commute to a central place of work. A person who telecommutes is known as a "telecommuter," "teleworker," and sometimes as a "home-sourced," or "work-at-home" employee. Many telecommuters work from home, while others, sometimes called "nomad workers," use mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or other locations. According to a Reuters poll, approximately "one in five workers around the globe, particularly employees in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, telecommute frequently and nearly 10 percent work from home every day." Today, as annual leave or vacation is seen as absence from the workplace rather than ceasing work, telecommuting is used by office employees to work while on vacation.

The terms "telecommuting" and "telework" were coined by Jack Nilles in 1973.