Abstract
A day at the office no longer means long commutes, dressing in a suit and tie or a dress, and performing work according to a 9 to 5 schedule with the boss looking over your shoulder. With the Industrial Revolution came change in how and where people work. The changes were seen subtly at first; people slowly moved to the cities to find work in factories, but then the changes started becoming more noticeable. People flocked to the cities because that is where a person could find work. The days of the small farmer who grew food for his own family were gone. Big corporations moved in and people were hired in by the hundreds, usually to perform meaningless, dreary, work. Modern society is seeing a new kind of Industrial Revolution where people are no longer stuck in semi-enclosed cubicles or monotonous, robotic-like work. Society is experiencing a different work era where people do not have to drive miles from home on stress- filled highways, only to arrive at work to put in 8 or 9 hour days performing unfulfilling tasks. A job today can mean waking up to fresh coffee, logging onto the computer, stopping in the middle of something to help their child with lunch, and returning to work right in their own homes. A job today can mean flexibility, freedom, creativity, and increased production.

Introduction
Working from home is not a new concept. People used to conduct their work from home because their property and home was their work. Farmers farmed their land, and the women helped with the housework and tending of the animals. This changed with the Industrial Revolution when work became systematic and concentrated in large cities. According to Joseph Montagna (2008), “the era known as the Industrial Revolution was a period in which fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and the social structure.” The invention of the car, the rise of manufacturing, the introduction of assembly, and the promotion of mass labor led many to flee to the cities for work in factories. Mostly it was the men who went to work in these factories, but that, too, changed with the wars. Women would work in the factories in the men’s absence while the men were fighting in the war. “Until the Second World War, a woman would have been a rare sight in an automobile plant. Women constituted only seven percent of the 1939 membership of the United AutoWorkers. In 1942, however, the War Manpower Commission initiated a campaign to attract women to the work force” (www.library.hbs.edu, 2002). The Industrial Revolution led to mass production in concentrated areas, but it also led to many people returning to home to conduct work. Women who returned to their homes still needed income and with the invention of the telephone women started conducting surveys and selling items from home.
This literature review attempts to explain the trends of working from home, or more appropriately, moving from the employer’s office to the home office. The objectives are: Are the future trends for companies to provide a means for employees to conduct the company’s work from the employee’s home, and will employees working from home produce at the same expected level of competency as they would when working at the office. The review will be concentrated on how people no longer wish to make the long commutes that seem to have become such a burden both in time and financially, and how employers and employees are making the transition from work office to home office work appropriately for both. The review will also focus on the advantages and disadvantages of having a home office for both the company and the employee. Finally, the paper will summarize the trends of virtual work environments and what is being predicted for the future for companies and employees. Not all aspects can be covered in a review such as this because there are too many variables that can make people want to work from home, or not want to work from home and too many variables for the company in allowing virtual offices that a paper this size cannot cover. Another limitation is more studies need to be performed with the companies and employees to research if the home office is working for both.
Trends of Moving from the Employer’s Office to the Home Office
With the invention of the telephone and the introduction of the internet along with other technological advances more people are making the transition from working at the office to working from home. Home offices are often referred to as virtual offices or virtual companies. “VOXmarketing is a “virtual company”. " It has no headquarters, no cubicles, no employee break room, no HR office where it takes job applications.... workers are connected via phones, e-mail, and the Internet” (Shartin, 2006).
Matt Bai, (2007), Political Writer for the New York Times (NYT), states that “in [Mark Penn’s] new book, “Microtrends”, [Penn]…notes that 4.2 million Americans now work exclusively from home (a nearly 100 percent increase from 1990), while some 20 million do it part time. Some of these workers are employees who telecommute to traditional offices, but most represent a kind of modern, untethered American work force”. Bai goes on to say that “[these people] do most of their work in the comfort of their own homes, or in their cars, or maybe at Starbucks”. One question that needs answered is if a person wants to work from home and their job duties allow them to work from a remote area, then why shouldn’t companies help the employee make this happen? Bai, (2007), writes:
Why shouldn’t data-entry clerks and graphic designers and actuaries and reservations agents — anyone who spends his days staring at a terminal in some sterile environment straight out of “Office Space” — be able to work in shorts and spend more time around the kids? According to Penn, stay-at-home workers actually log more hours than their counterparts in offices but report far higher rates of job satisfaction. The age of broadband means we might reasonably imagine a day when the American workplace of “face time” and endless polluting commutes fades slowly into the past, replaced by a society where vastly more workers get control over their daily lives.
Modern technology has given people a choice that they never had before. They can decide if they want to commute to an office, spend the entire day or just half a day, or not commute at all and work from home. “Gartner Dataquest, a market-research company, reckons one in four employees in America worked from home for at least one day a week last year. Over half of all businesses in the United States now allow some form of telecommuting. European employers are further ahead still” (Economist, 2008). Joanne Cummings, (2005), Writer for Network World, says “virtual work at AT&T is the norm, not the exception per Joseph Roitz, Telework Director for AT&T. As many as 90% of the company's managers work virtually in some capacity, with 30% of that total working full time from a virtual office, 40% splitting their time between work and home, and another 20% telecommuting only once or twice per year.”
Many virtual companies such as Alpine Access, LiveOps, and Working Solutions are hiring people who work in virtual offices, and other companies are giving their current employees a chance to work at home. “One study published earlier this year reckoned 33m Americans have jobs that could be done from home” (Economist, 2008). With rising fuel prices, higher costs for everything from food to clothing, and skyrocketing health care benefits, companies and employees are turning towards the work from home idea with more enthusiasm. Denise Dubie, (2007), states “Executives cited global expansion, cost savings, environmental concerns, and employee attraction and retention as the main drivers for employing virtual workers.” It’s a win-win situation for both the company and the employee.
Another reason for the trend to move from the employer’s office to the home office is the Go Green campaigning that has taken the U.S. by storm. People want to save energy, fuel, and the planet. “If [everyone]…started to telecommute instead of drive to work, oil imports would drop by over a quarter, and carbon emissions would fall by 67m metric tonnes a year. In terms of hours saved, each telecommuter would get the equivalent of an extra 25 working days of holiday per year” (Economist, 2008).
Why Companies & Employees Benefit When the Employee Works From Home
The Company’s Benefits
The company saves time and money by not having to pay for the extra office space, the utilities for the extra office space, and the employee’s medical benefits. Some employees can bargain into their pay for health benefits, but for some companies such as Alpine Access, who hires virtual customer service representatives, the employee does not get health benefits. “To gain an edge over the competition, firms have begun belatedly to realise how much more agile they must quickly become… A sure-fire way of saving money is to reduce the amount of office space and services—generally reckoned to be around $10,000 per employee annually” (Economist, 2008). Cummings, (2005), points out that “AT&T’s virtual workers help save upwards of $30 million in real estate costs annually”. Companies can also save on labor costs by hiring virtual employees. As the Economist (2008) points out, “employers find they can often recruit cheaper and better employees as telecommuters by going outside their normal catchment areas”.
The Employee’s Benefits The employee saves in fuel costs, apparel expenses, and the expense of lunches and dinners eaten out. It is not just monetary savings that benefit the employee who works from home, the benefits can sometimes be un-measurable. Such as not having to commute to the office every day, “According to a recent survey the average person in the U.S. spends 51 minutes a day commuting to work” (Redfearn, 2008). Other non-monetary benefits are “not having to attend dreary meetings, dress soberly, and generally get distracted from the nitty-gritty of doing the job” (Economist, 2008). Greg Marquiss, (2005), Systems Programmer for EDS, explains "there's times I've solved a problem in the shower, thrown a towel around myself and come out to the computer to see if it works.”
Benefits for Both Company & Employee According to Marquiss, (2005), “A company may decide to have an employee at home because it saves him time and money, improves his morale and offers flexibility…Studies have shown employers’ benefit from less sick and personal leave taken; lower turnover, which cuts hiring and training costs”. Brian Morton, (2007), Writer for the Vancouver Sun, states in a recent article that “Telecommunications giant, Telus Corp, has increased productivity by employees (by an average of 20 per cent, it says)” [by having employees work from home]. This is a huge increase in productivity. According to Science Daily, (2007), “telecommuting is a win-win for employees and employers, resulting in higher morale and job satisfaction and lower employee stress and turnover. These were among the conclusions of psychologists who examined 20 years of research on flexible work arrangements.” Science Daily continues with, “telecommuting has an overall beneficial effect because the arrangement provides employees with more control over how they do their work. [They] reported more job satisfaction, less motivation to leave the company, less stress, improved work-family balance, and higher performance ratings by supervisors." Bronwyn Fryer of Harvard Business Publishing quotes Kurt Reymers, a Sociologist at Morrisville State College, SUNY. “He cites a variety of studies, including one published in the Journal of Applied Psychology showing that people who telecommute are more productive and less stressed” (2008).
The Disadvantages of Virtual Work Stations for Both the Company & the Employee
The Company’s Disadvantages A company that chooses to have virtual workers must change how they manage personnel. Workers no longer sit in offices and turn out eight hour workdays. Some work can be done from a remote area, “but [it is] not appropriate for all jobs, all employees, or all managers. To be most effective in these environments, managers need to do two things well: Shift from a focus on time to a focus on results; and recognize that virtual workplaces, instead of needing fewer managers, require better supervisory skills among existing managers” (Casio, 2000).
Companies also have resources to help them manage virtual workers. Not only do they have telephones, email, and conference calling, but according to Barbara Cipak, (2006)’ Writer for EZine Articles Magazine, “virtual face time is another real asset of these technologies as they are able to see and hear their [employees]. The video and audio conference calls are ideal tools for this. So finding ways to implement video conference calls is important.”
The Employee’s Disadvantages
Some employees think working from home is the greatest advantage to a job, but others have a hard time because of isolation from co-workers and the need to be in the office setting. “The Virtual Worker can feel isolated. Therefore, management must make an active effort to stay in communication with the teleworker. It could be as simple as acknowledging their accomplishment on a project via a complimentary email, or the occasional phone call to say hello and review projects coming up”(Cipak, 2006). According to Ann All, (2008), Writer for ITBusinessEdge, “a Northeastern University Professor, Jay Mulki, participated in a telecommuting study [and] found that telecommuters felt isolated from their co-workers and experienced difficulty in attaining a work-life balance. The latter finding is ironic, since a better work-life balance has long been touted as a major benefit of telecommuting”. Ann continues, “blaming telecommuting for work-related stress is kind of like blaming that pint of Ben & Jerry’s in your freezer for weight gain. “John Estes, a VP recruiting specialist at Robert Half Technology, tells eWEEK that workers who struggle with work-life balance tend to do so whether or not they telecommute”. Still, the feelings of isolation are very real.
Some people have to have the social environment that traditional offices provide. As Dr. Tracy O’Neill, (2008), of Ezines Articles, points out “the corporation is viewed as a social community and becomes an arena not only for work but also for identification, self-realization, and friendship. For many, virtual environments inhibit the social interaction that builds community and identification within the workplace.” O’Neill continues that “without daily interaction, a common workplace, and a sense of identity, virtual personnel can feel disconnected and isolated. These workers repeatedly report concerns about being "out of sight, and out of mind" from their organization”. O’Neill concludes with “Similar to the days of the Industrial Revolution, today's managers must learn how to lead within the context of newly established communities. Isolation and potential loss of identity among colleagues inhibit many people from taking advantage of telecommuting and virtual teams. Social isolation requires managers to rethink their methods of leading within today's on-line community.”
Conclusion
Recent and current trends are that companies and employees alike are taking advantage of telecommuting. With fuel costs, clothing budgets, and everything in between at an all time high, employees are seeing added benefits of working from home. The employee can not only wear his or her pajamas all day, but he or she can work virtually any time of the night or day. Many employees find they like the flexibility and freedom of being able to work at home. Athough many people do like the work-at-home atmosphere, there are those who do not. Some people have to have the social environment that a traditional office provides. There are those who would feel like they have lost their identity as a valued employee and they thrive on the contact that an office can supply.
Companies also are cashing in from hiring virtual workers. Companies can save on overhead, insurance, labor costs, and real estate costs. For every employee who works at home that is a savings to the company to not have to provide office space.
Companies as well as employees have to adjust to the growing virtual office trend. Company managers’ have to find new and innovative ways of managing virtual work offices, and help in making sure the workers are not isolated or left out of the work environment. The future for company managers is deciding how best to profit the company, and at the same time making sure the employees have healthy work situations. This is not new. In fact, managers have spent years perfecting these very things. What is new, though, is how to do these two things in a virtual work environment.
Working from home or as it is sometimes referred to as telecommuting is a growing reality. There are too many expenses and substantial savings for both the company and the employee not to take telecommuting seriously. Working from home used to mean having a telephone and taking surveys or selling packages for Olan Mills Pictures. With the introduction of newer technology working from home has taken on a whole new nuance. It means everyone from customer service representatives to CEO’s can work from virtually anywhere. Technology will keep improving, costs will continue to skyrocket, fuel will continue to increase, so working in a virtual office may become a reality for most of us sooner than later. It just may be the new Industrial Revolution.
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