A Virtual Workforce

I came across an interesting article today (“How the Virtual Workforce Is Changing Everything”) about how telecommuting and crowd-sourcing are reinventing the traditional notion of jobs. The story explains what I’ve found in my talks with women who work from home: that freelancers can do just as good—and sometimes better—work than in-house employees.

Nearly any job can be done to some extent out of the traditional office setting. As the article points out, “workers with unique talents ply their trade from home offices and send the products of their work efforts to city-based offices. Often, these work-reception centers are located far beyond acceptable commuting distances. Today’s developing virtual workforce routinely telecommutes to work across the country.”

The story quotes Jack Hughes, founder of TopCoder: “Why go to an office when you can do same thing at home? Moving information around can be done on the Internet. Maintaining stores and spending time, energy and building costs all are part of the paradigm from the Industrial Age. Even management styles are based on that model.”

As you’ve probably guessed, “this shift in work location from physical office to virtual shop is driven by the Internet.” One source in the article points to three factors driving corporations and businesses to have telecommuter workers or freelancers: the need for an expanded pool of employees, the cost factors, and the better work quality.

Read the article in its entirety to find out more about this shift in employment locations. Like I’ve found in my own research, many jobs done in an office can be done in an at-home office.

Until next time,
Sarah