Written by The early 1990’s saw the explosion, at least theoretically and academically, in the flexible working proposition. The concept being that due to the advances in technology everyone could Work From Home. Over the last 10 or 15 years the technology and the commercial reality of Internet Business has improved to the extent it is now, not only feasible to Work From Home but in some roles almost compulsory classified their business persona’s as nomadic (typically sales) or semi-nomadic (usually management, sales and team leader jobs). These job descriptions found it feasible to exist between the capability to Work From Home and flexible facilities in the office or offices in which they still had a base. Further up the management chain senior managers and executives found the capability to be efficient anywhere, specially in the case of those handling National and International teams and time changes.
The mid 1990’s on the other hand, saw another type of flexible worker beginning to immerge. The surge in Internet Business fashioned a different group. These workers are not part of a corporate machine running their jobs within the structure of touchdown and virtual meetings but rather what would have been a small business outlet on the main street. They are small service providers and sellers now profitable because they can work from home without the high fixed cost of property.
On the back of this second wave comes another class, those occupied in online jobs. These employees and entrepreneurs in reality make their living by providing services to support the growing virtual market place. In doing so their contact with clients is mostly via the electronic work media. This new business model redefines the idea of flexible working as not only can these businesses be run by people who work from home they can also be staffed by employees with the same working patterns.
Is this a particularly new phenomenon? Or a return to the pre – industrial revolution patterns of occupation. Are what we now see as new age Online Jobs only a paradigm shift from the necessityrequirement to be co-located, brought about by the mechanisation of work and the process required for high output, to the skilfulhighly skilled, craft based model of the cottage industries.
