Is Remote Work Still a Thing? Exploring the History of Remote Work in U.S.
From telegraphs to telework passing through the “electronic” cottage, “remote work” may have been a part of society longer than we realized. In the early 2000s, advancements in mobile devices and virtual communication technologies, such as video conferencing and online project management tools, accelerated the growth of remote work (Friedman, 2005). In 2010, the U.S. government implemented the Telework Enhancement Act, which encouraged federal agencies to allow employees to work from home (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, n.d.). In the private sector, companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard equipped countless employees with the ability to work remotely for years. In a CFO online article written in 2000, Hewlett-Packard’s director of new business stated that out of the 80,000 company employees, “about 25 percent now work full or part-time from home” (Gabrielle, November 15, 2000).
Additionally, the global financial crisis of 2008 played a role in the rise of remote work, as companies sought to cut costs by reducing their office space and allowing employees to work from home (Bughin et al., 2010). The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 normalized the trend of remote work, as many companies were forced to pivot to remote work out of necessity. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (September 15, 2022), the number of people primarily working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021, with roughly 9 million people in 2019 and 27.6 million people in 2021. Today, remote work is a common practice in the United States and around the world.
Today, remote work is a common practice in the United States and around the world. [Illustration by Mônica Lopes]
From a production standpoint, one may believe that it’s necessary to congregate work in one place as a condition for the division of labor. Uninhabited office towers and buildings seemed like a fantasy fiction setting in 2019. This is akin to people not imagining leaving their homes and farms to work in factories in highly condensed areas 300 years ago. Fantasy is turning into reality, and this shift is happening again due to social, environmental, and economic forces that are converging to transfer the locus of work back to home.
Interestingly enough, Alvin Toffler, author of The Third Wave, introduced the concept of an “electronic cottage” as a home-centered space where most of the white-collar work can be performed with the support of technology. In Toffler’s (1980) own words:
Today it takes an act of courage to suggest that our biggest factories and office towers may, within our lifetimes, stand half empty, reduced to use as ghostly warehouses or converted into living space. Yet this is precisely what the new mode of production makes possible: a return to cottage industry on a new, higher, electronic basis, and with it a new emphasis on the home as the center of society. (p. 194)
The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that although face-to-face communication is important in working settings since it can convey nonverbal messages, some tasks do not require much or any external contact or only require it occasionally. Simultaneously, issues of workflow, management, and productivity, along with problems of self-directness and motivation, may arise, but the “electronic cottage” is here to stay. Toffler introduced this concept in his book in 1980, but the concept of remote work has been a part of our society longer than you may realize.
The “electronic cottage” is here to stay. [Illustration by Mônica Lopes]
Early forms of remote work, such as working from home or a remote office, can be traced back to the late 1800s with the invention of the telephone and the telegraph. In the 1960s and 1970s, telecommuting emerged as a possibility for white-collar workers. The term was coined by Jack Nilles in 1973. Nilles, a researcher at the University of Southern California, described telecommuting as the practice of using telecommunications for the daily commute to work (Nilles, 1994). As Nilles explains, telecommuting is a specific type of teleworking, which refers to the use of telecommunications and information technologies to perform work-related tasks. In both telecommuting and teleworking, the focus is on the change in worker’s travel behavior.
In the 1980s, advances in computer technology and the proliferation of personal computers made it easier for people to work remotely. This led to the growth of the telecommuting movement, which sought to promote the idea of working from home or a remote location as one way to reduce traffic congestion and improve work-life balance.
In the 1990s, the rise of the internet and companies and households purchasing laptops further facilitated remote work. In 1995, a survey conducted by the Telework Research Network found that approximately 16 million people in the United States were working remotely at least one day per week (Gajendran & Harrison, 2007).
In the 1980s, advances in computer technology and the proliferation of personal computers transformed office work. [Illustration by Mônica Lopes]
The benefits and drawbacks of working remotely have been extensively discussed in the corporate, higher education, and government sectors over the years. Many issues have come to light, such as data security, the quality of work relationships, and productivity. Supporters view remote work as an effective strategy for attracting and keeping talent (Morning Edition, March 9, 2023) and increasing employee engagement (Tsipursky, September 25, 2023). On the other hand, remote work can have downsides, such as increased work intensity and elevated stress levels, which can adversely impact employees' health (Eurofound and the International Labour Office, 2017). Finally, others argue that the results on the impact of remote work may be inconclusive (Goldberg, October 10, 2023).
However, it is undeniable that remote work has seen a steady increase in popularity over the past several decades. With the advancements in technology and the social, environmental, and economic forces that we are currently experiencing, the “electronic cottage will become the norm of the future.” (Toffler, 1980, p. 207).
References
Bughin, J., Chui, M. and Manyika, J. (2010) Clouds, big data, and smart assets: Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch. McKinsey Quarterly, 1-14.
Eurofound and the International Labour Office (2017). Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, and the International Labour Office, Geneva.
Friedman, T. L. (2005). The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Gabrielle, M. (November 15, 2000). IT: Goodbye, Dilbert. CFO Technology.
Gajendran, R. S., & Harrison, D. A. (2007). The good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: Meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1524-1541. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1524
Goldberg, E. (October 10, 2023). Here’s What We Do and Don’t Know About the Effects of Remote Work. The New York Times, Business.
Morning Edition (March 9, 2023). How companies can recruit and keep employees who are used to working from home. NPR, Business.
Nilles, J. M. (1994). Traffic reduction by telecommuting: A status review and selected bibliography. Center for Effective Organizations.
Tsipursky, G. (September 25, 2023). Return-to-office mandates: See where you fall on the employee disengagement spectrum. Fortune.
Toffler, A. (1980). The Third Wave. Bantam Books.
U.S. Census Bureau (September 15, 2022). U.S. Census Bureau releases new 2021 American community survey 1-year estimates for all geographic areas with populations of 65,000 or more. U.S. Census Bureau.
U.S. Office of Personnel Management (n.d.). Telework Enhancement Act. U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
-- Please cite the content of this blog as: Correia, A.-P. (2023, November 10). Is Remote Work Still a Thing? Exploring the History of Remote Work in U.S. Ana-Paula Correia’s Blog. https://www.ana-paulacorreia.com/anapaula-correias-blog/2023/11/10/is-remote-work-still-a-thing-exploring-the-history-of-remote-work-in-us