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Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from home, or WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of working at or from one’s home or another space rather than from an office.

The practice began on a small scale in the 1970s, when technology was developed that linked satellite offices to downtown mainframes through dumb terminals using telephone lines as a network bridge. It became more common in the 1990s and 2000s, facilitated by internet technologies such as collaborative software on cloud computing and conference calling via videotelephony. In 2020, workplace hazard controls for COVID-19 catalyzed a rapid transition to remote work for white-collar workers around the world, which largely persisted even after restrictions were lifted.

Between 1670 and 1826, management had to rely on trust and control to successfully manage distributed work. During this time, in addition to dispersed operations that relied heavily on a combination of explicit information and detailed record-keeping, more tacit and situated knowledge developed through socialization. For example, the Hudson’s Bay Company showed a variety of control mechanisms, including selection techniques, information requirements, and direct local oversight through its distributed practices of socialization, communication, and participation. Managers found that “common sense” was not enough to encourage everyone to comply.

In the early 1970s, technology was developed that linked satellite offices to downtown mainframes through dumb terminals using telephone lines as a network bridge. The terms telecommuting and telework were coined by Jack Nilles in 1973. In 1979, five IBM employees were allowed to work from home as an experiment. By 1983, the experiment was expanded to 2,000 people. By the early 1980s, branch offices and home workers were able to connect to organizational mainframes using personal computers and terminal emulators.

In 1995, the motto “work is something you do, not something you travel to” was coined. Variations of this motto include: “Work is what we do, not where we are.”Since the 1980s, the normalization of remote work has been on a steady incline. For example, the number of Americans working from home grew by 4 million from 2003 to 2006, and by 1983, academics were beginning to experiment with online conferencing.

In the 1990s and 2000s, remote work became facilitated by technology such as collaborative software, virtual private networks, conference calling, videotelephony, internet access, cloud computing, voice over IP (VoIP), mobile telecommunications technology such as a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop or tablet computers, smartphones, and desktop computers, using software such as Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Slack, and WhatsApp.

In his 1992 travelogue Exploring the Internet, Carl Malamud described a “digital nomad” who “travels the world with a laptop, setting up FidoNet nodes.” In 1993, Random House published the Digital Nomad’s Guide series of guidebooks by Mitch Ratcliffe and Andrew Gore. The guidebooks, PowerBook, AT&T EO Personal Communicator, and Newton’s Law, used the term “digital nomad” to refer to the increased mobility and more powerful communication and productivity technologies that facilitated remote work.

European hacker spaces of the 1990s led to coworking; the first such space opened in 2005. The new economy production no longer requires people to work together in the same physical space to access the tools and resources they need to produce their work, and allows for distributed work.

In 2010, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 required each executive agency in the United States to establish a policy allowing remote work to the maximum extent possible, so long as employee performance is not diminished. During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of workers began working from home for the first time. Cities in which the population of remote workers increased significantly were referred to as Zoom towns. According to a U.S. Labor Department study published, millions of Americans ceased working from home by 2022, and the number of employers reporting teleworking decreased to the level before pandemic levels.

From August to September 2022, approximately 72 percent of private-sector businesses reported little to no telework among workers, compared to roughly 60 percent from July to September 2021. During the Information Age, many startups were founded in the homes of entrepreneurs who lacked financial resources.