Teleworking and changing workplaces

There has been much expectation for teleworking, which has many potential uses as “the flexible labor form without restriction of time and place.” However, the relationships between the three labor forms of teleworking (telecommuting, mobile-working, at-home working) and workplaces are changing rapidly in late years. The main inducement for firms to adopt telecommuting was the attainment of work-life balance. But, after the Tohoku Earthquake, it has been replaced with the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and saving electricity. It has been assumed that the mobile-workers work outside their offices, but in many cases, they work in their own homes after working hours to cope with their increased workload, because the mobile-work has led to abolition of offices and clerical workers who dealt with the paperwork. The at-home workers who take on specialist jobs were paid a relatively good reward in the past. But the fees for at-home works mediated through the agents based on a bid system have been declining drastically. Recent teleworking is apparently becoming a way to achieve higher labor efficiency by allowing labor space to encroach on personal space. Further detailed studies are urgently needed to capture such changes in teleworking.