The early 1990’s witnesses the sudden increase, at least hypothetically and academically, in the flexible working offer. The thought being that due to the advances in technology everybody could Work From Home. Over the last ten or fifteen years the technology and the commercial reality of Internet Business has been enhanced to the situation it is now, not only achievable to Work From Home but in some roles almost necessary catagorised their business persona’s as nomadic (usually sales) or semi-nomadic (generally management, sales and team leader positions). These job descriptions found it achievable to exist between the capability to Work From Home and flexible facilities in the office or offices within which they still had a base. Further up the management chain superior managers and executives found the capacity to be efficient anywhere, specially in the case of those working with National and International groups and time changes.

The mid 1990’s though, saw another category of flexible worker beginning to immerge. The surge in Internet Business fashioned a different category. These staff are not part of a corporate machine running their roles 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 making money because they can work from home without the high overhead of premises.

On the back of this second wave comes another sort, those involved in online jobs. These employees and entrepreneurs essentially make their living by offering services to maintain the growing virtual market place. In doing so their communication with clients is mainly via the electronic work media. This new business model redefines the idea of flexible working because not only can these businesses be run by people who work from home they can also be staffed by workers with the same working patterns.

Is this a principally new phenomenon? Or a return to the pre – industrial revolution patterns of occupation. Are what we now see as new age Online Jobs simply a paradigm shift from the necessityrequirement to be co-located, brought about by the mechanisation of labour and the process vital for high output, to the skilfulhighly skilled, craft based model of the cottage industries.

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