With the shift to more intellectual work, working from home may help in innovation and creativity. Working from home a couple of days a week may even boost your productivity. The solitude may trigger your thinking processes to come up with new ideas. Companies may want to experiment with a pilot project while employees may want to try out whether working from home will work for them. It is one way to take risks innovatively in the new economy.
Telecommuting varies from working a few days per week from home to working all the time from home.
Workplace experts claim a variety of reasons for the growing interest in alternative work arrangements, but one critical factor is the changing role of women in the workplace, and their need to balance the conflicting duties of work and family life. Though women are still generally under-represented in routine jobs, the advent of the knowledge economy is creating new opportunities for women. The ranks of female middle managers, professionals and computer-related workers are rising as they become better educated, and the need for skills in the new economy where women are savvier. There are drawbacks to working from home. Rather than reducing stress and helping workers achieve greater balance in their lives, telecommuting could make it more and more difficult to separate work from our personal lives.