We now have a whole new form of commuting called telecommuting. Telecommunications brings us full cycle back to the workplace of the agrarian age-the home. No longer must the worker go to a centralized factory or office. With the advances in communications and computing, much of today s work can be done anywhere, anytime-and the anywhere is often at home. And that home does not have to be near the employer s formal workplace.
Workers can be thousands of miles away from their employer and often, perhaps, in other countries.
Some envision that telecommuting will redistribute population something like what happened during the industrial revolution. The type of work we do, the place we work, the tools we use, and the skills we need today are clearly not the same as those that many of us experienced when we first entered the workplace. Although we might not be able to clearly see into the workplace of the future, we know that it will be very different from that of today. As the proportion of Hispanics in the workforce grows, they bring unique strengths to the new workplace. Many have bilingual skills that can often lead to higher salaries in the corporate world, the healthcare and service sectors, and in the technology and media fields.