Teleworker Army Grows

Posted on October 5, 2006

USA Today has a terrific article about the growing number of people who spend a good portion of their day working at a cafe or tea room that offers a wireless connection. In the article USA Today refers to these teleworkers as the "rootless army."

This rootless army is growing 10% annually, according to Gartner Dataquest research. The reason? Corporations are increasingly supportive of teleworking for reasons that range from saving money on office space to needing a backup in the event of a natural disaster or terror attack.
"With technology what it is, it's far easier to bring the work to the people than the people to the work," says Jim Ware of the Future of Work, a Bay Area enterprise that helps large companies such as Boeing anticipate workplace trends.
Ware says working out of a "third place" � neither home nor office, it's anything from Starbucks to the local library � does raise "a host of human resources issues related to keeping track of people you don't see much."
But in the end, "employers are realizing that it's about the work, not about the hours in an office."
You've surely seen this crowd while popping in for that morning macchiato. They claim prime tabletops and battle for electrical outlets, all with the zombie-like gaze of people who physically are there but mentally are engaged with phantoms at the other end of a wireless signal.

The spots where teleworkers sit and work in the Starbucks or local tea room are known as touchdown spots. The article also lists some of the unspoken teleworker etiquette that includes don't be a hog, tip big and often and bring quarters for the parking meters.