Economics, Management, and Financial Markets 12(2), 2017

pp. 222–229, ISSN 1842-3191, eISSN 1938-212X

TELEWORKING: EVOLUTION AND TRENDS

IN USA, EU AND ROMANIA

CLAUDIU CHIRU
claudiu_chiru@yahoo.com
Spiru Haret University

ABSTRACT. The term teleworking (or telecommuting) became popular in the

1970s when Jack Niles has created a communication system for NASA and the US
Air Force. Working on this project he designed a teleworking project in which
several employees were involved. Shortly afterwards, in 1979, Franck Schiff wrote
in the Washington Post an article called “Working from Home Can Save Gasoline”
and coined the term flexible working. Things have evolved over time due to
technological advances and the interest in teleworking has continuously increased.
This paper is an introduction to teleworking and presents concepts related to this area,
also making a foray into the history of teleworking and presenting the evolution and
trends of this form of work in the United States, the European Union and Romania.
JEL codes: M15; O33

Keywords: teleworking; telecommuting; technology; regulation; employee

1. Introduction
Teleworking (telecommuting) could be defined as carrying out remote work
activities at home, using information technology. In this way, an employee
performs the duties of his/her office from a distance. Work takes place during
the work schedule of the company or outside of this program. Teleworking
can have a schedule approved by the companies or may be temporary due to
unexpected events or emergencies.
Adopting a policy of teleworking in a company is dictated by several
factors among which we can mention (Svidronova, Merickova and Nemec,
2016) economic factors (level of well-being has a significant influence on
the adoption of teleworking), social factors (education of the population),
technological factors (IT infrastructure).

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 Teleworking brings benefits in the sphere of productivity, greater flexi-
bility for working time of the employee, allows hiring people with outstanding
skills and qualifications who do not live near the workplace, reduces per-
sonnel costs, reduces pollution, and creates opportunity to continue working
in the company regardless of weather conditions.

2. Teleworking IT Technology
Many organizations do not achieve high productivity through teleworking
because they do not use leverage technology needed to make more effective
teleworking, such as cloud computing and modern telephony systems. Most
of these technologies bring benefits which far outweigh the costs associated
with these technologies.
Teleworking does not require a particular type of connection service but
it requires sufficient speed for the employee to do the job. Connections may
be either wired (DSL, cable modem, fiber, broadband over powerline) or
Wi-Fi, satellite, mobile telephony (3G, 4G). Download and upload speeds
are equally important for sending or downloading emails or files but also for
online collaboration and video conferencing.
Download / Upload speed in a typical domestic teleworking workplace is
around 15 to 20 Mbs but these values evolve with the development of IT
technology. These speeds are sufficient to achieve a real-time link with head-
quarters and company staff.
We present below 5 business technologies (Logicalis, 2013) that enable
greater productivity through teleworking.
Cloud computing and virtualization. Virtualization lets you use a service
like technology software (SaaS – Software as a Service) offering employees
access to devices and software that would not otherwise be able to access on
their local hard disk. For example, desktop as a service (DAAS – Desktop
As A Service) gives users access to their computer desktop through web,
allowing employees to use the software and files, without needing to bring
home the PC from work. Secure cloud computing can also give you the ability
to access files and software stored in the cloud via the web.
Virtual private network (VPN). A virtual private network frees users from
security concerns when employees access internal resources. For many
organizations, this makes VPN to become one of the most important tools to
make really effective telework. Virtual private network offers users a secure,
private connection between two devices, such as their home PC and server at
the office. This provides the safest method to give employees access to the
same network resources that they would have in the office.
Electronic management of documents. The ability to retrieve files remotely
depends on the location of those files. They must be in digital format and

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accessible from the network. Electronic document management systems, or
electronic content management (ECM), help users manage online content,
allowing them to quickly and easily retrieve the information. ECMs may be
added to documents and data from a number of sources, such as online
forms, emails, paper documents scanned and multimedia content in a single
repository where they can be accessed from safe distance, searched or
retrieved.
Modern phone systems. In order to accomplish a task of teleworking in
good condition there must be at least a phone system that can redirect calls
to remote workers.
Web or video conferencing. Typically part of a unified communications
system, Web conferencing may be used independently. Web conferencing
ensures that meetings still take place even if there are extreme weather
events. Web conferencing allows the use of screen live demonstrations or
presentations.

3. Teleworking Worldwide
According to 2015 PGI Global Telework Survey (PGi, 2015), teleworking is
an increasingly option among workers worldwide. PGi polled almost 3,000
workers in North America (NA), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
and Asia Pacific Japan (APJ). The results are very encouraging for the tele-
working supporters and for the companies wishing to implement teleworking
policies (PGi, 2015):
 79% of the interviewed workers telework at least one day per week;
 Flexible work – working part of the time in office and part of the time at
home is desired by most of the interviewed workers;
 More companies are positive towards telecommuting say 66% of the tele-
workers;
 62% of the teleworkers work from home office but there is a 38% of tele-
workers who prefer shared workspaces or coffee shops. Shared workspaces
could provide all the necessary conditions (power, broadband connection,
Wi-Fi) for a teleworker to do the assigned job remotely;
 Flexible work conditions were very satisfying for the workers so that they
skipped long commuting into the office (21% of the teleworkers said they
commuted 60 min/day);
 More than 50% of the teleworkers in North America, Europe, the Middle
East and Africa and Asia Pacific Japan report they want to telecommute more
often.

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4. Teleworking in the US
The United States is among the most advanced country in what concerns
teleworking and penetration of teleworking. There is a legislative basis for
government agencies providing certain regulations on teleworking in govern-
ment institutions.
We can mention some important laws:
(US Congress, 2000) “Department of Transportation and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2000”, which specifies that each agency can participate
in implementing a teleworking program but without a negative effect on
employee performance.
(US Congress, 2002) “Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government
Appropriations Act, 2002” requires executive agencies to report efforts they
have made to implement flexible working and teleworking programs. (US
Congress, 2003) “Consolidated Appropriations Resolution”, (US Congress,
2004) “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004”, (US Congress, 2005) “Con-
solidated Appropriations Act, 2005” provide funding to governmental
agencies to implement teleworking, call for the establishment of teleworking
clear policies so as to participate more employees without diminishing per-
formance, request reporting on teleworking situation and assigning coor-
dinators of these activities.
2010 marks a turning point in the legislative history of teleworking
because a new law, Telework Enhancement Act 2010, requires government
agencies a coherent policy in teleworking and concrete roles in the manage-
ment of teleworking.
Some studies regarding development of telework in the US (US Congress,
2014; Jones, 2015; PGi, 2015), showed that the percentage of people who
telecommute has increased every year. In the study The State of Telework in
the U.S. (Lister and Harnish, 2011), it highlights the following issues:
 45% of the US workforce holds a job that is compatible with teleworking
(partial or total).
 2.9 million workers in the US teleworking system saves 390 million
gallons of fuel and prevents the release of 3.6 million tones of annual
greenhouse gas emissions.
 If all who have jobs compatible with teleworking system would work at
home 2.4 days per week, then you could save 900 billion dollars annually
and would reduce oil imports from the Persian Gulf by 45%.
 The number of workers in teleworking system increased by 61% between
2005 and 2009. In the same period, employment in the domestic system
increased by 1.7%.
The prestigious Gallup polling institute (Jones, 2015) posted statistics on
teleworking in 2015 in the US. According to these statistics, teleworking is a
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more common activity among those who have high education, those with
higher income and those with administrative and management jobs.
Although a large part of employees say they use teleworking more often
than in the past, teleworking still remains at low levels. According to data
from Gallup statistics (Jones, 2015) results that, two days per month, US
workers would use teleworking instead of going to work and 9% said they
would use more than 10 teleworking days a month.
Most believe that teleworking is beneficial to employees, but is it so? The
employers could use their policy on teleworking as a way to keep talented
workers who otherwise might change their job or could give up work. Yahoo
company, in 2013, through his manager Marissa Mayer (Tkaczyk, 2013),
changed company’s policy to require all workers to work in corporate
offices. Yahoo Policy provide that some employees could perform the work
remotely if their position was suitable. Still a minority, many American
workers now say that they use teleworking and the percentage is higher than
those who were the subject of previous studies; nevertheless the trend appears
to be downward.

5. Teleworking in UE
Published in 2012, European report on working conditions in European
countries, EWCS 2010 (EWCS, 2010) introduces a new term, e-nomad
(electronic nomad): a person who performs the same tasks as a teleworker.
The term e-nomad was preferred to better emphasize working remotely from
different locations and the use of modern IT technologies. According to
EWCS 2010, a quarter of European workers are e-nomads. E-nomads in-
cidence varies considerably between countries studied: from 5% in Albania,
Romania and Turkey to over 40% in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden
and 45% in Finland.
The most part of e-nomads are men (65%), have higher education (55%)
and are between 35–49 years old (45%). These workers are concentrated
mainly in financial services, government and education. E-nomads program
is often distinct from the majority of workers. On average, e-nomads work
longer, especially on Saturday and Sunday evenings and more. One in 10 e-
nomads works more in his free time than average workers who perform the
same tasks. In addition, especially men experience program changes in their
work program more than others. 24% of e-nomads report changes in work
schedule compared to 15% of workers who have normal schedule.
In the years 2010–2013 (Eurofund, 2014), the UE States continued its
policy of promoting the concept of teleworking. EU teleworking is especially
prevalent in the Nordic countries where the ratio of teleworkers in proportion
to the number of employees is quite high. In Finland, for example, hours of

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work within flexible work increased from 60% to 70% since 2006, while
10% of workers were engaged in teleworking. These issues can be found
more in the private sector than in the public one.
Britain’s Office for Statistics (UK Office for National Statistics (ONS))
published a report stating that 4.2 million workers worked at home in 2014.
The number of workers increased by 1.3 million home in 2014. Statistics state
that the tendency to work at home is mostly for the qualified professional
staff – 15% managers, 35% specialists in various fields, 24% qualified in
certain professions (Eurofund, 2014).
Contrasting with the above-mentioned countries, in Germany working at
home has diminished percentage since 2008. In 2012 nearly 5 million people
worked from home, in most cases being highly qualified people (Eurofund,
2014).
In Hungary there appears to be serious debate about the benefits of
teleworking or work from home. While some employers see advantages in
adopting teleworking as a means to reduce its personnel expenses fearing
that they are losing control over employees, other employers have seized the
opportunities offered by the system of teleworking and offer this possibility
only for those whose position in the company allows.
In 2014 (Eurofund, 2014), telecommunications company Belgacom has
decided to increase the number of jobs that are suitable for teleworking to
7000, representing half of the workforce of the company. This decision came
after the evaluation of a project started by the company in 2013, when 4,700
employees have agreed to work at home a few days a month. 70% of man-
agement staff reported higher productivity and 91% had positive feedback
on the level of prosperity. In January 2014 (Eurofund, 2014), Nestle France
said it would expand teleworking option for all of its 3,000 employees.
Airbus (Eurofund 2014) signed an agreement with the unions stating that 100
volunteers should work from home using IT equipment, two days a week,
during 2013-2016, in a pilot project.

6. Teleworking in Romania
From 2001 to 2003 Romania helped the International E3WORK project with
its experience. E3WORK had France as coordinator and Poland, Latvia,
Hungary, Lithuania and Romania as members. Among its objectives we can
mention support and promotion of teleworking member organizations. In
Romania teleworking is defined only in the Labor Code, chapter 9 (working
from home) and there is no other document that mentions telework. National
Statistics Institute has no official statistics regarding teleworking in Romania.
European Commission (Employment 2014 – Eurostat) published data about
workers and their jobs in the UE. According to statistics listed in 2014 there

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were 0.4% workers aged 20–64 who worked at home. Romania does not
have a legislative framework on teleworking. On the other hand, Romania
has taken significant steps to develop IT infrastructure. According to ITU
(ITU, 2014) statistics, the number of internet users increased from 3.61% of
the population in 2000 to 54% in 2014. At present, the price for a tele-
working post is already accessible to middle-income Romanians so tele-
working has all the technical conditions to develop in Romania.

7. Conclusion
Teleworking is a form of work increasingly used nowadays by both com-
panies and workers; both categories showed an increased new interest to it.
There are many advantages in using teleworking involving financial aspects,
efficiency in work and issues related to the private life of workers.
Developed countries of the world (US, Asian countries, EU) have coherent
development of teleworking and they publish studies and guidelines for its
implementation. Unfortunately, in Romania there is no policy at government
level regarding teleworking, there is no agreement between the social
partners on teleworking at the legislative level and there are no regulations
on this form of work. In addition, there are no statistics on teleworking in
Romania. However, despite the lack of regulations, teleworking is a solution
increasingly used by companies and employees in Romania.

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