Telecommuting allows employees to work from a remote location.
A homeworker is a person who conducts business from a home office and produces goods or services for a profit. Not considered independent business owners, freelancers, or independent contractors, home workers are viewed as remotely located employees who work remotely for a main office. Their employment is through an outside company that offers a wage to the domestic worker in exchange for designated goods, businesses, and services.
Some homeworkers use headsets to communicate more effectively at home.
There are many advantages to working from home, both for the domestic worker and the employer. The worker has the ease of being in his own environment, saving time and money on long trips and concentrating on the work he does, without interruptions. For the employer, using home workers means less money spent on office space and equipment, employee parking, uniforms, and other expenses.
Many work-from-home businesses operate in exploitative conditions.
Information technology (IT) jobs are among the most common positions for home workers. These computer-centric jobs allow for easy telecommuting and allow an employee to accomplish as much as they would if they were in a centralized on-site office. In some cases, the home worker can be even more productive, as intrusions and distractions in a home office tend to be fewer than in a busy, formal workplace.
While IT positions require an advanced skill set, many home worker positions are more routine in nature. This often includes data entry jobs, which often involve keystrokes performed on a home computer, and customer service positions, where workers receive wired calls to their home phones and emails from the field through their personal computers. Some administrative, executive, and personal assistants may also work from a home office, supporting an individual or department through technological means.
One area of the domestic work industry that has received much scrutiny is the field known as industrial homework or piecework. In these roles, workers are hired to assemble products in their own homes. Critics of the home work industry cite evidence that many work-from-home businesses are exploiting workers, violating minimum wage laws and business ethics, and operating in exploitative working conditions. As a result, in several countries, homeworkers have been included in local and national legislation to become a class of legally protected workers.
An aspiring domestic worker may be lured into the field through print or online advertisements that promise large sums of money with minimal work. Unfortunately, the domestic work industry is full of scams, targeting unsuspecting domestic workers who think they are about to get a job for “a small fee”. Hiring for legitimate work-from-home opportunities is often advertised directly by the employer and, under no circumstances, does the employer require any form of payment from the worker.