A 9-to-5 job? Thing of the past…

According to an article in Information Week the typical office job from 9-to-5 might soon be a thing of the past. As unemployment rates continue to look dismal, work is beginning to move away from long-term commitments to more project-based or freelance work writes the Associate Editor of BYTE Boonsri Dickinson.

His reasoning is:

• Globalization means that many companies are searching for talent across borders.
  
  
• The Internet allows workers to be geographically independent.
  
  
• Popular telecommuting companies like oDesk connect professionals with temporary/project work.
  
  
• Workers can share documents and collaborate via Skype and Google+ Hangouts. They no longer need to be in the same physical location to work together on a project in real-time.

American companies have driven this idea further in recent times. So called ‘telepresence robots’ allow employees to work from at home but still “beam” themselves into meetings and offices with the help of a mobile robot that transmits their video and audio.

(02.2013) Sources: InformationWeek, SMH