ways2work > How to do it > Re-thinking commuting > Reducing commuting through ICT > Terms people use for teleworking: Glossary
Terms people use for teleworking: Glossary
The UK Office of National Statistics (Yolanda Ruiz and Annette Walling, Labour Market Division, Office for National Statistics) use this definition of teleworking in their 2005 Labour Force Survey
"Teleworkers [are] people who work mainly in their own home or mainly in different places using home as a base, who use both a telephone and a computer to carry out their work at home."
There are a number of terms similar to teleworking. Here are the most common.
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Telecommuting
The term for teleworking frequently used in North America.
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Working at home
Strictly, working at home is not teleworking because it does not define the use of a computer and telephone (ICT) as part of the work. Someone repairing watches at home is a home worker not a teleworker because ICT is not an integral part of their work.
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Mobile working
Mobile working is a form of teleworking where people telework from multiple sites: home, customer premises and while travelling.
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Flexible working
Flexible working is often used as a synonym for teleworking but is actually a wider collection of 'not-in-the-office-from-nine-to-five' work arrangements. The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development defines flexible working as covering any form of part-time working, flexitime or annual or compressed hours as well as teleworking.
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Remote working
Remote working is a term for work that is performed at a distance from managers or colleagues, using ICT. So telework is one example of remote working. But so is collaboration with others in virtual teams.
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Virtual teamworking
Along with teleworking, virtual teamworking is a form of remote working carried out from an employer's regular workplace.
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Agile working
BT uses this term for arrangements that allow people to work at the location and time most suitable for the performance of the work. The term has much in common with flexible working and mobile working.
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Smart working
Sometimes a synonym for teleworking, and sometimes a synonym for any form of remote working.