Telecommuting is a cooperative arrangement between companies and employees that enables employees to work outside the office usually in the home or at a satellite office that is set up for that purpose on a part-time or full-time basis. Some industry estimates have pegged the number of telecommuters in the United States at 30 million.

Advances in computer and communications technologies, including wireless products and services, have made telecommuting a viable option for many types of jobs. Telecommuting provides participants with a greater sense of job autonomy, which can increase productivity and satisfaction, while providing employees with a means to better manage their work and family lives. A telecommuting program can also help trim corporate overhead expenses by providing savings on office space and other facilities.

The jobs that are best suited for telecommuting include those of white-collar workers who are engaged in research, consulting, auditing, illustration, writing, computer programming, and Web-page design. Telecommuting has also proved effective for call-center agents, telemarketers, and customer-service representatives whose jobs involve lots of keyboard and/or telephone interaction. Telecommuting can be useful for people who are highly mobile throughout most of the workday: salespeople, real estate agents, field service personnel, and insurance claims adjusters, to name a few.

The telecommuting concept reached national prominence with amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1990, which took effect in November 1992. The amendments require companies with 100 or more employees in certain high-pollution metropolitan areas to develop plans to reduce their number of...