The History of Homeworking

By Lesley Pope 

It is true that over many years we have got used to the idea of travelling to a place of work and regard this as the norm. Many of us now spend more time with colleagues than we do with our own family and more time at the office than in our own homes; which is ironic as the point of work is often to provide that home for those people we see so little of. Now clearly there are some jobs that require us to be there. No one can yet envisage a time when nurses, teachers or firemen can work from home but there are many people travelling every day to an office, to do a computer based job, who may well not need to. It is true that some people may actually enjoy their journey into work but having done the 'London run' by rail myself, there was little evidence of that for inter city commuters and the 'joy' of the daily work routine was captured wonderfully in the sit com 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'.
Commuting to a job, whether to the nearest city or just the next town, has only been the general way of working since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. The rise of factories and cotton mills required people for the first time to be in a particular place for a specific number of hours. Whereas if we look at the history of our ancestors, we can see that this is a fairly recent change in human history. During the Stone Age humans hunted for survival, so although they were hardly 'home workers', they were not required to be in a particular place or to keep to any timetable. They also had the bonus of benefiting directly from their efforts. They did not need any motivational courses or team bonding exercises. Those that did not hunt, who were often the women and children, were involved with subsistence farming, which would have revolved around their homes.
During the medieval period there was little change from the Stone Age in terms of how people worked, as they still provided for themselves by farming and producing goods within the village. Even with the worldwide trade created by the great empires of the Mongols, Turks and Romans, the local tradesmen still produced their food and goods in their villages or towns. The urbanisation of the West during the Middle Ages still did not essentially change the way individuals earned their living. So it was the industrial age that created the need for a place in which to work.
The mechanisation and the mass production that followed this industrial expansion led to cotton mills and factories which eventually employed most of the people who lived in the urbanised areas. Whole towns would come to rely on the work provided by the factory owners. There was also canal building, the creation of the railway system and coal mining, which all relied on manual labour. Coal mining especially was not just a way of working but also a way of life. Miners tended to live in tight-knit communities, which gave rise to an oral tradition, brass bands and social clubs for the working men. This bonding was partly due to the fact that people lived and worked together and also probably due to the dangerous nature of the job. So these were the first instances of people having a 'place of work' and although most of these old industries have now folded, the idea of 'going to work' has generally stayed with us today but things are now changing.
It was the 20th century that saw science and technology advance in leaps and bounds and it was the last decade of that century that saw the most significant advance for potential home working; the personal computer. Not that its full potential could have been realised initially. At first computers were just a tool in the workplace that allowed masses of information to be stored and time-consuming tasks to be done easily but the next major advance was the Internet. This allowed people international contact in a way never seen before. It has been held responsible for creating a global village which has led to changing attitudes to world events, as people can be instantly aware of what is happening elsewhere. There are debates about the pros and cons of this system but what is not in doubt is that it has made home working possible for many people, which could not have been envisaged before. You do not have to be in a specific location, to do a job that can be conducted through the web and this now applies to many jobs. This has allowed people to run their own business from home, which has led to the rise of new ideas, from internet marketing to drop shopping. It has also meant that companies have been able to employ people to work from home, which limits the amount of office space they have to provide. This home based employment could now lead people to live more 'local' lives as you would be more likely to shop and socialise close to home. In turn this could foster a sense of community spirit which some people feel has been lost during the 'commuting generation'.
So the technology of the 20th and 21st centuries that seemed to be creating and ever-widening gap between us and our predecessors, may ultimately bring us back to a more local way of life that would be more recognisable to our ancestors, than leaping on the 8.05 every morning. It seems that in working terms, history could be about to repeat itself.

Lesley is a home based marketer with a passion for helping others achieve life freedom through Internet Marketing. She has designed a free "getting started" bootcamp for you, claim yours at http://www.lesleypope.com

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