Work how, when and where you want to

Work no longer has the same straight concept as before, which would be to go to work in the morning, then come back home at night everyday, except on weekends (in some cases). Many new words such as Work from Home, Part time, Flex Time, Freelancer, Teleworking have been brought to the World of business. Here's an explanation for all these working options:

Teleworking:

In a telecommuting arrangement, the employee works from a home office for either a portion of or all of the work week. He or she maintains a presence in the office electronically via phone, fax, pager and e-mail and is usually, at a minimum, required to participate in some quarterly, monthly or weekly meetings at the work location.

Work from Home:

A work from home arrangement involves working from home and differs from the teleworking/telecommuting arrangement in that it does not require that the employee stays electronically connected to the work location during business hours. Work performed is generally done independently so does not require team interaction or consistent communication. It also is more likely that the employee can live far from the actual location of the business for which he or she is working because face to face contact at the location may not be necessary.

Flex Time:

This alternative work arrangement, flexible scheduling, allows an employee to work a non-traditional schedule to meet personal needs. Generally, a flexible schedule is agreed to and worked for a period of time. Some employers do, however, allow employees to shift schedules daily as personal needs require. Several kinds of Flex-Time arrangements are popular including:
- Compressed Work Week: employee works a full time job in less than 5 working days. An example is 4 ten hour days.
- Core Hours Schedule: An employer defines core work hours (10:00 AM to 3:00 PM for example) during which employees must be at work. Each individual can then pick an arrival and departure time, for a total of 8 hours of work per day, which meets his or her needs and includes the core hours. For instance, one employee may choose to start the day at 6:30 AM and leave at 3:00 PM (allowing 1/2 hour for lunch), while another may prefer to start at 10:00 AM and leave at 6:30.
- Adjusted Lunch Period: An employee may choose to take time off in the middle of the day to work out or run errands and then adjust the start or leave time accordingly. For instance, an employee starts the day at 8:00 AM and then is off from 11-1 to go to the gym. The normal work day would then end at 6:00 PM.

Part Time:

A part time arrangement is available only when the responsibilities of a job can be decreased by giving an employee a smaller service area, fewer projects or where a section of the job can be split off and delegated to someone else. The work delegated to others can be fully separated from the part time employee's work.

Freelance:

Freelance or contract work can be a great way to work from home. Organizations are often looking for individuals with great skills to work on short term projects. If you opt for this type of alternative work arrangement, you will not be an employee of the company. However, the advantage is that you can pick and choose the projects that you wish to bid on. Name your price, sell your skills and do the work, generally from home. If the project does not sound fun or challenging skip it! The internet has made it very easy to find this kind of alternative work arrangement.