With rising real estate costs and commute times and the volatility of gasoline prices, expect more of the same, says Wohl. Governments will continue to ease restrictions on business use of the home, and will encourage corporate teleworking.
The long-held but slowly disappearing laws forbidding home-based businesses will continue to fade -- or become moot, Wohl says. Governments will increasingly enact laws that forbid businesses that disrupt a neighborhood with noise, odors or electrical interference, but other than those emissions, most businesses will be allowed, he says.
They'll also come to realise that banned businesses mean license revenues not realised. "It's going to take a little while longer for communities to understand that if they [legislatively prohibit] home-based businesses in their communities, it will be a hollow law [because home-based entrepreneurs] will do what they did in the past and violate it," Wohl says. "By making it illegal, they're losing out on taxes."
Wohl believes more government employees will be encouraged to become independent contractors and, in turn, will contract their services back to the government. But instead of people working only for a single client, more people will become true "free agents," working with a number of clients and on a variety of projects, he says. These emerging work styles in government and the private sector are part of an effort to "re-humanise" the workplace, explains Wohl.
Corporations are harmonising their values with those of their employees and vendors, which is opening more doors to independent contractors and alternative work arrangements, including working with home-based vendors.
Finally, as local governments free citizens from regulations banning home enterprises, a wider audience will become comfortable with the at-home workplace. A new generation will become accustomed to working from the quiet environment of the home office, Wohl surmises, and that's how people will grow their experience in working at home.
