Telecommuting, e-commuting, e-work, telework, or working from home (WFH) is a work arrangement in which employees enjoy limited flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Telework is a broader term, referring to substituting telecommunications for any form of work-related travel, thereby eliminating the distance restrictions of telecommuting.[1] All telecommuters are teleworkers but not all teleworkers are telecommuters. A frequently repeated motto is that "work is something you do, not something you travel to".[2] A successful telecommuting program requires a management style which is based on results and not on close scrutiny of individual employees. This is referred to as 'managing by objective' as opposed to 'managing by observation'. The terms 'telecommuting' and 'telework' were coined by Jack Nilles and were first used in the United States.

There are drawbacks to telecommuting and virtual offices. Telecommuting has come to be viewed as more a "complement rather than a substitute for work in the workplace".[6] Intranet access for the telecommuter may be slow due to telephone or modem connections and may be blocked for security reasons. Remote use of groupware, browsing, and downloading may be excruciatingly slow; and therefore, the capacity for work over a telephone line is greatly reduced, although the advent of broadband is changing this limitation. As for the life of the home telecommuter, fellow employees in the home office sometimes resent home telecommuters. The home telecommuter becomes socially isolated and further job advancement is more difficult to achieve. Work hours at home can either be not enough or too much, and there may be too many distractions at home. Employers risk loss of data confidentiality and integrity because of the lack of access control in the home office. Certain office functions such as corporate culture, loyalty, communication, access to people, and managerial control have yet to be replaced by the virtual office. Lastly, the cost of computing at the main office is increased.