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The poll was contained in a report entitled "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere: The Changing Face of Work," which was sponsored by the Positively Broadband Campaign, an industry body that promotes the use of broadband. The Winston Group, who polled 1,000 registered voters in April of this year, conducted the survey.
The report found that 54 percent of Americans think that telecommuting would improve the quality of their lives. Among those that commute an hour or more a day, this view jumped to 66 percent.
"Almost 20 percent of Americans are spending an hour or more commuting every day, and I would suspect that virtually everyone who does so is sick of it," said Harris N. Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, the group behind the Positively Broadband Campaign. "That is why we think e-work is one of the applications with the power to catapult broadband to the next level."
The report also found that forty-three percent of respondents indicated that they would be a better spouse or parent if they were able to telecommute. Forty-six percent said their quality of work would improve.
The survey also found that workers have concerns about telecommuting, with 20 percent of respondents feared that they would not have enough contact with their fellow workers if they telecommuted.
The new report follows a survey conducted in the summer of 2001 by the International Telework Association and Council (ITAC), a non-profit organisation that promotes telework. ITAC found that 80 percent of telecommuters said that they are more satisfied with their jobs, are more productive and feel more loyal to their employers. Three-quarters of at-home teleworkers reported a major increase in productivity and work quality.
Teleworking is also growing in Europe. According to a recent report the by the EU-backed Institute for Employment Studies, entitled "Modelling eWork in Europe", the number of individual e-workers could grow from 9 million in 2002 to almost 27 million across the EU by 2010.
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