In Europe, where telework is all the rage, the European Union is also looking to replace asphalt with fibre optics when planning new highways.

On a national front, Canada now has one million teleworkers. Statistics Canada predicts this number to grow to 1.5 million by the year 2001. This confirms that telework is here to stay.

Telework proponents often tout the social and environmental benefits of working outside the office, such as more time for family and less traffic congestion and air pollution. Little attention, however, has been drawn to what proponents say is telework's most important benefit: increased employee productivity.