Telecommuting can feel a bit like the metric system sometimes: everyone tells you it will be the law of the land any day now, and yet it never actually seems to happen. The truth is, lots of people are making it work today, and the technology exists. However, there are some powerful social imperatives that are holding it back.

Probably the strongest hurdle telecommuting has to face is the micro-managing supervisor. Some in middle management seem to assume that any time an employee isn’t being watched like a hawk, they immediately stop doing anything productive and split their time between playing WoW and stealing office supplies. While there probably are folks like that, the fact that they need such strenuous management probably means they cost most than they’re worth, especially in today’s tightening economy. As corporations turn more and more to outsourcing, this sort of resistance to telecommuting gets weaker and weaker. In a world where results matter more than processes, it’s a lot harder to justify in-your-face micromanagement. Besides, employees who never set foot in the office have fewer chances to filch paperclips.

Almost as powerful is the now nearly universal assumption that good people leave their homes every weekday morning to commute to work. It’s a habit ingrained in us since we were kids going to elementary school. It’s the daily migrations of the man in the gray flannel suit. That’s just how the world works. And, for many people, it will continue to work that way. Some jobs just are not suited to telecommuting. Many service sector jobs require face-to-face interactions with customers and clients. But as businesses look for ways to scale back their costs, the obvious savings in building space, computer equipment, and custodial services that come with telecommuting are impossible to ignore. And as the corporate world finally embraces telecommuting out of necessity, their smaller cousins will likely follow suit. Working from home (or, as it was more commonly known, the farm) used to be the way everyone did it. The Industrial Revolution transformed our habits and our assumptions about how “normal” people earned a living. The Digital Revolution will almost certainly follow suit.

Maintaining group cohesion and cooperation is a serious concern, but one that technology has gone a long way to overcoming. Wireless communications and notebooks make it easy to work from anywhere. File-sharing sites like Google Docs can insure that everyone is literally working off the same page. Firewalls are not just for servers these days and software from companies like Symantec and Webroot can keep home desktops and roving laptops safe. A virtual PBX with flexible but robust hunting rules allows you to route customers quickly to the person they need to talk to, even if that person isn’t in some central office. And when you really need some face-to-face time, teleconferencing software with webcams can put everyone anywhere at the conference table.

Finally, there are the personal preferences. Some people just need to get out of the house and honestly enjoy the “water cooler culture”. Being cooped up at home all day is agony for these folks. Luckily for them, entrepreneurs are already ahead of the curve. In addition to the ubiquitous coffee shops and cafes that already cater to the lounge chair business types, we’ve begun to see virtual office centers, locations where you can rent a single office or conference room by the hour, or for long-term arrangements. Not only do these allow you to get out of the house and keep business and family life separate, but they also give you far greater flexibility in choosing who you see every day. Can’t get along with the guy in the next office over? Just rent a different office or move to a new building entirely.

The forces moving us toward telecommuting seem to grow stronger every day. For employees, it’s the need for flexible schedules that better allow juggling work with family, and the always increasing traffic issues that aggravate every commuter. For businesses, telecommuting promises greater control over expenses and happier employees who are more focused on delivering results. The technology is there and the will is growing. Telecommuting is a trend whose time has come.