Open-collar

The white-collar worker and open-collar professional have been imbued from earliest schooling with an individualist, anti-labor organizational ethic. Added to this, the new technologies are being utilized, in some cases, to restore patterns of home work and piece work.

In qualitative studies, open-collar workers said they felt they accomplished more because there were fewer interruptions. Employers also find that offering telecommuting positions can give them a recruiting advantage.

Far from being some special breed in three-button suits, these hard-working people are blue collar as often as white collar and, increasingly, the open collar workers of the information age.