More firms are choosing to outsource their secretarial and administrative work to specialist companies or freelancers, it has been suggested.

Through technological advances such as virtual private networks and VoIP, secretaries can often be just as effective outside the office as in it, according to Richard Phillips of internet-based transcriptions service Outsec.

"The outsourcing industry for secretarial work is exploding at the moment," he told the Guardian.

"They can work from home, determine their own working practices and have a huge amount of control over what they're doing."

Outsourcing practices are becoming more common as firms look to reduce their impact on the environment through commuting, while there are also benefits in efficiency to allowing home working since employees are more readily contactable outside the office.

Mr Phillips added that a further boon of home working is that it also removes the chance of an employee being victimised because of a disability or prejudices such as sexism or ageism.

"Over the internet, the only thing that matters is whether you can do the job well," he said.