The word iovirtuallo has become a potent buzzword and as such, is freely applied to many situations, with many meanings. As a result, it, like other buzzwords, is in danger of meaning nothing. In this paper, we develop a more precise understanding of the use of the word iovirtualli to describe changing work environments. Our specific contribution is to propose a framework to classify these different work environments based on the type of discontinuities involved. This framework enables us to compare research across a variety of different topics and work settings and further develop a foundation for future research investigating managing and working in this new environment. In this paper, we test our framework by using it to classify 75 published articles on virtual work environments and from earlier research streams.