Working from home can be productive, providing you follow a few guidelines.
Being the first to push a boundary is often nerve-racking, as the Peoplebank executive Michelle Cooper found when returning from maternity leave last year.
"I requested to work Thursday and Friday from home and finish at 4pm the other days," the IT recruiter's national manager of people and performance says, noting she was the first in the company's leadership team to do so. "It was setting a precedent."
Happily, her boss was onside, pointing out he was more interested in what Cooper achieved than where she worked.
It's a position many envy. A recent report commissioned by the registered training organisation Upskilled found that 27 per cent of Australians believe working from home would make them happier employees.
Since Cooper began working remotely, Peoplebank has continued reviewing its program.
"A few years back it was more about those with family responsibilities but [now] we're looking at flexibility overall," Cooper says.
"For Gen Y it's about lifestyle and for baby boomers [it's about] looking to slow down. Flexibility is a retention strategy for us."
The pharmaceutical company sanofi-aventis has realised the same thing.
"In 2010 we agreed we needed to become a more flexible organisation," its human resources director, Ronan Carolan, says.
"Turnover was high so we needed to do things differently."
Working from home became part of a broader program offering flexible hours, leave and location.
"The policy now is that anyone can ask to work remotely. You have to be performing to expectations and submit how it is going to work," Carolan says.
Although the process started quite formally (10 per cent to 15 per cent of sanofi employees are now on formal "remote work" arrangements), 30 per cent now have an informal arrangement with their boss, including Carolan.
If there is no such policy in your own workplace, you'll need to explain how you'll meet key performance indicators under the new arrangement.
You can also suggest starting slowly. "[Offer to] start it as a trial for two or three months, to see what's working or not working," Carolan says.
Then, ensure you remain accessible to those on site.
"Initially people here thought, 'Don't disturb him, he's working at home'," he says. "But it's about people understanding it's just like a day at the office. I'm at home today and I've already had numerous calls from the office."
Although starting a company-wide program with trusted employees first can allay bosses' fears, Carolan says trust is part of the package regardless of location. "You have to trust people when they're at work anyway - they can be sitting on a computer looking like they're doing something but be Googling," he says. "If people are meeting expectations, does it matter if they do it from home?"
Although most workers negotiating remote arrangements are after only a day or two out of the office, some are in the position to work from home permanently.
Ashleigh McInnes has been running her PR firm from home for more than a year and soon learnt how to make it work.
"You need to find the right layout," she says. "When I started out I was living in a two-bedroom apartment and working out of the second bedroom. My employee worked at the kitchen bench. There was no separation from work and home. Now, we live in a three-bedroom, two-storey townhouse, so work rooms are on the ground and 'life' is carried out on the top."
While many work from home to loll about in a tracksuit, McInnes says dressing professionally is key to her productivity.
"I always wear work clothes, including make-up and high heels, even if I don't have meetings that day. I feel far more focused that way," she says.
Cooper says her success in working from home comes down to planning ahead.
"You need to organise your time and yourself," she says. "If you don't have a printer or scanner at home or [you have] a slow one, do that while you're in the office. Find a way to communicate with your direct reports - obviously they can use the phone but we also introduced Skype as a means for answering quick questions."
Many who start working remotely are unlikely to want to go back. Carolan says staff at sanofi love it and he believes it's part of the reason turnover has halved.
"Employers get a lot out of it. I've got no doubt you get your day's work or more," he says.