Josh Lubin’s article on CNN entitled “Working from home: Not for every ‘Mr. Mom’” immediately caught my eye. In it he gave a detailed account of how he tried to telework after the birth of his daughter, in order to spend more time with her and live the “Mr. Mom” lifestyle. This reflects one of the biggest reasons people choose to telecommute: more time for the family. As good as his intentions are, however, they weren’t enough to make things work.

At first it seemed like a good plan, as his job in a news firm allowed him to work from home, and his responsibilities could be dealt with via email and phone conferences. Initially, things went well. His productivity increased while avoiding the grind of early morning preparations and traffic jams. Then, the baby cried, and kept crying – louder – no matter what he did, right in the middle of a conference call. I could only imagine how nerve-wracking that was for him.

Situations like these underscore the importance of domestic arrangements for telecommuters, and why some decide to go back to the office. In the traditional setup, there’s a clear line between work and personal life, which is convenient for some people. One could argue that he could have gotten used to the arrangement, or even hire a part-time nanny while he worked to ease the transition, but for him I suppose he needed to go back to the office life while he sorted things out.

Another common reason why people would rather go back to the cubicle is the familiar phrase “out of sight, out of mind”. I’ve encountered this line of thought a lot over time, and there’s no denying there’s some truth to it. The best way to keep this kind of fear away, I think, is for companies themselves to institute concrete and non-discriminating performance evaluation procedures. After all, it shouldn’t matter if the employee is beside you or miles from you, as long as he gets the job done and does it well.

Other people cite loneliness and the need for interaction as a reason for preferring to work at the office. If you live on your own in an apartment outside your hometown, you may fall in this category. Still, for some, it’s the craving for a structured environment and even a preference for supervision, because telecommuting from home is taxing in terms of self-discipline. I’ve actually talked to a few people who would rather have a boss watching over them to motivate them to do their jobs well.

It could also be a matter of infrastructure needs not being addressed well enough in order to work efficiently at home. Not all companies support their teleworkers with sponsored broadband Internet connections and office equipment. There may be issues concerning ISP bandwidth and the security of corporate files. This points to the ideal that teleworking should be a joint decision between the individual employee and the company itself, with both parties actively sharing responsibility for ensuring the quality of work, as well as sharing the benefits of such – greater flexibility for the employee and significant cost savings for the employer, among many others.