out of my 13 years experience in the industry I have telecommuted about 11
I work MORE as my boss is free to call my ALL THE !@#$@!#$ TIME and I am not stuck in traffic 1 hour and a half each day
The key to make this work without going crazy is
a) DO take your time for lunch, dont swallow it while you keep answering emails and solving problems, DO stuff like go to the gym etc
b) you MUST have an office space , PERIOD.....your office is 'there' when you are 'there' its work
c) your family etc must know you can NOT be disturbed with all sort of ridiculous things while you are at WORK
imho the best combination is both, go to an office at least 1/week , talk to your coworkers/bosses, have meetings etc and telecommute the rest
also you can NOT have idiotic excuses such as 'the dog ate the computer cord' , you MUST have dual ISPs, a decent UPS and two computers, in other words, minimize the 'I am really screwed, I cant be online' excuse.
in those 11 years , I have used it once as there was a major major blackout but I said, if you absolutely need me to solve something let me know and I will drive to a location where I can fix it
I am sure it wont work for everyone but once again, an intelligent employee (and you really dont need the other kind) will recognize these perks (implicit, explicit and also the disadvantages ) and will try to keep a good job