Work in the office or wok at home?

You can make a good argument that working in an office surrounded by colleagues and within range of bosses is the smartest way to go. For one, you get to keep up on all the office gossip, which can be invaluable. For another, you don’t have the “out of sight, out of mind” worries that those who work remotely do. You can make an equally good argument that working at home with no loss of commuting time and less stress on family life is the thing to do.

For one, your productivity is not decreased by all that time spent gossiping. For another, you don’t have the “uh-oh, here comes the boss with another ridiculous assignment” terrors that in-office counterparts do. Clearly, with only about 5% of the U.S. 1 has been winning out in workplaces. But it may be time for more companies to pick Door No. 2, given recent studies that show remote workers are more satisfied, and more productive, than the cubicle-bound.

Most companies want workers under the boss’s eye not because they fear losing touch but because they fear losing control.