BENIGN TO FIVE

Working from home. Some consider it a 21st-century necessity. Others believe it to be a grey wasteland where productivity goes to die.

Where do you stand? Before you answer, consider the fact that you'd be speaking to a newspaper and the impression that might leave upon others. Also consider these figures from a survey conducted by Haught Learnings:

● 67 per cent said they were likely or very likely to consider working from a hammock.

● 21 per cent admitted to sending emails to important colleagues at carefully chosen moments but doing no other work.

● 65 per cent said they worked in the nude and 54 per cent of those admitted to becoming distracted by their own jibbles and wibbles.

● 22 per cent of workers said they used the working from home opportunity to go interstate, while 7 per cent had gone overseas.

● 34 per cent of people who told their employees they were working from home for family reasons had no families.

● 79 per cent of respondents said their employers required them to report how many hours they had put in while working from home - 17 per cent of those put down the hours they spent playing Grand Theft Auto V.

This paints a damning (and slightly pornographic) picture, but the fact remains that at home there are no Denises to sidetrack you with mindless miscellanea, no Barbs to grind you down, no "moving forward" or "strategic learnings" or "synergies".

Swings and roundabouts, eh?