MORE than one million people do it regularly, rediscovering a little extra zest at home at a time when they might normally be at the office. If only they weren’t made to feel guilty about it.

They are Britain’s increasing army of staff who spend at least part of their week working from home. Research today by the Work Foundation think-tank shows that there has been a 65 per cent increase since 1996, predominantly among men in senior jobs.

Yet people who work from home were often made to feel guilty, as if they had been given some kind of perk, said Tim Dwelly, the report’s co-author.

“All the evidence points to homeworking being remarkably productive. Fewer days are lost to illness, commuter stress is avoided and there is less time-wasting. Employees working from home know that they must demonstrate work value to their employer.

“In contrast, office staff are frequently judged by the number of hours they spend there. In too many organisations, managers reserve the right to work from home for themselves, but remain suspicious when staff want to do it. This makes no business sense.”

The report says that the benefits include improving employees’ “work-life balance”, boosting productivity, reducing traffic and congestion, assisting regional development, increasing Britain’s reputation as a digital economy and benefiting local economies by helping people to stay in, or return to, remote rural areas.

The deterrents from the employers’ point of view included the challenge that it could present to managers’ traditional authority, the need to measure homeworkers’ output and the interference of domestic commitments into work.

Yvonne Bennion, policy specialist at the Work Foundation, said that homeworking succeeded best when it was based on a relationship of trust. The study, based on interviews with 25 employers, predicts that tax changes in last month’s Budget to make homeworking cheaper for employers and the recently introduced right to request flexible working will increase demand for homeworking among employees. But employers needed to give up a “Big Brother” obsession with keeping staff where they could see them.

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