Working from home sounds ideal. Get up when you like, no more traffic jams and child-minding bills would become a thing of the past.

About four million Europeans are currently teleworking, twice as many as two years ago.

Advances in key technologies like mobile phones, the Internet and the growing use of Intranets has enabled more people to swap their office for working in the comfort of their own home.

It is European Teleworking Week and the Department of Trade and Industry in the UK are publishing a new guide for those in industry who want to join what is being called the 'Information Society'.

If you were given the choice, would you abandon the office to work from home?

Critics of this new approach to working think it is impractical. They argue that workers would face more distractions at home, especially if there are children around.

Personal contact with other employees would be lost which could have an impact on effective communication within a department.

However campaigners for teleworking say it improves the quality of working life, providing flexibility and freedom from constraints imposed by distance and time.

If fewer people had to travel to work then it would reduce the amount of traffic on the roads and therefore help tackle pollution.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is urging companies to implement more child-friendly policies.

They are concerned that parents are not spending enough time with their children, and see job-sharing and teleworking as viable ways of changing this.

What do you think?

Should we all work from home?

Your reaction in full

Back to top | BBC News Home | BBC Homepage | ©