Tell people you work from home and you get the strangest questions, such as: "Do you get dressed in the morning?" Tempting as it is to reply: "No, I write all my articles in the nude," the reality is somewhat different.

But the reality of teleworking - using computers and telecoms to work from home - is not something you will find the technology industry filling you in on. Instead, it colludes with a fantasy view of teleworking because it encourages more people to do it, and sells more products.

Working at home is promoted as a kind of holiday or day off. Take Nokia's recent Working-from-home Walter advertisements for its secure remote access product. There's Walter, unshaven and wearing his dressing gown - exactly as if he was having a day off and had slept in.

If he really is planning to work, then not shaving and wearing his pyjamas is a somewhat morale-sapping way of starting the day, and I suggest he would be a lot more productive if he got dressed.

In fact, there is nothing like full-time teleworking - which I used to do - to make one realise how efficient and enjoyable working in an office is, at least some of the time.

True, the technological barriers to working at home are falling all the time, but here are just some of the things you get in an office that you can't get over high-speed broadband:

· You can socialise face to face without leaving the building, meaning more productive time for work . · You have people to bounce ideas off or suggest better ways of doing things.

· If you have a canteen, there is someone else to cook lunch and buy the food to make it.

· When you're busy, a colleague might make you tea, give you sympathy, answer your phone or do some research for you, boosting morale and making you more productive.

· There's a whole infrastructure of machinery you don't have to choose and maintain, such as your PC, office photocopier and printer.

· When things go wrong, you can share your grievances with people who do what you do, instead of obsessing about them.

· When you want to post a letter, you can just go down to the mail room instead of trekking to the postbox.

· Some of the people you work with may end up becoming friends or lovers.

· The people you work with now may offer you jobs in the future.

· But best of all, you have people to laugh with, which lifts the spirits and makes work fun.

In jail, solitary confinement is the top punishment, so why should working at home be so widely touted as a way of improving the work/life balance?

I am not saying teleworking has no advantages: it is great to do it for part of the week, or when you have detailed report writing to do. And it cuts time spent commuting.

But my advice would be: think before you telework full time. It may not be for you. However, if you really do want to work in the nude, or in a dressing gown such as Walter's, it may be the only option.

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