One more minute of retreat under the duvet to indulge once again in that dream of the Lotto win, and lust after the sunny stillness of a Caribbean island . . . or even just staying in bed for another hour every morning.

An escape route other than the numbers game has now entered the frame though; it's real, it's possible and it cuts out all of the above frustrations and irritations at once.

It's fast becoming the supposed Irish remedy for a growing corporate malaise.

It's called teleworking, the low-cost, no-frills way of working. It's about cutting out the destination option, staying put and setting up office in the spare room In our dreams though, it's about sleeping in and watching Countdown, and it's the dreams that sell us the realities we opt for in the end.

A few years back we toyed with the idea that power relations were getting a makeover at work and that rank no longer had meaning in the modern organisation. Hierarchies were re-engineered to look flatter, MDs went by their first name, departments were renamed teams, suits were replaced by smart casuals and a shift from the formal systems of old to something new emerged.

Just as we flounder in the novel ways of Chinos and cord, we are told that place can go the route of rank. Location, location, location . . .

although place may blight our every thought when it comes to domestic arrangements, it doesn't matter at all where you're working. As long as you're meeting your targets and making yourself scarce, you could pitch a tent in Killarney, set up your PC and your wireless broadband and nobody'd care, we're told.

Moving staff from the office to their homes is being embraced as a way of working by organisations who want to save on rents, focus on the bottom line and rid themselves of the messy chaos people bring to work.

Hold on to the handrails, though, as it may just be a bumpier ride than you ever thought going nowhere would entail.

Congestion, frustration and alienation are not just the preserves of the workplace.The world of noise and grime and other people mightn't be so bad after all and there's more to the endeavour than changing Noddy curtains to blinds, buying in broadband and selling the car.

Teleworking is not new, but the Irish Quarterly Household Survey 2002 . . . the last time the CSO took the nation's temperature on the subject . . . indicates its uptake (back then) at around 10% of the non-agricultural workforce. Pundits expect people to opt for the 'working from home' options over the next ten years as technology develops and commute times increase due to high house prices in industrial hubs close to the work sites forcing people farther and farther away.

Decentralisation, too, will bring teleworking to many who don't want to relocate and for many large consultancy firms located in costly Dublin 2, those who opt for teleworking are paid generous expenses rate to offset the cost of the space, without incurring commercial rates on the 10' x 10' boxroom.

There's no doubt that time is saved, frustrations are avoided and the daily interactions that getting out there involve are cut. You still communicate, by phone and email, you take your breaks, you may even dress in a suit each morning, but you do it on your own terms, from your own place, in your own time.

Don't you?

We're back to the old rhetoric verses reality dilemma again.

Working from home can bring great liberation and contentment to those who take it up, and there are ways to design the set-up so that it's more likely to be a success.

But be warned . . . there's lots of evidence that it can also be hell at home, and not just for the worker either.

There are many invisible and ignored benefits gained from going out to work. The tasks we do are but a part of the daily challenges we face, and all of these stimulate us and help us grow and learn.

The queue for that coffee, the banter in the lift, the negotiating the traffic, the smell of the tyre plant, the familiar drone of the Dart, the assault on our senses that being out in the world brings about . . .

they all matter.

We are not aware of most of the texture of the day, but somehow it influences us and affects us. Take it away and we notice an absence; like all the fundamentals of human existence, it bypasses the cold calculated brain and we only sense it through the vacuum left by its departure.

Teleworking takes us away from that struggle, and as it does so, it also strips our day of these necessary tribulations. They have to be factored back in to keep us connected and that's why design is so important to any teleworking system.

It is a dangerous game merely to send someone home and hope for the best.

Sitting at home and doing similar work will not result in the same outputs unless there is some attempt to replicate the real-world environment and stimulate the person's whole person, instead of just their task-oriented 'worker' behaviours.

On the simplest physical level, this means replacing the physical exertion we engage in by even walking to the car or public transport every day, getting that stretch of the legs which gets lost on long winter days indoors.

Psychologically, it means imposing an order, scheduling in-house meetings, teleconferencing regularly, having skilled, different management practices, bringing conversation and 'shoot the breeze' communication into the equation.

Not an easy system to effect.

Those one-time hopefuls who opted to stay under the duvet for the extra hour sometimes clamber to go back to the noise and the chaos, the distraction and the distant drives they once were desperate to leave behind.

They go back due to alienation, or frustration, and they wait, as do we all, for the numbers game to come up trumps before the real Caribbean island dreams can ever really become reality.

How to design and implement a good teleworking system 1. Realise its not for everyone: think about psychometric testing for type and engage in career counselling before any selection process.

2. Provide training up front, not halfway in. Cover topics such as time management, scheduling, protocols, rules and procedures of teleworking. Be specific.

3. Don't rely only on measurable results; design methods and processes too.

4. Encourage a group approach so those beginning teleworking are in group contact through email and meetings to discuss its effects and challenges.

5. Set up rotating routines . . .

in-office meeting once a week, conference call every Wednesday, buddy systems for ongoing support/contact.

6. Factor in 'informal days' in the office once a month . . . no set tasks, but networking, phone calls, admin, rotating staff.

7. Telework management is not like in-situ management.

It's less surveillance-oriented, more results-oriented, and requires a more skilled interpersonal approach. Train and develop managers new to it.

8. Reconvene every three months to assess progress.

9. Go the extra mile: subsidise gym membership/social club activity. You are ultimately trying to keep people healthy at home, not hot-housed.