Reply #17: It doesn't even require a home office.

[Xithras]

I read a story a few years back about a bunch of workers (about 20 of them) who lived in Tracy California and commuted 65 miles (1.5 hours) each way to work in Cupertino every day. Their employer wasn't interested in allowing them to telecommute, but they eventually convinced them to rent a basic office space in an inexpensive business park right in Tracy. The employees took a small pay cut to help fund the remote office (the pay cut was substantially less than they were already spending in gas every month), and in return got to work only minutes from their homes. The company equipped the offices with webcams so they could be remotely monitored, but otherwise treated it as an offsite work location like any other.

It was hailed as a great experiement at the time, and I have no idea how well it worked out for them, but the basic idea seemed pretty sound. If the workers are in suburbia, move the jobs there. There's little reason to work in a central office nowadays.