Quitting job; my company made me good counter-offer

[mreilly]

Boy, this is a tough one and I'd sure appreciate some of that brilliant DU insight. :-)

I'm a computer guy who has worked about an hour from my house for several years now. Because the commute was so crappy and the pace of the job more strenuous than I would like (we run from emergency to emergency without much chance to take a breath) I accepted a job closer to home thanks to the tireless efforts of a friend who works at this new company and kept telling his employer they should give me a chance because I was a superstar.

Now my current employer has made me a golden counter-offer: work from home full-time and stay with them. Come in as needed (the catch there is it might be daily, or once a month; most of what I do CAN be done remotely as long as the devices I need to work on are connected to the network; I have remote access from my home PC).

If only they'd offered me that a month or even 2 weeks ago, but now I feel I've committed to start working for the new company. They're excited to have me come on board to help out, and I'll be putting my friend in a lousy situation if I bail out on the situation since it was he who was my inside connection, telling them I was a good worker and honest guy.

I also feel that it might be better for my career to take the new job since I'll be working with some new stuff and continuing to socially network with people. The problem with working from home is that your career/social skills might stagnate.

I'm leaning towards continuing to take the job at the new company to fulfill my commitment to do so and start fresh with a new perspective at a new place. But I also hate to see the last of many of my coworkers, with whom I discussed this situation and all of whom feel I should cancel the new job and stay on working remotely.

Anyone know what the heck is the best option here?