The research is in:  Working from home is bad for your career, your bank account, and your sex life.

More than 45 million Americans work at home in some capacity. And having the company’s blessing to do so has been linked to higher levels of employee morale and loyalty.

But working too often from home can be hazardous to your career. “It sends the message that even if your job isn’t expendable, you may be,” says Paul M.A. Baker, Ph.D., who studies telecommuting as the director of research for the center for advanced communications policy at Georgia Institute of Technology. “If you can do your job outside an office environment, so could someone else—at potentially half the price.”

In fact, a recent Korn/Ferry International survey found that 78 percent of executives believe telecommuters are at least as productive as office workers, but only 39 percent said they’re equally likely to promote someone who works from home. “Everything has a price,” says Baker. Here are seven other ways you’ll pay.

1  Your work will suffer. In a recent study, 44 percent of chief information officers said that telecommuters do lower-quality work. The reason: less in-person contact. “We laugh about the watercooler, but we learn an extraordinary amount there, especially through nonverbal channels,” Baker says.

2  You’ll communicate less clearly. No office chit-chat means you can dive right into your to-do list, right? Not true, Baker says. One company he studied created a virtual environment and found that communication became more complicated when employees used just e-mail and IM. “They saw a decay in the community workplace within 2 to 3 weeks,” Baker says. “Projects also became harder to manage.”

3  You won’t build trust among coworkers. “Around here, if somebody is sick, we buy and all sign a get-well card,” says Gregory K. Stephens, Ph.D., an associate professor and chairman of the department of management at Texas Christian University. “It’s a tiny thing, but it builds relationships. Multiply that by 1,000 times—that’s what you’re missing when you work from home.”

4  You’ll work less efficiently. You can learn more—more quickly—by working in the office, says Baker. At home, “you don’t have your boss or a colleague walking by and saying, ‘Hey, that’s not the best way of doing it. Here’s how you can save some time.’ ”

5  You’ll have less sex. “Research shows that men are increasingly meeting their future girlfriends or wives at work,” says Dawn Carlson, Ph.D., an associate professor of management at Baylor University and coauthor of Beyond Juggling: Rebalancing Your Busy Life. “It’s often indirectly. You go out to a bar and friends of coworkers show up, and you hit it off with one of them.”

6  You’ll miss opportunities to shine. The company president is walking down the hall to get his morning coffee when a billion-dollar idea strikes him. He needs someone to execute it. Joe’s in his office, and that’s how Joe invents the next iPod. “There’s quite a bit of serendipity that happens in the workplace,” Baker says.

7  You won’t be seen as a go-to guy. Want to seem indispensable to your boss? Make a habit of helping him defuse crises, brainstorm new ideas, and detangle nasty office situations. “When you’re not in the office, you’re not available for quick on-site projects,” says David Fleming, one of the pioneers of telecommuting. “There’s a perception that the crisis can’t be handled by a person working from home.”

TED SPIKER

Don't Try This at Home

Telecommuters have one thing in common: they're going nowhere. Here's why real players schlep to the office 5 days a week

By Gil Schwartz Photograph by Kevin Cooley

THOUGHT #8  WHAT’S HIS REAL AGENDA? Maybe Bob is sick of working so hard. Maybe his wife wants him to be home more. Maybe he’s already been doing other stuff for 6 hours a day and wants nobody to find out about it. Maybe he’s got a goat in the garage that he wants to fondle every noontime before lunch.

I’ll tell you one thing: It’s mysterious. I hate mysterious. I hate not knowing what people are up to, particularly when they don’t want me to. Maybe he’s working for the competition! What do I actually know about this fellow, really? What do any of us know about each other, when you get right down to it? You know what you see. What you don’t see, you don’t know. So everything I’m going to know about this wanker will come over an electronic hookup? That really sucks!

THOUGHT #9  DO I HONESTLY CARE IF I DON’T GET TO SEE THIS JOKER EVERY DAY?
Know what? I don’t. Not if he doesn’t want to see me! In fact . . .

THOUGHT #10  WHY AM I EVEN BOTHERING TO LISTEN TO THIS? Good question. Get this guy out of my sight.

“So, Bob,” I say, after a pause in which all of the above notions rocket around my brain. “I suppose we could work something out. I’ll be looking at your numbers even more carefully than usual, of course. But I see no reason why I can’t accommodate your request.”

“Thanks,” says Bob. He departs, leaving me alone to think about who I’ll hire to replace him. It won’t be hard. I’ll just look for someone who wants to show up for work every day.

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But if you must...

HOW TO WORK FROM HOME WITHOUT SCREWING UP YOUR CAREER

Step 1  Negotiate expectations. Your boss may be okay with your working from home, but now comes the tough part: making your pitch to a more skeptical audience—your coworkers. “It’s vital that your colleagues understand what you’ll be doing, why you’ll be doing it from home, and what they can expect from you each day, week, month, and year,” says Dawn Carlson, Ph.D., an associate professor of management at Baylor University and coauthor of Beyond Juggling: Rebalancing Your Busy Life. You want to be as transparent as possible. “Make sure you put everything in writing,” suggests Carlson.

Step 2  Requisition the best equipment. Employers are often tempted to give secondhand equipment to people working at home, says Gregory Stephens, Ph.D., an associate professor and chairman of the department of management at Texas Christian University. But telecommuters should really have the best technology, he says, because it’s much harder for them to request and receive technical support.

Step 3  Schedule spontaneous communication. Pick a point person and check in with him or her by phone several times a day, says Stephens. No matter how hard you’re working, many coworkers—and maybe even your boss—will assume you’re playing Solitaire all day long. Checking in routinely will at the very least reduce the jealousy and snarkiness, Stephens says.

Step 4  Make sure your office has a crappy view. Set up a separate space, away from the household hubbub. “My office is a converted dining room that faces out the front of the house,” Stephens says. “I keep the blinds down, because I don’t want my neighbors to see me and come knocking on my door. Likewise, I don’t want to see them and be lured outside.”

Step 5  Show your face often. Successful telecommuters visit the mother ship regularly, even if it’s not necessary for a work project to be completed, says Paul M.A. Baker, Ph.D., who studies telecommuting as the director of research for the center for advanced communications policy at Georgia Tech. “Marketing is a big part of any job. When you work from home, that doesn’t happen automatically. You have to really make the effort.”

TED SPIKER