Some companies rethink the telecommuting trend

The call came toward the end of my hour as a recent guest on a Minnesota Public Radio talk show. "Jim from Minneapolis" said he and many of his telecommuting colleagues were being called back to the office.

After years of working productively from home, Jim said he was surprised and disappointed.

Although working from home has been expanding steadily, some chinks are appearing in the trend. A few big promoters of home-based and mobile-office work arrangements, including AT&T, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and parts of the federal government, have called some home-based workers back to the office, causing some to quit. The...