[dtennent]

I have a bias since I worked in Research and Development my entire career. Obviously, it is hard to do sophisticated lab work or run a pilot line from home. Aside from that, there were a number of times when I overheard conversations either in the hallway or in the cafeteria that involved people outside of my team or direct reports. These inputs lead to inspirations on how to solve problems that my team was facing. I don't know how you can properly assign value to the overheard comment or the chance meeting of someone that leads to further the innovative process. Giving an employee the opportunity to work from home to take care of a sick child is an important exception. However, given that I have lead projects that took research ideas and converted them into products, I can't imagine how that could be done from home in Research and Development.