Maryella Gockel, who oversees flexible work scheduling at Ernst & Young in New York, believes it is still the employees who are driving the trend. At first the telecommuting bandwagon was led by new mothers who wanted to have more time with their children, she said. Then dads sought similar arrangements. And, finally, employees without children began requesting the same kind of scheduling options their co-workers were receiving — they wanted to devote more time to a hobby or just spend less time in traffic.

Bill Rocco, a mutual fund analyst for Chicago-based Morningstar, has been telecommuting for about nine years, initially from Corvallis, Ore., and now from Ashland, Ore. — a lifestyle he chose so that he could more easily indulge his love of the outdoors. He is at his desk by 7 a.m. — usually in shorts and sneakers — in order to work the same hours as his colleagues in the Central time zone.

Unlike Frudakis, Rocco said "it is really important to draw that boundary" between work and leisure, something he does by turning off the phone at the end of the day and before weekends. "Otherwise it would be too easy to work all the time," he said.

Kristen Havens, who markets books online from her Los Angeles apartment, e-mails frequently with her employer, but said that "socially, it is more isolating" than being in an office. Havens, an aspiring screenwriter, also writes a blog, and concedes this may be her way to make up for the lack of watercooler chatter in her life.

But these challenges are offset by perks, said Havens, who doesn't miss loud co-workers and loves being able to go to the gym at less busy hours.

More than a dozen people who telecommute or work from home said in interviews that they feel ever more connected to the workplace thanks to high-speed Internet connections that facilitate a steady flow of e-mail, teleconferences and instant messaging — the modern day equivalent of a tap on the shoulder. Moreover, the growing reliance on such non-face-to-face communication inside the traditional workplace suggests to them that the distinction between these two worlds is beginning to break down.

"People do get isolated in the cube," said Kevin Remlinger, an information technology project manager who works remotely from his home in Timonium, Md., for Cadence Design Systems Inc., which is based in San Jose, Calif.

By contrast, Remlinger said being a telecommuter forces him to be more proactive about developing solid relationships with co-workers. Remlinger said he spends about four hours a day on teleconferences — with co-workers in India, China, Germany and France and California — and that as a result "we know each other pretty well."

Jack Nilles, a Los Angeles-based workplace consultant who is widely credited with coining the term "telecommuting" more than three decades ago, said technology has never been the main barrier to a more flexible work schedule. Instead, it has been "the idea fixed in everybody's head that in order to do useful work you had to be someplace where the boss could keep an eye on you."

Fortunately that way of thinking is slowly becoming outdated, Nilles said.

Managers like Frudakis are leading the way.

"When you get away from the office environment," Frudakis said, "you can be more creative in your thought process."

That said, Frudakis visits PetAg's Illinois headquarters once a month and jams in as many face-to-face meetings with senior managers as she can. "I really enjoy being around co-workers," she said.