[adrianhoward]

Agreed. As I said "often, all other things are not equal" :)

That said - it's generally been my experience that people are happy when they're being most productive, and vice versa. The most productive, gelled and happy teams I've worked with have all been co-located (which does not mean I think distributed teams are unhappy or unproductive).

I think many folk see teleworking as a solution to a bad onsite working environment. Often those people are not in a position to "fix" their normal working environment and it's the only option they have to be happier and more productive. More power to them.

Unfortunately, since poor onsite working environments are common, when those people are in a position to build their own teams, working environments and businesses they often miss the opportunity to build a great productive onsite environment - and then miss out on the productivity (and general happyness IMHO) wins that can get you.