When colleagues say they are "working from home", co-workers have long suspected that this in fact equates to sitting around, drinking tea and watching TV.
Well now it seems that they are right to be dubious - the truth is out, thanks to a new survey undertaken by Nectar Business.
This has discovered that many of those that work from home do so in their pyjamas, or even from the bathroom, pub or local café.
It appears that 8 per cent of women never manage to get changed at all during the day, while 27 per cent have held a business call while they were in the bath. Four out of ten admit that they use "working from home" to catch up with household chores, while 39 per cent of people have taken a business call whilst out with friends at a bar, pub or café.
The Office for National Statistics suggests that working from home has become far more common, thanks to the widespread proliferation of broadband connections at home; smart phones, which allow people to browse their emails on the move; and the increasing proportion of women who have returned to the workplace after having children.
Over a quarter of the British workforce "sometimes" work at home. The number of people working "mainly" at home is just 2.9 per cent of the workforce at 851,000 – an almost doubling since 1996.
The rise in home working has had a beneficial effect on Britain, according to the Trades Union Congress, which calculated that it had contributed to the shrinking of the average commute time, falling from 49.2 minutes in 1998 to 47.8 minutes a decade later.
The survey did suggest that for all the slackers, there was a handful who insisted on keeping up with office etiquette. One in ten men, who worked from home said they did so in a suit and tie.
