Most telecommuters enjoy being away from the office for part of the week simply to escape some of the office politics. They're still able to keep up on the "grapevine" via email and voice mail, but at least they aren't immersed in it all day long.

On the other hand, some people don't want to telecommute for fear they'll miss out on (or become a victim of) those office politics. I'll say one thing - in more than sixteen years of working in this field, I have not once come across a telecommuter who wanted to return to the office full-time because he/she missed dealing with office politics.