More than a decade ago, I worked almost exclusively from home for a handful of years and would not consider it time well spent career wise. In organizations where most IT staff work on-prem, my perception is that the "work from home" team member is typically not the perceived expert or go-to person except in regard to whatever narrow niche they have carved for themselves; they are essentially in a lynch-pin position maintaining a legacy product that on-prem staff know little about (and perhaps care little about).

However, if we're talking about an IT centric company with a geographically dispersed workforce where working from home is the norm, then the dynamics are different. You just don't want to be the odd guy out working from home while everyone else is on-prem.

Phil, that remark about sympathetic neighbors offering odd jobs is both funny and poignantly true.