While most people jump in their cars or walk to public transportation to get to work, Darren Pleasance starts up his plane.

Pleasance's family decided to make Bend, Oregon, their permanent home in 2010 even though it meant flying back and forth to the Bay Area for him. When he was tapped by Google to lead its global customer acquisitions team a couple of years later, he explained he would be out of the country most of the time.

"I had done 15 years on the road consulting, so I could say, 'Look I'm not going to be an absentee manager,'" Pleasance said. "'I'll be in Mountain View or anywhere else in the world.' And they could believe me."

Allowing him to remain a 10-hour drive — or a 70-minute commercial flight — away from Mountain View, California, wouldn't be that big of a deal, he contended. Plus, the licensed pilot promised he would check in often, whether it was virtually or flying himself in. Google agreed – and the situation has worked ever since.

"Everything we do is via video conference so I have an office set up at home," he said. "It doesn't matter where I am."