But that definition has at times been expanded to include the self-employed; those whose work has to be done outside an office, such as taxi drivers, plumbers, truckers and construction workers; companies where everyone works remotely, so there is no brick-and-mortar office; and those who work at home one day or less a week.

If all of those workers are included, the number of Americans who work remotely can reach as high as 30 percent.

“No one would disagree that the U.S. work force is increasingly mobile,” said the Telework Research Network in a 2011 paper on the state of telecommuting. “But, beyond that broad statement, we know little about the rate of increase in mobility — how often people are out of the office, where they are, and what they’re doing. For that matter, there’s no agreed-upon method of defining who they are.”

Jennifer Glass, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, who has studied teleworking for two decades, said her research shows that much of what managers and professionals call telecommuting occurs after a 40-hour week spent in the office. These people check email, return calls and write reports from home, but in the evenings and weekends.

“Let’s be honest about what we’re talking about,” she said.

So what is agreed upon? For one, that it is not predominantly women who telecommute. Most research says it is at least equal between men and women, while Cali Williams Yost, chief executive of Flex & Strategy, said a telephone survey released last month by her company found that more men than women said they worked remotely.

Kipp Jarecke-Cheng fits right into the typical teleworker profile. He is 44, and for the last year has been director of global public relations and communications for Nurun, a design and technology consulting company based in Montreal. At his old job, he commuted about 45 minutes to Manhattan from his home in Maplewood, N.J., but he chose to telecommute to be closer to his family.

It took some time to get used to working at home, he said. Like many teleworkers, he found that communicating with his colleagues and subordinates was more difficult, at least initially.