Hunting for the gas saving carrot

One of the reasons I accepted my current position was the ability to work from home. When first having conversations with them it was going to be 100% at home, but with a few occasional client trips. Works for me. Then about 2 weeks before my start date it became, 2 days a week in the office and the rest of the time from home. I think it was 2 days before I began that it became 100% in the office for the first month or two of training - then it will go to the 2 days in 3 days out model. Fine. Makes sense to me.

I'm on month 7 and I'm still driving 5 days a week. The carrot of working from home is firmly in place, but just when I think that it's almost in reach, they get a longer stick.

Making this change would be great for my time management, great for the company (in ways I can't describe here for risk of leaking my super-secret identity), an extra income benefit (Which would officially be my first benefit as the company does not provide any others. Of ANY kind.), and oh so importantly - would be a major check mark for me on my living healthy mental checklist.

So for this reason, the whole benefits thing, and a host of other issues, I believe I'm going to start up my job hunt again. But I have an interesting quandary. How soon can I ask about telecommuting? I don't want to work at home 100% of the time. 1-2 days a week at home would be absolutely ideal. In for meetings, for team building, to develop relationships - all great things. I've seen a few employers totally turned off by asking about working from home though I've never understood it. Every job where I've worked from home I was actually more productive than when in the office - at least 95% of the time. The other 5% is for when I'd work from home while sick. So yea, less productive than normal - but more productivity than if I'd just taken the day off for sure! I've seen some articles that show it's gaining in favor, but not quite enough to make me confident bringing it up in a 1st interview.

I'll keep looking for input here - and I'll keep hoping the perfect job will come along. With tons of benefits, a corporate recycling program, parking spots for carpoolers and a bold telecommuting policy. Fingers crossed.