My experience may be illustrative of why you should let some employees WFH. Out of the Navy, I got hired as a programming intern assigned to work on the database for "Mouse Works" for the Macintosh, which became "Microsoft Works" after Microsoft decided to publish it. I wrote the database and more. I also managed all three releases from 1984 to 1993 as the build engineer.

I did this all while working from home in Santa Cruz. Our small team all worked from home because the owner didn't want to spend money on an office. We got together every few weeks to compare notes and integrate our work.

After Works, I went to work for companies that required me to be in the office, which was the rule for the time. I found I couldn't perform in an office because there were too many distractions. I need peace and quiet to think, and never found that in the many office settings I worked at. I produced some passable work, but nothing like I had been able to do at home.

If your employees tell you they need to work at home to produce their best work, believe them.