Apart from the issue of trust, if you are managing a project you should be talking to your direct reports every day - not all day, but every day. As we all know, our industry has an abysmal track record for projects, and they don't fail because we don't know all the property settings on the grid control - they fail because we don't communicate.

As a manager, you probably have some sense of what can get done. You have the right to have a 2- or 3-minute telecon with each of your people, and ask (1) did you get done as much as we had hoped when we talked yesterday, (1a) if the answer is too often 'no', why not and what can I do for you to make the work go faster, (2) if you didn't get everything done on yesterday's plate, will you get it done today, or when, and (3) here is what I need you to work on next, how long do you think it will take.

These questions are strictly interrogatory rather than accusatory. As a manager, you need to know everyone's progress so you can track and adjust your master schedule, critical path, budget, etc.

It probably comes down to how familiar and comfortable you are with the stay-at-home worker. Someone you just met should plan to be in the office 9-5, for a few weeks or months anyway, so you get a sense of each other. There is a very wide spectrum of productivity among programmers, and there is also a very wide spectrum of expectation. If you tell your person, go code this report, you may be thinking a few hours, and he or she may be thinking a week or two. You need face time to get accustomed to each other, before you can hope to get work done with less rather than more communication.