PHOENIX (AP) — Wistful about working from home? Sounds peaceful and productive.

It can be. Or it can be interrupted by squeals of children at play or a spouse's screams of an overflowing toilet.

"One of the benefits of working from home is you're there to take care of an emergency," said Matthew Moran, a self-employed Cave Creek father of four, three home-schooled. "But take something as mundane as a toilet being stopped up. In corporate America, you'll take care of it when you get home. When you are home — guess what? — that's an emergency."

Even home-alone workers can find working from home a distraction.

The increase in the number of mobile office workers and Americans' love of java have given rise to the new home-away-from-home office: the coffeehouse.

The entrepreneur, the self-employed and even the worker with flexible employers have turned the five-minute caffeine fuel stop into a headquarters for wireless warriors armed with cell phones with earpieces and laptops.

More companies are unleashing their employees so they can work anywhere, surveys have found.

Nationally, about 12.5 million U.S. employees telecommute at least one day a month, up from 9.9 million in 2005, or a 26 percent increase, reports World at Work, a nonprofit human-resources organization. In Maricopa County, about 4.2 percent of the population worked from home in 2005, up from 3.7 percent in 2000.

Coffee-shop proprietors seem in agreement that as long as mobile workers buy coffee, the occasional sandwich or pastry and mind their manners, they can stay as long as they want.

Brad Stevens, owner of Soma Cafe in north Phoenix, said there wasn't a question when the restaurant opened more than five years ago that free wireless Internet was going to be an option.

"So many people these days are working independently, and it fits with the fact we are a lifestyle business," Stevens said.

It's not uncommon for Intel employees to host meetings at the cafe with as many as 13 laptops up and running, Stevens said. Soma's restaurants are roomy and can accommodate workers and leisure visitors.

"I'm not sure how many restaurants are going to allow this in the future as demand grows," he said. "But it fits our niche."

Marilyn Helmstadter, 54, of Gilbert, frequents Starbucks cafes inside Barnes & Noble stores because they're familiar and safe. Helmstadter runs two home-based businesses and is about to launch a third.

"Coffee places offer a sense of anonymity," she said of meeting potential clients or business associates. "You can get friendly without losing your anonymity about your day-to-day stuff."

Many coffee shops, especially Starbucks, offer the same comforting yet efficient earth tones and business-casual furniture, making it an ideal place for the anywhere, anytime worker to project a professional, if not corporate, image.

Inna Duarte, 28, and her two business partners at Corporate Languages in Phoenix prefer to meet clients at one of three coffee shops nearby, even though they have an office.

"It's a no-pressure environment," Duarte said. "It's relaxed. And familiar. The smell of coffee. The music. You just feel at ease."

Under the piped-in tunes of KC and the Sunshine Band's Get Down Tonight, Matthew Moran settles against the back wall and raises the lid of his laptop.

Soma Cafe is one of his home offices. It features soft lighting, sporty baristas and warm, earthy colors on walls, floors and furniture.

He's an information technology consultant, a blogger and author of business books and a soon-to-be-published "If Mom Were President" book for children and their parents.

Between glances at his laptop and a few quick taps on the keyboard, Moran explained that the first appeal of a coffeehouse is free wireless technology. Convenience and familiarity are next, he said, as a coffee shop is always nearby and everyone has his or her drink of choice. He has given considerable thought to the topic of "Coffeehouse as the new home office," having written many times about the coffeehouse as a work environment and coffee's relation to productivity.

In a column for an information technology Internet site, Moran borrowed a phrase from a friend, who referred to the coffeehouse for a new breed of workers as "AromaCorp."

Moran wrote that coffeehouses may become a valuable networking location for mobile workers. Moran, a technology consultant, landed a consulting job, in part, because of an accidental meeting at a coffee cafe.

For some, Moran reasoned, working from a coffeehouse cuts down on feelings of isolation.

He suspects that another reason for the coffeehouse appeal is that it allows for a mingling of professional and personal styles.

Some experts think that coffeehouses one day may be replaced by community office spaces. For as little as $10 a day, mobile workers can access a desk, meeting room, copy and fax machines and coffee. Businesses catering to the new breed of worker have been cropping up in New York and San Francisco.

Billie Blair, a Southern California organizational psychologist and management consultant who wrote "All the Moving Parts: Organizational Change Management," said the coffeehouse as home office will continue for the next decade.

"The modern way of work will make both of those necessary," Blair said, referring to the growing number of employers who are shifting toward a performance-over-office-presence management style. "It was the Gen-Xers who demanded that style of work, and the Millennials will take to it like ducks to water."

She cited as examples IBM, where 40 percent of the work force has no official office, and Sun Microsystems, which allows half of its employees to work from anywhere.

Russ Perry, 24, of Tempe, who does marketing and training consulting for small businesses, said the coffee shop at a local Borders is where he goes when he wants to focus on work.

"It's mind-set. You worry about other things when you are home," he said. "A coffeehouse kind of takes me back in the day when I was studying for college. I'm there, and I know it's time to work."

Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com