After a quick cup of coffee, Christy Delacour sat down around 6 a.m. Thursday at her office desk.

She turned on her computer, took out headphones and began transcribing physicians’ notes from Cascade Healthcare Community, where she works.

Sort of.

Cascade employs Delacour, 51, but her “office” includes a dining table, kitchen sink and family photos.

Like many Deschutes County residents, Delacour works at home — a niche population that roughly doubled from 2005 to 2006, according to recent data from the American Community Survey, a branch of the U.S. Census Bureau. While the survey has a substantial margin of error, it shows that the percentage of Deschutes County residents who work at home fell from about 6.5 percent in 2000 to 4.4 percent in 2005, but then grew to 8.8 percent in 2006.

“This is a desirable place to live, so people are looking for those types of opportunities,” said Mark Bruskiewicz, chairman of Commute Options, a local group that encourages carpooling and alternative modes of transportation. “Clearly there are more types of jobs where, if you’re an independent worker and can get your job done, it doesn’t matter where you’re sitting.”

The American Community Survey defines people who work at home as the self-employed, those who work for local businesses from home and even those employed by companies in other states.

In 2006, Deschutes County had 6,521 teleworkers out of 74,531 total workers surveyed, ages 16 and up, the data showed. The year before, the county had 3,012 teleworkers out of 68,651 total workers.

Those numbers show an increase but may be misleading, said Steve Williams, a regional economist with the Oregon Employment Department. The margin of error, he cautioned, is plus or minus 1,619 people in 2006 and plus or minus 722 in 2005.

That means the percentages could be off somewhat.

“It’s really hard to say what’s going on,” Williams said, adding later that, “I guess the data would tell us there’s more (teleworkers), but it’s hard for me to say.”

Anecdotally, however, Williams said teleworking is becoming an attractive phenomenon.

He pointed to the 2000 census, which found that the percentage of Deschutes County teleworkers was 6.5 percent. The state numbers appear similar.

In 2006, about 6 percent of Oregonians ages 16 and up worked at home, up from 5.1 percent in 2005 and about 5 percent in 2000.

Types of teleworkers

The reasons for teleworking vary, just like the types of people who work at home.

Some, like Delacour, say they remain more productive at home than working in the office.

Delacour started transcribing for Cascade Healthcare Community, the parent company of St. Charles Medical Centers in Bend and Redmond, in the early 1990s.

She began working from home in the past two years.

At Cascade, Delacour used to get involved with helping co-workers, which took time away from work. Now, distractions can involve her teenage daughter and 56-year-old husband, Darrel Cotton, who also runs a computer consulting company from their home.

But Delacour drowns out the noise around her with a headset that relays physicians’ medical notes, which she enters into patients’ records.

Delacour also keeps a tight schedule.

She works from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., taking half an hour for lunch and a 15-minute break.

“(That’s) usually when I do laundry,” Delacour said with a smile.

Delacour, however, has allowed herself to slack off in appearance.

“I usually get dressed about 11 in the morning, usually before the mailman starts delivering packages,” she said. “I try to get somewhat presentable.”

And she loves the scenery.

“How can you beat this?” she said, pointing outside, where horses roamed in her field. “We see wildlife in our backyard … It’s like National Geographic — watching hawks take out the squirrels.”

In the ‘office’

Bruskiewicz, the chairman of Commute Options, is a different type of teleworker.

Instead of working for a local company, the 49-year-old father provides mapping and environmental information for the Washington State Department of Transportation in Olympia, about 270 miles from Bend.

Bruskiewicz has worked for the department since 2001. He moved to Bend about 4 1/2 years ago to help care for his wife’s father but retained his job with Washington state.

Bruskiewicz’s position requires many e-mails and phone calls anyway, so the transition worked well. “Whether I’m sitting in Olympia or Bend or wherever, that aspect of my job doesn’t really matter,” he said.

Working from home does lack the professional environment. “I kind of miss that social interaction with peers and co-workers,” Bruskiewicz said. “There’s kind of an isolation factor. I’m at home all day. There’s days I’m home by myself. I suddenly get off work and want to get out of the house.”

But he prefers the perks.

“I’m not taking a lot of time off to do things I ordinarily would have to take time off for,” Bruskiewicz said. “Like if my wife has a doctor’s appointment, I’m not taking time off to watch the kids. If I have the plumber come by, you know, I’m home. They show up. I show them the problem. And I go back to work.”

While Bruskiewicz and Delacour both work for companies, other teleworkers are self-employed.

Debbie Brownlee, 53, runs an employment background firm from her home in the La Pine area. She started Human Resource Advantage with her husband in Fresno, Calif., where she helped about 30 companies screen possible employees.

They moved to Central Oregon about 2 1/2 years ago for health reasons, Brownlee said. So far, they have been able to continue that work for the same companies, because most of it involves e-mail and faxes.

“You just have control over what you’re doing,” she said. “Working from home, people think you can just kick back and do your housework, but you’re actually pretty busy. I’m in the office most of the day.”

Unfortunately, Brownlee said, being self-employed means no vacations for them, since they have not trained anyone else to take over the work.

But “you save on gas and clothing,” she added. “You don’t have to get dressed up or anything.”