Earlier this year, IBM ended a decades-old flexible work policy for thousands of its employees, reportedly to improve collaboration and productivity. Critics said it would harm its ability to compete for talented workers against the likes of Google, Apple and others.

For CFOs it presents a conundrum. Two thirds of CFOs responding to our survey agree that flexible work options are essential for attracting and retaining talent, but at the same time, 82 percent say the best innovations happen when people work together in a shared physical space.

IBM's CFO is not a member of the CNBC Global CFO Council. However, Yahoo's CFO Ken Goldman is a member. Yahoo famously (or infamously) ended all remote work in 2013, soon after Marissa Mayer took over as CEO. Survey responses are anonymous, so it is unknown whether or not Goldman completed this quarter's survey.

Will other companies follow the lead of IBM or Yahoo? For now it seems CFOs and their CEO bosses will live with the paradox. Only 15.4 percent of respondents say their company is even considering a limit on telecommuting.

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One quarter of CFO Council members say AI is 'critical' to their companies - CNBC