We work and we crate trained. To clarify, we crate trained while we were home to supervise - sounds like you have that part down.
However, when we were at work, Bailey was in a 4x4 ex-pen with a crate, dog bed, a few durable toys and water. When she was younger, she made a total mess of the expen - pee'd everywhere and chewed up her pee pads, etc. But that was okay - there was nothing we could do about it, so I just cleaned up the area (5 minutes top) and gave her lots of baths
. Bottom line - there were no rules in the expen. Soon, at about 8 mos, instincts started to take over and she started holding her pee until we got home.
Its true, at least in our case, that dogs do not like to mess where they live.
I don't believe that working impacted our potty training/crate training. We were consistient about our routine and process. Bailey was potty trained in 2 months and reliable at 4 months.
Good luck!