What I did with Deegan when my boyfriend and I are not home is to leave him in the laundry room with his crate open at one end, along with his food and some toys. And then I place newspapers on the opposite end of the room. Immediately he new to go potty on the newspapers and hasn't really made much of a mess at all while he's been in there. I was careful not to leave anything in his reach that he might decide to chew or destroy.
And about a month ago (he was 11 months) we started to leave him out to have the run of the house while we were gone, for short periods of time. We worked it up to almost half the day. When I would come home for lunch I would take him out of the laundry room. That went well for a few weeks, until I came home one day and noticed that he chewed the cord to our ShopVac. (Mind you, it wasn't plugged in - thank goodness.) I don't know why he regressed. He's never destroyed anything before. He had been doing so well. So we went back to keeping him in the laundry room and we will try again in a while. Maybe it was my fault for wanting to leave him out alone when he's still quite young.
But I wouldn't worry too much about leaving him in a secure and safe environment while you are at work. Let us know what happens! Good luck!
