Well, having to commute already takes away part of your pay.
Adrian_Alucard on
>Sure, it doesn’t show up as a line on your pay stub, but you save real money when you work from home. [You no longer have an hour-long commute to work](https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/benefits-of-remote-work) and all the costs that come with it
I guess people who have office equipment on their home have free electricity, because working from home makes you consume more resources from your home instead of the resources from the office (that you don’t have to pay)
InAllThingsBalance on
The PC I have at home doesn’t change my power bill significantly. The tolls and gas associated with daily commuting are a much more noticeable expense.
CMDR_Tauri on
My employer also charges a premium for parking, so if you’re a peon like me who can’t afford a home in the city within biking distance or near the bus line and have to commute, it’s a $1,000/year pay cut. And of course, the peon parking lot is 3/4 mile away from the office.
lostmojo on
I spend about 250$ a month in gas to commute to work, I spend about 15$ a month for the computer setup and another $100 or so in heating and cooling.
Getdunkled on
The worst part is how it negatively affects infrastructure as well.
The roads were 100x more accessible for the workers who have to go to job sites when the white collar workers were all at home.
exileonmainst on
Nobody talks about how horrible RTO is for the environment. We’re burning good knows how much gas to commute, then work in massive buildings that take a ton of energy to heat and cool, and eat at the cafeteria that generates a ton of waste from single use packaging, cups, utensils, etc.
bad_robot_monkey on
$17,000. That’s what my commuting job cost me annually in 2014 when I left it.
throwaway_201401 on
FTFA: “Return-to-office mandates are, effectively, an invisible pay cut. ….an estimated 8% of their pay.“
Wouldn’t that be considered an 8% raise for four years? And didn’t everybody think at the beginning that working at home was only temporary?
KungFuHamster on
It’s a huge waste of resources, waste of time, waste of life, and a big quality of life drop. Fucking fight it.
Ok-Fox1262 on
Yeah. Since the year of the plague I earn about half what I did before (although I also work part time now, not full). And magically my debts evaporated and now I have money left at the end of the month, not month left at the end of the money.
It’s not just your commute time, or the commute cost. It’s all the stuff you buy for lunch, and the joke about the coffee in the morning isn’t entirely wrong, it’s the Costa living.
If you are at home then a lot of personal things get a lot easier to arrange by going AFK for an hour instead of taking a day off or paying someone else to do it. (No, as a contractor I don’t bill for AFK). Simply being able to pick your own kids up from school saves an enormous amount of money. And you think way more highly of your company for letting you do that so therefore they should find it easier to hire people.
AstroZombie138 on
I work in a global business. I don’t mind taking the occasional 5am or 6am call with Europe because I can get up early and do my workout afterward. I also don’t mind the 7pm or 8pm calls with Asia to help accommodate their time zones. If I had to go back to the office those type of meetings would end that day.
BobBelcher2021 on
Not always. Not all companies cover the cost of equipment and the associated expenses. For those who lived close to their office and had minimal commuting expenses, WFH is more costly.
lapqmzlapqmzala on
NGL I understand how stupid it is to demand some jobs to be in person, but also, look at any other job and they have to show up somewhere too. It really should not be a big deal unless there are issues with travel, in which case those issues should have been discussed in the interview process.
NY_Knux on
Working in office? Pay me extra for my commute, lunch costs, and gasoline cost.
SJ_Redditor on
The pain and suffering are the point. The rich have all the money they could ever need for a million lifetimes. So the”power to make you suffer”is their fetish now
wiggetsf on
I could make a decent amount more if I got a new job, but I’d have to go in the office 4-5 days a week. I will hold onto my remote job til the bitter end.
smoothloam on
Regardless of how you feel about the issue, this is really false.
Workers who are being “forced back to the office” were hired to work in the office. Meaning when Covid hit and people worked from home they received a pay raise. Now that they’re returning to the office it’s not a pay cut, it’s back to what was expected from them and the same wage they received when they were hired.
Nay-Nay385 on
There is something to be said about showing up to work everyday! Collaboration, networking, even the socialization.
It’s very satisfying. Sure there are days when you should be able to opt for working from home but it shouldn’t be every day.
The younger work force is loosing the ability to interact face to face. Awkward and strange… this needs to be addressed before they truly believe life is lived through a computer screen. Hope it’s not too late!
DGB31988 on
If I had to chose between 2 jobs and one was 70K WFH and the other was 100K with 5 day commuting I would pick the 70K.
intronert on
The time spent on the highway commuting is probably the most dangerous and expensive time in the entire day.
Mission-Coyote4457 on
I don’t think this is accurate
Purplebuzz on
If you have not figured out they want you poor and desperate yet you are burying the lead.
paperpaperclip on
And I’ve said this 10000% times, when people who CAN work from home are allowed to do so, it makes the lives easier for those of us unable to work from home (nurses, lab techs, etc). Working and commuting during the pandemic was tough, but holy hell my commute rocked.
SadDirection3693 on
I know I’m a boomer, and have kids that work remotely. I’m happy for them and everyone else who can WFH. During the lockdown I was deemed an essential worker (defense) and had to work. Fellow employees were mandated to WFH to minimize contact and possible exposure to COVID. I understood the need. We did not get extra pay while others saved money by WFH. In fact whenever company provided free lunch in appreciation, many of the WFH found a ‘need’ to be in office.
My thoughts are if you were hired before remote work you are not getting a pay cut to return to office. If you were hired before remote work, and it was part of your job description, you should not be forced to RTO.
LeCrushinator on
And increased costs for the employer. In many cases requiring a commute to an office makes no sense.
Jerry_From_Queens on
I lose nearly 3.5 hours a day round trip commuting from my home in suburban NJ into Manhattan for work, along with approximately $50 a day in gas, parking, regional rail, and subway costs.
27 Comments
Well, having to commute already takes away part of your pay.
>Sure, it doesn’t show up as a line on your pay stub, but you save real money when you work from home. [You no longer have an hour-long commute to work](https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/benefits-of-remote-work) and all the costs that come with it
I guess people who have office equipment on their home have free electricity, because working from home makes you consume more resources from your home instead of the resources from the office (that you don’t have to pay)
The PC I have at home doesn’t change my power bill significantly. The tolls and gas associated with daily commuting are a much more noticeable expense.
My employer also charges a premium for parking, so if you’re a peon like me who can’t afford a home in the city within biking distance or near the bus line and have to commute, it’s a $1,000/year pay cut. And of course, the peon parking lot is 3/4 mile away from the office.
I spend about 250$ a month in gas to commute to work, I spend about 15$ a month for the computer setup and another $100 or so in heating and cooling.
The worst part is how it negatively affects infrastructure as well.
The roads were 100x more accessible for the workers who have to go to job sites when the white collar workers were all at home.
Nobody talks about how horrible RTO is for the environment. We’re burning good knows how much gas to commute, then work in massive buildings that take a ton of energy to heat and cool, and eat at the cafeteria that generates a ton of waste from single use packaging, cups, utensils, etc.
$17,000. That’s what my commuting job cost me annually in 2014 when I left it.
FTFA: “Return-to-office mandates are, effectively, an invisible pay cut. ….an estimated 8% of their pay.“
Wouldn’t that be considered an 8% raise for four years? And didn’t everybody think at the beginning that working at home was only temporary?
It’s a huge waste of resources, waste of time, waste of life, and a big quality of life drop. Fucking fight it.
Yeah. Since the year of the plague I earn about half what I did before (although I also work part time now, not full). And magically my debts evaporated and now I have money left at the end of the month, not month left at the end of the money.
It’s not just your commute time, or the commute cost. It’s all the stuff you buy for lunch, and the joke about the coffee in the morning isn’t entirely wrong, it’s the Costa living.
If you are at home then a lot of personal things get a lot easier to arrange by going AFK for an hour instead of taking a day off or paying someone else to do it. (No, as a contractor I don’t bill for AFK). Simply being able to pick your own kids up from school saves an enormous amount of money. And you think way more highly of your company for letting you do that so therefore they should find it easier to hire people.
I work in a global business. I don’t mind taking the occasional 5am or 6am call with Europe because I can get up early and do my workout afterward. I also don’t mind the 7pm or 8pm calls with Asia to help accommodate their time zones. If I had to go back to the office those type of meetings would end that day.
Not always. Not all companies cover the cost of equipment and the associated expenses. For those who lived close to their office and had minimal commuting expenses, WFH is more costly.
NGL I understand how stupid it is to demand some jobs to be in person, but also, look at any other job and they have to show up somewhere too. It really should not be a big deal unless there are issues with travel, in which case those issues should have been discussed in the interview process.
Working in office? Pay me extra for my commute, lunch costs, and gasoline cost.
The pain and suffering are the point. The rich have all the money they could ever need for a million lifetimes. So the”power to make you suffer”is their fetish now
I could make a decent amount more if I got a new job, but I’d have to go in the office 4-5 days a week. I will hold onto my remote job til the bitter end.
Regardless of how you feel about the issue, this is really false.
Workers who are being “forced back to the office” were hired to work in the office. Meaning when Covid hit and people worked from home they received a pay raise. Now that they’re returning to the office it’s not a pay cut, it’s back to what was expected from them and the same wage they received when they were hired.
There is something to be said about showing up to work everyday! Collaboration, networking, even the socialization.
It’s very satisfying. Sure there are days when you should be able to opt for working from home but it shouldn’t be every day.
The younger work force is loosing the ability to interact face to face. Awkward and strange… this needs to be addressed before they truly believe life is lived through a computer screen. Hope it’s not too late!
If I had to chose between 2 jobs and one was 70K WFH and the other was 100K with 5 day commuting I would pick the 70K.
The time spent on the highway commuting is probably the most dangerous and expensive time in the entire day.
I don’t think this is accurate
If you have not figured out they want you poor and desperate yet you are burying the lead.
And I’ve said this 10000% times, when people who CAN work from home are allowed to do so, it makes the lives easier for those of us unable to work from home (nurses, lab techs, etc). Working and commuting during the pandemic was tough, but holy hell my commute rocked.
I know I’m a boomer, and have kids that work remotely. I’m happy for them and everyone else who can WFH. During the lockdown I was deemed an essential worker (defense) and had to work. Fellow employees were mandated to WFH to minimize contact and possible exposure to COVID. I understood the need. We did not get extra pay while others saved money by WFH. In fact whenever company provided free lunch in appreciation, many of the WFH found a ‘need’ to be in office.
My thoughts are if you were hired before remote work you are not getting a pay cut to return to office. If you were hired before remote work, and it was part of your job description, you should not be forced to RTO.
And increased costs for the employer. In many cases requiring a commute to an office makes no sense.
I lose nearly 3.5 hours a day round trip commuting from my home in suburban NJ into Manhattan for work, along with approximately $50 a day in gas, parking, regional rail, and subway costs.
I hate it.