'Wildly more expensive': Workers with in-office jobs spend about $31/day that they wouldn't working from home — here's what employers need to do
'Wildly more expensive': Workers with in-office jobs spend about $31/day that they wouldn't working from home — here's what employers need to do
A higher up at my company recently derisively said one of the major reasons people didn't want to return to office was because they saved money working from home... as if that's a ridiculous reason. Some of these executives are so out of touch with their inflated salaries.
Yet the same douchebag will cut costs in the company at every turn. And is probably cheap as fuck in personal budgeting. These people need to fuck right the hell off.
I think this is what people mean when they say "people don't work as hard from home" are talking about. Having a little extra spending money makes you not worry as much about appeasing your boss.
It really means the bosses can't preside over a culture of fear quite so well if people aren't cowering outside their offices seeking their attention. They like to be the centre of attention and work being done remotely makes them feel just as meaningless as the rank and file workers.
People are more productive at home. We know this. It works and has worked. These companies that refuse to acknowledge it will continue to destroy themselves.
Companies that adapt to remote work will have access to better workers who can afford to be choosey about jobs. And since remote workers concentrate better and work longer hours they're even more productive.
Companies which force workers to come into the office will languish and become less profitable and they won't even know why.
What a scumbag
Expect a lot of the usual punching-down in response to this. "Carpool. Brown bag your lunch." and so on.
How to save money when working in-person:
Bike to work.
I love how this is framed as being just as silly as making alcohol under your desk. Our cities fucking suck.
Excellent suggestions! Biking also gives you many opportunities to spot some road kill pizza for those moral-boosting pizza parties!
If you keep a plastic bottle under your desk you can save money by reusing last night's alcohol.
I do love my bike commute, though. Saves me five dollars on bus fare and gets some exercise in. ❤️ also guilt free lunch.
Why is suggesting making your own lunch a "bad" thing though? I've been doing it for years to save money and eat better. Food is absolutely on "us" I would be eating whether I'm home or at work, but then again I'm a US born Stockholm syndrome slavelord that's just used to the shit system we have here. Do other countries require their companies to pay for lunches?
What's nice is that when you work from home, you have your whole kitchen at your disposal to make your lunch. As opposed to needing to plan ahead while wasting part of your day on a commute.
Suggesting it at an appropriate time or place is fine, such as a frugality community.
Suggesting it in response to the fact that working in an office is significantly more expensive compared to working from home is not appropriate.
This doesn't include the opportunity costs of not being at home. Since you're not at home, you can't tidy up for a few minutes during a break. You can't prepare a meal for dinner that takes a long time. You can't run a quick errand in the middle of the day without eating up "sick" time. You need to provide childcare for kids after school.
If they want me in an office they need a good goddamn reason to do one of the most dangerous things I do all day - driving - and to pay me for all the things I'm missing out on. Not just for the commute, but a cleaning service, child care, and takeout for dinner.
Yeah when I’ve been allowed to work from home I’ve either done chores or talked to my wife during breaks. And I’ve been more comfortable doing the things that make me more effective in my work that bosses don’t like like listening to books during repetitive work
You need to provide childcare for kids after school.
My boss's boss is the type to say you need to have adequate child care even if you're working from home so as to be undisturbed the same as if you were in the office. Luckily I had a migraine when he said it or I would have said something that would have gotten me fired.
my first reaction was that's a rediculous amount, but its actually not that far fetched. my commute cost is $17 per day (AUD) which is pretty much half that. all it takes is a cheap lunch and a coffee to meet that total (obviously something you can avoid most days but you won't everyday because "TeAm BoNdiNg" requires spending money to eat with people you don't like
I work in the US but at my company, team lunch is always paid for. Not only the food, but the time we eat is paid time (for hourly employees.) Mandatory "fun" should be on the clock and paid for by the company.
Definitely not the case for every company here, of course. But personally, I'd refuse to attend if the company weren't paying for it.
You guys hiring?
Holy shit, 17/day? I fill my tank once every two weeks, so like $4/day in gas at most.
Parking, transit, gas, insurance, wear and tear on vehicle, fancy office clothes, etc. It costs more than just gas to get to work for most folks.
AUD, but yeah about $10 USD
A good lowball figure estimate your daily commute cost if driving would be to use the government reimbursement rate. It tends to be lower than what it actually costs, but it is a figure that can be referenced. Don't ask me what it is now, because it changes all the time
The only argument I really have much sympathy for is the time/gas expenses. Food is totally on "us." Buying food too expensive every day? Meal prep on the weekends. I never buy food at work and if I were home I'd be eating the same thing as I am at work so it's not an extra cost.
That said I'm 100% not against having employers cover food costs lol
Do you have kids? Do you have a live-in maid? Do you spend all day Sunday doing meal prep for the week? People are working longer hours, commuting more, and have less time. I'm all for personal accountability, but man, there's only so many hours in a day. Imagine you had an emergency on a Sunday night. No lunch for the week?
"If people don't buy lunch the economy will suffer!"
Okay so have employers cover the cost of food. $15 per meal.
Setting aside that time to meal prep still has a cost though. Mentally and time-wise.
There’s about 246 working days (assuming you take up to 3 weeks a year off for sick/vacation, I know may be high for some people). At $31/day that’s $7,600. Use an average of 32% on taxes and you’d have to give a person at least an $11,200 raise to offset that savings…. And companies are still wondering why people are hesitant to come back?
I remember as a kid going over a friend's house and seeing the quarters lined up on the table. His parents were both nurses and had to pay to park at the hospital. I don't remember the amount at the time, just being in awe at how much they spent just to park where they worked.
They usually worked on different schedules too, so that's separate parking.
One of the big Boston hospitals tried to recruit me for their transplant team once. They wanted to pay me $15,000/year LESS for the privilege of commuting into Boston five days a week and paying for my own parking. Fuck that noise. I'll stay at my little community hospital, thanks. Prestige ain't gonna pay my mortgage.
At my last job it cost $22-$26 per day to park, depending on which parking garage had availability.
Exactly.
3.25$ X 2 for the metro fare. Approx 5$ for a cup of coffee 25-30$ for lunch. A few bucks more on maybe a drink or a snack.
This adds up.
In most of the US that's a crazy amount to spend on lunch, but this hypothetical also included public transit so we're not talking about most of the US
That's in CAD. Our dollar isn't as strong as the EUR. Also everything is more expensive in Canada.
Just a fast food hamburger and fries is $9-something where I live. The yellow curry at my favorite Thai restaurant is $12-something, plus a tip. Add a soda to either one and it's another $2-3.
I'd say it's about $15-20 for an average lunch here, in Seattle. transit is fairly cheap, $5.50 to and from work unless you live far enough to go through a couple zones, at which point I think it's still under $8 round trip.
Yea 25-30 is a sit down meal somewhere, in reality most office drones are picking up something quick from fast food or a convenience store for >$15 a day.
Still a waste of money though
$7?? The norm must be at least twice that
Also just pack your lunch ffs
To be fair, there's no reason someone needs to purchase coffee and lunch when working in an office. Both can be easily packed from home.
Although many workers have to commute by car, which would offset a portion of those savings.
I guess this is going to depend heavily on the kind of job you have.
My workplace provides coffee of the highest quality, breakfast, snacks and all kinds of drinks. I also get access to ~$10 per day to spend on lunch - which to be fair doesn't really cover the whole cost any more - but still, it helps. I also bike to work, so there's not really any cost there to speak of.
Depending on how creatively you decide to do your accounting, I arguably gain from going to the office. Then again, I could spend 5 days at home if I wanted without any problems. I'm choosing to go in anyways though
The last time I was in an office regularly they gave us a free buffet lunch every day. Then we got bought by a big company and it turned into soup and salad. Then we got sandwiches. Then they stopped it entirely. Then I quit.
On the clock from the moment I leave the driveway and until my commute home. Pay mileage too. Ok to stipulate a reasonable limit on this, of course. Or, you know, let people work from home.
That's wildly country specific..
When we got called back to the office at my last job, it cost me about $65 per day to go to work. There was gas of course, but then there were tolls both ways, parking fees, and lunch. It was ridiculous. $10 both ways in tolls, $22 parking $15+ for lunch, plus gas. Before the pandemic there had been an employee shuttle that I used to negate all of those fees, but it wasn't available after the pandemic. I ended up finding another job and quitting when they wouldn't entertain letting me stay remote. The stupidest part was that I would commute an hour both ways (because of traffic), and spend all that money, just to sit at a desk by myself and teleconference with my team who was in a different state. The entire team folded a few months after I left since their other two key engineers left too.
Here's what must be done!
it will never be done
I agree with the premise, but this rub me the wrong way:
"$16 on lunch, $13 on breakfast and coffee."
It sounds like entitlement if you think someone should be paying for something you already do at home (eat), but choose to do it in the most expensive way possible.
Make food and coffee at home and bring it to work. And if you're already buying expensive shop meals to eat at home, why complain about spending that outrageous amount of money when you're outside the home?
I feel this has to be pointed out to young people: it used to be possible to eat out every day, go to the movies, drink in a bar after work, see a live band on the weekend, and still buy a home and save for the future. This was possible in major cities around the country. This was taken from you.
It is not outrageous for single people living in a city to buy food outside the house. I believe prices have clearly skyrocketed because fewer people know how to make their own food. In the 50s everyone had grown up during the depression, so if something was even a little expensive you made it yourself.
P.S. Not only did many workplaces provide free or discounted cafeterias to eat in, they paid you during your lunch hour! That's where the phrase " working 9:00 to 5:00" comes from.
This is why so many apartments have kitchens that look like they were recent ideas squeezed into the space, or tiny "kitchenettes".
Reading older literature I've noticed how in older books the main character's living arrangements often just doesn't have any place to prepare or store food. They'll reference street carts, open markets, pubs, etc as where they get food from. Or maybe a meal included with the rent in a boarding house.
Medieval peasants in pre-industrial Europe expected their employer to provide at least one, if not two meals during work. Three during long hours, like harvest season.
What a way to make a livin
I am happy to make this concession provided I can either start making my lunch on company time, and then commute after I have finished making my lunch, or be allowed to fully go home, make and prepare lunch, dine, and commute back to work.
Oh, is that unproductive, a waste of time, money and energy, and massively impairs my ability to get work done?
Someone should draw some kind of conclusion from that, it seems.
Embrace the siesta!
that is the entire point of the commercial real estate excuse: that was your labor and money that was supporting it not the bosses.
the bosses don't care about commercial real estate, either. They care about being able to use their status to bully people in person in front of others.
it is a garbage barge with lipstick on the front.
I suspect people are not spending as much on nonessentials and businesses are seeing this as their workplaces being empty and not spending. But something tells me it's a nationwide thing, people are thinking twice due to inflation and I doubt bringing people back is gonna make them want to spend money the way they used to. My claim is based on layoffs and stocking issues.
My work pays for my lunch, it's how it should be. I'm here for them, if I wasn't I'd eat at home.
I totally agree. There's no reason anyone needs to consistently purchase breakfast and lunch if they work in an office.
If you don't do it at home, why would you do it at the office?
That’s insane. That’s like $600/month
That's about what a monthly train pass to London costs my wife.
Who is, I cannot stress this enough, a student.
It doesn't even include the time to prepare and commute, just the monetary cost.
If they paid overtime to commute it would be even more.
How much was electricity when you were working at home? Air conditioning? Are you buying more alcohol? If you are complaining that you are buying lunch more thats your problem.. you can pack a cooler and bring that shit to work.
Commuting costs. "Work clothes". Childcare. Its not just daily expenses, but expenses spread out over time.
It's all personal. But for me I only run the air conditioner for 3 months and normally not every day. I also run the heat for four. But all that plus electricity costs less than gas, tolls , car payment and car maintenance.
Yeah, I think its all relative and depends on where you live. If you live in the south you can probably expect to pay for AC all day, probably 6-8 months of the year. As for car related, this is also all relative. If you have a car and it isnt used much for 15 months then I would expect the car to not start when you try.
In order to update these spreadsheets and email some fuckers, society must allow for 200lbs of meat to be moved fifty miles per day. Because someone has to stare at me. The meat.
And in the US, said transportation will likely make even less sense (in terms of weight, cost, and health/comfort).
Yes, you put 200 lb of meat into a 2,000 metal box with climate control, a couch, and sound system, then burn 1-3 gallons of gasoline.
This is required for efficient spreadsheets.
https://youtu.be/T6JFTmQCFHg
Great sketch.
They are right, who wants to meet meat?
What did I just watch? 😳
"How strangely appropriate, that we be meats' dream."
Goddammit I love that.
Life altering