Forced to work from home

GreeBo

oisinog wrote: »

You talk about costs, no matter where you work there will always be a cost to you.

Indeed there will, and when working from home, that cost increases.

oisinog wrote: »

Tell me over the last year how much more has it cost you to work from home against how much it cost you to go to work.

Cost of going to work was negligible, my commute was under 10 mins and I do much of that journey for childcare anyway. The company also provides free charging points.
Cost of staying home is now:
Heat, light, breakfast, lunch & electricity for direct costs. There are also indirect costs such as decreased productivity due to the inefficiencies of everyone not being together leading to more working hours and more stress.

oisinog wrote: »

I still think you are avoiding the question

I and others have given numerous examples, you just dont like the answers.

a_squirrelman

I want one of these jobs with all the free food :(:( Feeling hard done by buying my own food for twenty years.

a_squirrelman

a_squirrelman wrote: »

I want one of these jobs with all the free food :(:( Feeling hard done by buying my own food for twenty years.

Facebook and Google do free food I think.

ineedeuro

a_squirrelman wrote: »

I want one of these jobs with all the free food :(:( Feeling hard done by buying my own food for twenty years.

Google do free food but....
you get breakfast at 7 or something crazy like that and dinner at 7 that night. So in other words to get the free food you have to stay in the office all day long

So yes you save a few quid on food but you have no life outside work.

oisinog

GreeBo wrote: »

Indeed there will, and when working from home, that cost increases.


Cost of going to work was negligible, my commute was under 10 mins and I do much of that journey for childcare anyway. The company also provides free charging points.
Cost of staying home is now:
Heat, light, breakfast, lunch & electricity for direct costs. There are also indirect costs such as decreased productivity due to the inefficiencies of everyone not being together leading to more working hours and more stress.



I and others have given numerous examples, you just dont like the answers.

I'm calling Bull on this and at that I am no longer engaging.

I ask what impacts it has on you and you cant give a straight answer

haskellgeek

Flinty997 wrote: »

We've had a few people hybrid for many years. But its not really a set day. They tend to come up for specific meetings rather than a set day. I don't know any who aren't long distances from the office.

That's said I know people who do two hour each way commutes. So what's commuting distance depends really on the person.

That's true but it also depends on the set up required at both locations too, and also if you have a lot of equipment is a parking space given? More than a laptop I mean

GreeBo

oisinog wrote: »

I'm calling Bull on this and at that I am no longer engaging.

I ask what impacts it has on you and you cant give a straight answer

Again, you don't like the answer so you throw your toys out of the pram!
How could my answer be any straighter? You asked for the impacts and I gave them to you.

What are you calling "bull" on exactly?

GreeBo

ineedeuro wrote: »

Google do free food but....
you get breakfast at 7 or something crazy like that and dinner at 7 that night. So in other words to get the free food you have to stay in the office all day long

So yes you save a few quid on food but you have no life outside work.

Not the case at all for me, the canteen is open 24x7.

oisinog

GreeBo wrote: »

Again, you don't like the answer so you throw your toys out of the pram!
How could my answer be any straighter? You asked for the impacts and I gave them to you.

What are you calling "bull" on exactly?

I calling bull on everything there are not too many employers in this country who offer you free food twice or 3 times a day.

You talk about extra costs of 10 or 15 more a month and thats fair enough if it is costing you more I understand how that can impact you.

I have asked you on several occassions on how else it impacts you not everyone else and you have passed over that question.

Me personaly I have found that wfh has reduced my costs (I cycled to work so that was free).
I no longer have childcare as myslef of my wife can take my kids and collect them from school
I no longer pay overpriced food in the city center

but for me Cost is not the real benefit.
I get to spend more time with my Children as I can get some of the stuff I normally done after work done during the day
I have been able to use my lunch times to go to the Gym (couldn't do this when I worked in the city center as my gym membership was closer to my house)
I have been able to support my local community either by using the shops or supporting community incentives.

I dont always enjoy working from home there are days where my Internet drops out and have difficulty getting a hold of people with projects due but all in all it has been a postive experience because I have wanted it to be.

Sunny Disposition

I've never given workers free food, beyond reimbursing them for meals if they had to travel. Is this commonplace now? Surely not?

Christy42

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

I've never given workers free food, beyond reimbursing them for meals if they had to travel. Is this commonplace now? Surely not?

Depends. If you are already paying high wages due to needing highly skilled staff it happens as it isn't a massive increase on wages you are paying.


Also pair the free food with very few places to sit so they go back and have lunch at their desks = more work time for the company. Bonus points if they take dinner at the desk as well.

oisinog

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

I've never given workers free food, beyond reimbursing them for meals if they had to travel. Is this commonplace now? Surely not?

It seems mad to me say you give your staff an £10 per day budget (inclusive of staffing costs) and you have a staff of 650 and due to leave and sickness you have say 500 staff using the canteen every day that is a cost of £5k per day.

Say the building is open 50 weeks a year thats £1.25M.

I really can't see that

ineedeuro

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

I've never given workers free food, beyond reimbursing them for meals if they had to travel. Is this commonplace now? Surely not?

No
As above google and other companies use it to keep employees in the office.
Someone thinks getting a "free" breakfast and dinner is worth it, in reality it costs them maybe a euro to feed the employee but they have them in the office 12 hours a day.
They of course are only paying for them to work 9-5.
I had friends who went to google, said it was hilarious that even after been told it was a scam the place was full every morning & evening. People ended up chained to work as no social life outside of work.

ineedeuro

oisinog wrote: »

It seems mad to me say you give your staff an £10 per day budget (inclusive of staffing costs) and you have a staff of 650 and due to leave and sickness you have say 500 staff using the canteen every day that is a cost of £5k per day.

Say the building is open 50 weeks a year thats £1.25M.

I really can't see that

Bulk buy food, it won't cost 10 per day to feed employees for a company like google. Max a few euro. What they get in return is staff who would be earning a lot more per hour sitting in the office

oisinog

ineedeuro wrote: »

Bulk buy food, it won't cost 10 per day to feed employees for a company like google. Max a few euro. What they get in return is staff who would be earning a lot more per hour sitting in the office

I was taking into consideration staffing and cleaning costs as well. I was using the £10 as an example of how much it would cost.

GreeBo

oisinog wrote: »

I calling bull on everything there are not too many employers in this country who offer you free food twice or 3 times a day.

They dont give us free food 3 times a day, there is a canteen that is stocked 24x7, you go get food, drink, snack, whatever, whenever you want.

oisinog wrote: »

You talk about extra costs of 10 or 15 more a month and thats fair enough if it is costing you more I understand how that can impact you.

Yeah, I eat slightly more than 50c of food a day and thats before you add electric and gas costs.

oisinog wrote: »

I have asked you on several occassions on how else it impacts you not everyone else and you have passed over that question.

How else? You asked me how it impacted me and I have given you lots of examples and you are still complaining about my answer.
I already posted about how it impacts productivity and stress and days ago posted about the impact to new employees and junior employees in general.

oisinog wrote: »

Me personaly I have found that wfh has reduced my costs (I cycled to work so that was free).
I no longer have childcare as myslef of my wife can take my kids and collect them from school
I no longer pay overpriced food in the city center

but for me Cost is not the real benefit.
I get to spend more time with my Children as I can get some of the stuff I normally done after work done during the day
I have been able to use my lunch times to go to the Gym (couldn't do this when I worked in the city center as my gym membership was closer to my house)
I have been able to support my local community either by using the shops or supporting community incentives.

I dont always enjoy working from home there are days where my Internet drops out and have difficulty getting a hold of people with projects due but all in all it has been a postive experience because I have wanted it to be.

Not just because you wanted it to be, but because, *for you* it has been positive.
I and others have clearly demonstrated how its a costs to us, without any of the benefits you talk about.
I could already WFH when I wanted to, so if I needed to do something or collect something I could.
My kids are in creche as when we are working we are not also trying to mind our children, someone mentioned people going to the office for social reasons instead of working, others are using WFH to mind their kids during work hours...

GreeBo

ineedeuro wrote: »

No
As above google and other companies use it to keep employees in the office.
Someone thinks getting a "free" breakfast and dinner is worth it, in reality it costs them maybe a euro to feed the employee but they have them in the office 12 hours a day.
They of course are only paying for them to work 9-5.
I had friends who went to google, said it was hilarious that even after been told it was a scam the place was full every morning & evening. People ended up chained to work as no social life outside of work.

We dont use it to keep employees in the office, no one is working 12 hours a day.
Its there as a perk for employees, just like pension and healthcare, optician visits, christmas parties, etc, etc.

You seem to have a real negative opinion of employers for some reason.
I have a positive view, because I choose to look at it in a positive manner....;)

oisinog

GreeBo wrote: »

We dont use it to keep employees in the office, no one is working 12 hours a day.
Its there as a perk for employees, just like pension and healthcare, optician visits, christmas parties, etc, etc.

You seem to have a real negative opinion of employers for some reason.
I have a positive view, because I choose to look at it in a positive manner....;)

You know what I have had enough of you on to the ignore list you go.

You have given one example of cost claimed your employer gives you free lunch and breakfast I'm not believing any of it.

Well except having children and an ev

GreeBo

oisinog wrote: »

You know what I have had enough of you on to the ignore list you go.

You have given one example of cost claimed your employer gives you free lunch and breakfast I'm not believing any of it.

Well except having children and an ev

You dont believe that any employers are giving employees access to food/snacks?

And my 1 example of cost is actually numerous examples of cost (food, gas, electricity, water, car charging)

gmisk

Got a very long a detailed questionnaire about working from home etc.
Tbh it was a good opportunity to ask for a proper office chair and a proper docking station, I like working from home in general but could do with a bit more equipment I already bought a desk, external monitor.

irelandrover

oisinog wrote: »

I was taking into consideration staffing and cleaning costs as well. I was using the £10 as an example of how much it would cost.

But even if you don't pay for the food you still have the staff and cleaning costs because most companies still have a cantine.

Your value is way over what it would cost. Free breakfast and lunch is a tiny cost to an employer. I wouldnt pick an employer because of it but its a nice perk.

gmisk

GreeBo wrote: »

You dont believe that any employers are giving employees access to food/snacks?

And my 1 example of cost is actually numerous examples of cost (food, gas, electricity, water, car charging)

I know people who work in twitter and Facebook....infamous for people putting on a tonne of weight when they start.... breakfast, lunch, dinner and beers on site.

GreeBo

gmisk wrote: »

I know people who work in twitter and Facebook....infamous for people putting on a tonne of weight when they start.... breakfast, lunch, dinner and beers on site.

We had to switch out a lot of the snacks the healthy stuff (Fulfil protein bars and the like) because people were loading up on the chocolates with every visit to the tea/coffee area

GreeBo

irelandrover wrote: »

But even if you don't pay for the food you still have the staff and cleaning costs because most companies still have a cantine.

Your value is way over what it would cost. Free breakfast and lunch is a tiny cost to an employer. I wouldnt pick an employer because of it but its a nice perk.

Exactly, people are still eating and drinking in the office.
There are additional costs/time associated with stocking fridges and cleaning grills/blenders etc but in the grand scheme of things is not really important.

Padre_Pio

gmisk wrote: »

I know people who work in twitter and Facebook....infamous for people putting on a tonne of weight when they start.... breakfast, lunch, dinner and beers on site.

I get that!

When it's there and it's free. Food in our place was subsidized.

Breakfast for 2 euro. Dinners for 3 or 4 euro.

gmisk

Padre_Pio wrote: »

I get that!

When it's there and it's free. Food in our place was subsidized.

Breakfast for 2 euro. Dinners for 3 or 4 euro.

Jeepers....that is seriously subsidized I am guessing a private company?

ineedeuro

Padre_Pio wrote: »

I get that!

When it's there and it's free. Food in our place was subsidized.

Breakfast for 2 euro. Dinners for 3 or 4 euro.

AHh now we understand why you want to work from the office

Padre_Pio

ineedeuro wrote: »

AHh now we understand why you want to work from the office

Honestly, it was great. Not amazing food by any standard, but decent enough.

Now I'm at home cooking all my own meals, my lunch breaks are longer and probably costing me more.

Mrs OBumble

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

I've never given workers free food, beyond reimbursing them for meals if they had to travel. Is this commonplace now? Surely not?

Free or subsidised is common in places where there are few local alternatives which would be able to feed the number of people eg a local lunchbox would be overwhelmed by 500 people at lunchtime.

Mic 1972

Padre_Pio wrote: »

I get that!

When it's there and it's free. Food in our place was subsidized.

Breakfast for 2 euro. Dinners for 3 or 4 euro.

same for me.
Now i have to take care of breakfast and lunch by myself, which is a pain but it's also healthier so I'm not complaining too much about it