Rural hubs for remote workers... €60 per week to use!

zell12

€10/day is a good price

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118675346#Comment_118675346

Your software company don't even meet some of your home office costs?

They have put a saddle on you and are riding you around the kitchen.

Run far away from that highly abusive relationship if you can.

Fandymo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058234274/rural-hubs-for-remote-workers-60-per-week-to-use

Whinging for the sake of whinging. €60 a week is very reasonable. Enjoy your dark dank spare room, and all the penny's you're keeping prisoner there.

BattleCorp1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118683671#Comment_118683671

I'm not richie rich so I'd normally choose my free (aside from a euro or two for heating/lighting) spare bedroom where the workstation is set up ergonomically to suit me ahead of a table/desk in a shared hub space costing €60p/w.

El Tarangu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118683839#Comment_118683839

Fair enough - I would largely be in agreement with you.

But presumably most people would not be using the service every working day, rather a max of two days a week to network with other people (if self-employed) or to have a change of scene. And any self-employed person would be able to write off the modest charge as a business expense, and many employers would be willing to to pay this for their employees. I guess that some people find it strange that someone who works in software would consider €12.50 an onerous charge.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118675932#Comment_118675932

Only if a company pays it, and its a legitimate business expense for that company.

If the individual employee pays it, then it comes from their after tax income, and isn't deductible in any way.

Dizzyskater

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058234274/rural-hubs-for-remote-workers-60-per-week-to-use

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118684682#Comment_118684682

Or a self employed sole trader could put it down as an expense.

Unfortunately the OP's company appear be a bit mean.

If they won't pay as little as €25 per week before tax allowance to improve his working conditions they seem to be penny wise and pound foolish.

Dizzyskater

These particular Hubs are being funded by the state and are often state owned(enterprise centres etc.). If they charge less than the commercial rate -Generally €250 pm then the tax payer(you) are subsidizing Corporations like Google, Twitter Facebook. We are in effect increasing their profits and boosting shareholders dividends. Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Jeff Bezos are laughing their backsides off.

MegamanBoo

Why do we provide street lighting? Is it because so many people are too mean or entitled to buy their own torch?

This is being sold to us as a transformative policy, one that will shift tens of thousands of people to remote working. Clearly it isn't.

Let's estimate in the rural area I live, 100 people are travelling 40mins to the nearest city for office work. If 80 of these people drove 5mins to a local hub every day, where they could share heating/lighting etc. the effect really would be transformative. C02 reduction would be significant, congestion would be reduced in that nearby city, and it would drive growth in that rural area.

If you can't see the value of that, I can only guess you're part of the 'sure what can Ireland do about climate change brigade.'

At the present price of these facilities, this won't happen. It excludes lower and I think most medium income workers, and others will chose to spend their money differently, maybe using the hubs some days, at holidays etc.

For the people here who keep focusing on my situation and haven't read my posts, can I clarify that I have dependents and am saving towards a house at todays prices. My disposable income is not that of a typical software worker. Also, my employer does provide some wfh supports, but nothing close to the prices charged for working at remote hubs currently.

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118684781#Comment_118684781

I think there's a logic to what you're saying. One way to bring about the transformative move to remote working (which I believe is now a government objective) would be to place the cost directly on employers, and maybe even introduce prohibitive taxes for traditional wasteful office space.

As an aside, I don't know if many people realise it but we already generously subsidize many of these corporations. I believe a large percentage of software development in Ireland is supported by our research grants, which cover about 20% of costs.

tjhook

I think the price of €12.50 per day is good. It's not meant to be a free universal service. If it's well used, then it's serving its purpose. If it ends up largely unused, then it's not serving its purpose.

I do think though that an individual paying for it him/herself (i.e. the employer isn't covering the cost) shouldn't have to pay VAT. But that's a minor complaint in the scheme of things.

Now if only there was one of the facilities close to me...

MegamanBoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118685426#Comment_118685426

Why would it not be a free universal service? Perhaps one funded by employers. The c02 reduction would be very significant. I've looked at CSO figures on c02 and while they don't break down into what goes towards commuting, road usage is one of our biggest polluters and I think it's clear a lot of road usage in Ireland is people commuting long distances to offices.

eusap

I have used one in Kerry at €15 per day, €50 per week which i found good value when visiting family as their home broadband and space was not ideal and it was good to have a quiet work space.

There were many people there from different industrys, some working remotely for Dublin Tech, some startups, some contractors etc... and all agreed €15 was good value for Lack of commute, Light, Heat, Tea etc.... but more importantly reliable broadband and being able to chat to others and bounce ideas around.

It would be great if it was tax deductible for PAYE workers

tjhook

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118685628#Comment_118685628

Yeah, I think our thinking is not that far apart, it's just what we mean by "free". As far as I know, it's the employer's responsibility to provide a safe healthy working environment. Obviously COVID turned lots of things upside down, but that shouldn't result in a permanent shift of responsibility from employer to employee (or to the state).

By "free", I mean state-funded. I don't like the idea that businesses can get rid of office space, knowing that the state will fund it instead in the form of these hubs. But if the employer pays for the hub space for employees with the agreement of the employee, that's fine by me.

John_Rambo

Closest one to me in Dublin is €36.90 per day or €492 per month. And you're moaning about €12.50 a day??

You should see my property tax bill for my modest house, most of which is spent in rural areas.

RedXIV

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118688325#Comment_118688325

Similar here, 40 a day is the closest to me. up to 15 a day I'd have no problem with but that's a bit too rich for my blood.

[Deleted User]

The is an Edge hub in a Partas building nearby to me in Dublin 24 that offers the following for a hotdesk -

5-day: € 80*

10-day: € 120*

Full month: € 180

* To be used in 90 days

Not bad.

Dedicated desks are more expensive, €295 per month (inclusive of VAT) which works out at approx €15 per day, which I presume is for 20 working days.

Esse85

12.50 a day is excellent especially if parking is included.

How quiet are these places, I mean if you needed a quiet place, will you have others yapping on phones /on zoom meetings all day long. The thoughts of having some loud mouth talking on the phone half the day is putting me off giving these a go.

whippet

My local enterprise hub has dedicated 'phone booths' for such calls. Most are single person but a couple that can take up to 4 people and if needed full on meeting rooms. The hot desk area is really quite

lisasimpson

Think it v reasonablev handy when kids are on breaks from school. Willalso bring a bit of life to towns a villages. More footfall for coffee shops, babers,gyms etc during the week. Make rural living a bit more of an option for people, help local schools crying out for enrollments hold onto a teacher

Kerry25x

€43 a day for the closest one to me in Cork City, there's one there for €30 a day also but that's a 15 minute drive.

Just as an aside, I'm surprised people are saying Internet cafes are dead, I can think of 2 within walking distance of me that always seem busy.