To expect my work to pay for broadband and other wfh expenses?

[Zazzii]

Since last March like many of us I have been working from home - I have a work laptop and phone and use our spare room. I had always worked the odd day at home when it was convenient for wating in for deliveries/ appointments etc but only once or twice a month. I, and line manager etc, were happy with this but it was seen as a bit of a perk

Now that working from home is established as the 'new normal' is it wrong for me to expect my employer to cover my broadband costs? They dont seem inclined to give us anything telling us that as we have it already there is no increased costs for us of using it for an additional 7 hours a day.

It is vital for the business that we are connected therefore the cost should be met by the business. Plans from teh summer are for us to continue working from home at least for part of the week so it will be long term.

I undertsand that they dont want to get involved in discussions about individual broadband contracts etc but a standard amount for all staff - say £30 a month?, £40?- should be part of our expenses claim. Or do I need to accept it as part of the new way of working?

Then there are other expenses which I have incurred over the past year - bigger things like the heating and electricity during the day but also small things like the coffee, tea and other refreshments I would normally expect to have at work which I have had to pay for.

I havent reduced any costs in other areas - my commute is 2 miles by bike so negilible cost and time saving.

Am I being unreasonable? Would it be unreasonable to try and rally my fellow workers to ask for this?

Wait, your work paid for your tea and coffee? Surely that's not usual.
Yes, and hot chocolate!

I git into a bad habit of having a kit Kat or Twirl bar with my mid morning or afternoon brew at work. I'm glad I've kicked that habit now I'm working from home for 25 hours!

We also can have biscuits and cake.
We have all our meals there as well.

YABU. Do you want them to provide toilet paper too? and wipe your arse

From what I'm reading here it doesn't sound like everyone is working on watertight BYOD policies.

If it wasn't for Apple, my last place wouldn't have had a BYOD policy at all. (Well to be fair, Microsofts disastrous Windows Mobile farrago helped). It takes a lot of nerve to say to the MD after a weekends golfing with the iShiny fanbois "No, we can't let you use your iPhone on our network"

But it stopped at iOS and Android. Windows machines had to be supplied by us to a custom build that did some clever stuff that wasn't possible on any old junk. With the disk encrypted of course.

When I was running our network logging tool, I caught a few people trying to email themselves spreadsheets and documents to work on at home.

no need to put it on at all in the morning? How stingy can you get.

We don't bother. The temperature only drops a couple of degrees overnight. We are up and out in about half an hour, so no point.

If you're saving money in other areas I really don't see how you could expect anything?

Swings and roundabouts: I have saved about £6k in travel. Haven't bought any work clothes for 12 months either. Gas and electric gas bills have gone up but my broadband cost hasn't

How much have you campaigned for your office to switch off the air con in the summer I am curious? In the UK, it's absolutely not needed.

What utter bollocks. temperatures of high twenties and above aren't conducive to concentration. Aircon isn't required in my house for decent working temperatures - but making me work in a build in the middle of the urban heat island alongside hundreds of other workers and their computers all giving off heat where we can't open the windows for reasons of security, safety and quiet is stifling with no aircon.

We had to upgrade our broadband for me to WFH as kept not being able to Dave documents on server etc

@DGRossetti

BYOD policies have been around for years. It’s unusual if you work for a medium size company and don’t have a Bring Your Own Device policy.

All BYOD policies I've implemented have required the employee installs something supplied by the company (whether directly or via a requirement) onto their machine. Which is all very well, until it breaks the machine (yes, I have). At which point who pays for the fix ? (No, we never got an answer either .....)

Yes, this is something that we are currently dealing with. We have decided (for now) that we won’t fix non-corporate devices. We do provide corporate devices so they could have one anyway.

I understand the SLA times on domestic broadband being an issue potentially (although it is a risk employers have to manage if they're expecting people to work from home), but the prices some seem to be paying are surprising. £29 for fibre broadband, reasonable speeds (enough for 2 adults to be working and someone streaming), and unlimited data- also includes line rental, evening and weekend calls and came with one signal booster as well as the hub (which admittedly we replaced); and not a new joiner deal or anything.

@RandomMess

We had to upgrade our broadband for me to WFH as kept not being able to Dave documents on server etc

Now that I would expect to be compensated for.

I had to buy a new laptop to teach from home as the old one didn't have a camera/ video. Got nothing towards that from my school . Just had to shrug it off at £400

Honestly if you had broadband before then no I don't think they should pay.

I do think employers should pay for laptops and phones though as otherwise you end up looking at work emails and taking work calls more than you should.

My employer provides tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits

@flumposie

I had to buy a new laptop to teach from home as the old one didn't have a camera/ video. Got nothing towards that from my school . Just had to shrug it off at £400

Why couldn't you get a webcam?

Ours funds internet, yes we did have broadband, but for us both to work at the same time we had to upgrade our package which cost around £20 extra per month.

Oh you mean you are having to pay extra for your broadband when you WFH? You pay by how much you use and it is costing you more? That's not fair at all..... no you say?!.... so you are just have a little whinge for no reason? You have no extra costs you are just a moaner? YABU

@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl

When you worked in the office did you think they should pay for your bike? After all it was needed for you to get to work. And your clothes - it's their rule that you can't go to work naked or in pyjamas, so why should you pay for clothes?

exactly this.

OP you wouldn't be unreasonable to query if your employer should put some money towards refunding necessary WFH expenses for staff (particularly if they are saving money elsewhere) but you'd probably get a better result if you focussed on things that have measurably increased due to WFH (such as higher heating and electric) rather than broadband which costs the same despite how often you're using it.

With the tea and coffee, I suppose if it's counted as a work perk you could ask the employer to provide the perk in another way...but to be honest dividing the cost of discount quantity teabags and a few pints of milk a week between x amount of staff would probably work out as such a small amount it would be worthless...you might end up with enough for one small costa a month or something!

Basically think about whether you want to be 'that person' before you start moaning about petty things, and look into options like the HMRC allowance first.

We installed a second line when lockdown eased in May - that is an extra £23 a month (for 18 months). But we use broadband for work, study and leisure, not just work.

We save loads on commuting especially DH who had a full time season ticket.

And are spending quite a bit more on heating. But overall we are a lot better off.

@wusbanker

If you're saving money in other areas I really don't see how you could expect anything?

Because the employer is saving even more on premises, IT etc. costs. If they are decent people and and not acquisitive shits, they will share some of that saving with their staff, who after all, help the employers (in most instances) become a lot wealthier than them.

I presume they didn’t fund your commute OP

So 🤷‍♀️

Because the employer is saving even more on premises, IT etc. costs

Most employers are not letting all office space go, so they still have those costs.

Work naked then put the money you have saved on clothing towards tea, coffee and broadband. Do not continue doing this when you return to the office

You can claim £1.20 a week tax relief on a P87 form. My job does other tax refund claims and we’re adding this to all claims from April if our customers confirm they have wfh at least one day in 19/20.

DynamoKev

What utter bollocks. temperatures of high twenties and above aren't conducive to concentration. Aircon isn't required in my house for decent working temperatures

that's YOUR opinion, but many on MN will disagree.

I have central heating, I am using it. It's as essential to me as the aircon is essential to you 🤷

Personally I've been grateful to have kept my job during the pandemic, rather than moaning about the nitty gritty. Millions of people haven't been so lucky.

Reminds me of the people moaning at my work last April about the manner in which the annual bonuses were announced - that went down well with the senior leadership team, whilst they tried hard to keep the organisation afloat and minimise risk of furlough or redundancies...