WFH and heating / electricity bills

[cakeorwine]

So on the one hand, it could be cheaper for some people to WFH / do a hybrid model as they have expensive commutes.

OTOH - it could be more expensive to WFH / do a hybrid model as the commute isn't too expensive and you are paying more to WFH and keep yourself warm and use your electricity to power the gadgets needed for you to your companies business.

Would it BU if you had a cheap commute but your company insisted on you doing a hybrid model to ask for extra payments to cover the cost of having to WFH - seeing as how you might well be saving the company money as they don't need to have such a big office. And you aren't using as much electricity in the office.

Heating your home during the day when you are WFH is going to be expensive.

I currently work a hybrid model but I’m moving to a new role soon which is completely WFH.

Having said that, and as we sometimes topped £400 pcm during winter last year, I’m going to start going to the office as it’s only about three miles away. The only reason I haven’t been going is laziness to be quite honest. If things get really bad for us (which they shouldn’t) then I’ll stop driving completely and use a bike.

I had this conversation with DH yesterday- he is looking for work as is a SAHD currently. He can be at home all day in the cold and be fine. I can’t. I get blue fingers and if I’m busy I can’t just get up and exercise a bit to keep my blood pumping!

I whf on and off for years and it was never really more expensive than couple of pounds a week. There is no need to heat whole house for a room I work in so very low energy electric panel heating is used.

That said, I have insulated house which doesn't go below 18 during the day anyway with heating on early morning for an hour and then few hours evening. The extra heating via the electric panel heater for a week still costs me less than return bus ticket for a day.

So no. I wouldn't want extra since it's actually saving me money

Would it BU if you had a cheap commute but your company insisted on you doing a hybrid model to ask for extra payments to cover the cost of having to WFH - seeing as how you might well be saving the company money as they don't need to have such a big office. And you aren't using as much electricity in the office.

I don't quite understand. Have they literally got no desk for you on some days of the week? Have they said you have to work at home, or was it part of the job when you applied?

There are winners and losers in working from home, but not everyone has the right space/set up to work effectively. I'm planning to work in the office most of the time over the winter to save on heating.

I am looking at another job, which pays more , but is hybrid. I know my commuting costs which aren't that high.

I do have my throws though.

don't quite understand. Have they literally got no desk for you on some days of the week? Have they said you have to work at home, or was it part of the job when you applied

It's hybrid. So reduced desks, hot desking and WFH if not in.

Company has smaller offices so they save. But can employ more staff.

It's the future

You really can't ask the company to pay towards your bills....you have to decide whether it works for you, or not.

I work for a large organisation with a hybrid working model and at every CEO Q&A there's always someone who asks about this. Makes me roll my eyes. I'm happy that I save in petrol and parking costs by WFH, so I take any extra heating/electricity costs on the chin. You can't have it all ways.

OTOH - you are saving them money on their energy costs and desk space

You can claim tax relief if you work from home. It's only a few pounds a week but would go towards heating I guess. Add that to reduced travel costs and you might get close to what you spend on heating.

And they are saving you time. Which is also worth a lot. If you wnat to look at it this way. But, you are not saving them money. Their company policies are saving them money.

Even if it costed me more, I would still pick wfh or hybrid because I got so much time back! Totally worth every penny

If it's a new job I think you have to factor it in just like you would on commuting costs.
1.5kW heater for 10 hours a day is 15kWH or about £8-10 in electricity.

Bloody hell 50p a kwh😳

500w (0.5kwh) is more then enough if you are in smaller room or have it close like under the table. Plus they don't run non stop. Would be boiling! Mine turns on for just few hours so costs me very little.

Costs more to WFH - but I managed nearly all of last winter without daytime heating. I wore a coat permanently - always caused zoom based amusement and used hot water bottles to keep warm, plus fingerless gloves. Boil the kettle twice a day for tea/coffee and power to run a laptop, overhead light and monitor.

You might be able to play this argument if you were a long-standing employee in a company which had deliberately chosen to recently downsize its office space to reflect greater WFH and was asking for staff input to help them gauge potential capacity. It’s very unlikely to fly as a new joiner in a new company whose facilities decisions you have no insight into.

1.5kW heater for 10 hours a day is 15kWH or about £8-10 in electricity

Ouch, that starts to make my commute seem worthwhile! A monthly season for me would be around £400. But I don't have a heater on that long.

I never thought that it would potentially be cheaper to travel to the office than pay home energy bills :(

That's not going to happen with the heater as mine is thermostatically controlled.

I think about this a lot. Was expensive for me last year. I don't have an office to go to, it was given to another department during lockdown (I work for NHS) so I simply don't have a desk to go into or the choice of not working at home. Going to invest in a heated blanket this year I think.

I remember a thread about this months ago. Someone actually did the figuring out that there wasn't much difference- it doesn't cost that much more to run a computer or have the heat on, at least not when taking ANY commute other than a walk to work. Plus there's no commute time, which some people may value more than any extra expense money.

I haven’t noticed a difference but do have an easy to keep warm newish house.

I work in HR, lots of companies are pretty keen to get employees back into the office more. There is a significant amount of skiving going on with wfh arrangements. So good luck with asking them to pay you to stay at home.

That's mine and few others I know experience.
Lots of people said food costed them more, but then either they are like me and smack when at home, but not in the office or they buy food out which is usually more expensive and even if not cost just moved from "out" to "groceries".

The one person who constantly moaned about it being REALLY expensive was always on Teams in light short/no sleeve tops. I am not saying people should be uncomfortably cold, but light tops are kind of the other extreme imho

Surely you just don't apply for the job if the working arrangements don't suit you?

You wouldn't apply for a job with an expensive commute and then ask for extra money to cover your commuting costs. This is the same. If the cost of heating your home when WfH is a dealbreaker for you, then don't apply for hybrid/Wfh jobs.

To be fair I think you'd struggle to prove you used sufficient amounts of utilities to get a significant payout- I believe the amount given by the govt during covid was 6.00 p/w and as it was tax relief it actually only worked put as about £4.80 cash per week. Even if you say electric/gas prices have doubled, for most people their commute, parking, childcare would cost significantly more than a tenner a week so the majority of people would still benefit financially from wfh.

Computers cost pennies, not pounds to run for 8 hours, and there is no need to heat the entire house if you're working from 1 room - I wore a big hoodie, sat on an electric blanket and occasionally did a 5 min burst with a fan heater and was perfectly warm wfh full time over the last 2 winters.

I mean there's no reason not to ask- don't ask don't get etc - but if I was the employer I'd be saying either we let you wfh but you suck up the costs yourselves, if you can't afford to heat your home you can work in the office, but it costs too much (and is a waste) to both heat an office and pay for individuals to heat their own homes.

I do a hybrid role but the heating would be on anyway for the dogs so it makes no difference if I'm in or out . I work 3 miles from the office

We got a small (probably no where near the true cost) allowance during Covid when we had to work from home, but they've stopped it now. However we can come into the office full time if we don't want to do hybrid for any reason.

Our commutes are still more expensive than having the heating on for a little bit at home, although we will be fully rugged up while working. Also the pay off of not trudging to an office in the dark wet and cold!

But its an interesting point. My employer is very much 'We are letting you hybrid work but we dont love it and we wont get rid of office space' but DH on the other hand, his employer cut the office space in half and now there arent enough desks for everyone. So in that scenario, perhaps you have a point. If everyone decided it was too cold and expensive to stay home and come into the office, they wouldn't be able to accommodate everyone due to their cost saving measures.