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.

If all my family commuted every day it would cost £1200 per month.

Bit cheeky to ask for expenses which are yours to bear. I spend 50 pounds a week on petrol for my commute but I'm not going to ask for mileage. It's not work's problem that I live 40 minutes away. Same with WFH costs. It's not your employer's problem.

@MintJulia you can't claim tax relief for WFM anymore unfortunately except in limited circumstances, for example if your job requires you to live very far from your office, or if your employer has no office: www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home

*WFH sorry!

I agree there are lots of pay offs.

My commute is reasonably cheap to be honest. I have worked in the office during last winter - so normally have the heating off when am in the office.

So I honestly have no idea what it will cost - although I could look at the weekend usage - but then again, I would be in 1 room.

It is interesting though - it's going to potentially be quite expensive to WFH with increased heating costs and it would be nice to work in a nice warm office. Or at least in an office where they are paying the heating bills.

I WFH most of the time. I can keep the heating costs down by layering woollens and blankets most of the time, with the exception of a few really cold days. I offset the cost against the cost of buying lunch while out, as I have never mastered the habit of bringing lunch in to work. My lunch/coffee costs would be about £8 per day in the office.

I’ve worked from home for the majority of the 2000s. So does my DH (even though he is now a permie & not an IT contractor anymore). The only way you can manage WFH is employing a ‘business on the top, party on the bottom’ dress code. Layer, layer, layer. Throw on an Oodie between meetings. Close your room door to keep the heat in.

We run a server/PCs/Macs & other equipment for DH’s job; with the door closed (and being a small office) we don’t tend to need to put the heating on, together with dress code above.

Are we concerned about rising heating costs? Of course. But balancing heating cost (or very little in our case in work hours, although equipment uses electricity of course) and a commute at £500plus a month each for a season ticket, or £20 petrol & £12.50 ULEZ charge to get to DH’s employer every day with equipment, we are still saving money by WFH.

If you wander around your home in office garb & jack up the heating because you’re chilly sat at a dining table in a cavernous dining room, then maybe WFH isn’t the best case.

If you are in one room, the heating cost increase should be minimal

YABU, In the same way I don't ask my employer to pay my bus fare every day.
They aren't necessarily saving costs unless they are closing down the office. They will still have to heat the place, have lights on and run servers etc even if only a few people come in.

Yes, they all are, but working in one of those wooden cabins it never clicked off when it was properly cold. Of course everyone's situation and space is different.