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Comment by theandrewbailey | Hacker News Reader

That's OK. But if I work from home, that means you're not paying rent for my office anymore. Where should I send the bill?

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This succinctly illustrates the problem. The worker is in a position to eliminate costs for themselves and their organization, and the organization has the gall to suggest that they are owed something in EXCESS of the cost saving they just received from the employee.

They should be giving everyone raises to leave, putting the office savings toward payroll. Instead they are trying to claw back.

Push back against this - it is a desperate attempt by the organization to retain outsized bargaining capability.

Both companies I worked for during the pandemic offered a reasonable equipment stipend. I had a pretty custom setup that was more specialized than what I would have had in the office and it was entirely covered. If you exceeded the budget your manager could approve exceptions which didn't seem so hard to get.

The main cost is the real estate, not the equipment. If you were comfortable in a 600sqft 1BR working from the office, you probably would need at least an additional 100sqft for the same comfort WFH.

My company did this. Sold an incredibly desired and prime location in my city because like 90% of IT can just do their jobs from home. COVID was a somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

As usual, there are two sides of the story.

For me, personally, I pay a lot more on:

- food/drinks (Coffee)

- heating of my home office

- Internet (had to upgrade my speed)

I always walked to the office, so I have no saving on gas while the commute was a very pleasant 20m walk.

But then, there are others who save a ton of money on gas and hours on not being stuck in traffic, so the company feels entitled to demand more from you for allowing you to work from home.

The company also of course must maintain at least some rent because a number of people will want to return to the office (I'd think the split is like 50-50).

Fancy coffee is like 6USD a pound. The benefit of having free coffee at work is to not having to arrange a coworker coffee shrine to put coins in - not the cost of the coffee.

> Fancy coffee is like 6USD a pound

Ah? Everywhere in the world? Why thank you, I had no idea!

Now, one cup = 20g of coffee (for me, could be more or less depending on your brew method). 2 cups a day = 40g of coffee. 5 days a week, 4 weeks in a month = 800g of coffee a month. Multiply that by 2 since my wife also takes her coffee.

Over here, a kilo of the same coffee I got in the office is $50. So that's extra ~$70 a month.

In Denver, 'fancy coffee' (i.e. Fair trade / Fair wage / environmentally sustainable, 100% Arabica) from the many local roasters starts at around $15.50 a pound and goes up to about $24 a pound.

I think you are slightly off, those are 12oz (340g) packages.

The bill for your office space at home? Now that is an interesting idea.

Why not? It's a part of my living space (which isn't free), it needs to be serviced with utilities, furnished, and structurally maintained.

I'd love this. I also suspect it would be a nightmare for a company to declare the tax around such things, even if they didn't mind paying for it.

If the company is reducing salary based on the employee's cost of living, it seems more fair for the employee to bill based on the cost of a desk or an office in NYC.

Specially when if you do business from home you can charge certain expenses to business and get tax deduction. WFH should certainly allow some similar tax benefits.

AND utilities … my electricity and water bill has shot up.

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