Major companies have deemed this to be the autumn of the great office return.
While cities like New York have seen stagnant reentry, both leaders and landlords appear to be breathing a sigh of relief as there appears to be a slight return to workplace “normalcy.”
However, workers are now finding themselves backed into another corner that is complicating the return: inflation.
The cost of nearly everything has skyrocketed in recent months, including childcare, food, gas, housing and more. Now that employers expect their staff to be in the office with little to no change in pay, how are workers supposed to weather this storm?
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“I lose money every single time I leave my house,” said Lina Tumanyan, a real estate broker who works in Manhattan.
Although some experts have argued that working from home can be just as expensive as commuting due to rising energy and utility bills, professionals agree that remote work is the more economical option.
In fact, a survey from Owl Labs shows that full-time in-office workers spend nearly twice as much per month compared to those working from home.
“Employees still express some quite serious reluctance to return to the office and a strong preference for remote work,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.
“The motivations for wanting remote work have changed over time. So while health concerns were the number one concern initially, now commuting costs are the major concern.”
