
Ask HN: Is your employer paying for your new office space, your home? - throwaway1654
Since the beginning of the pandemic some of us have seen some of our economic perks disappear, in some cases these were a significant part of our income. The main reasoning in many companies is that we are not using the company office so we don&#x27;t get the company perks.<p>But we are in fact using a new office, that many of us have had to isolate from the rest of the family and house, effectively removing this useful space from our homes. Is your company paying part of your rent to compensate for it?
======
ecnahc515
My company is paying for any necessary equipment people need to work, but
that's about it. I can't really imagine most companies compensating you for
you working at home itself though for a few reasons.

1) Many companies are doing pay cuts. They're not going to pay you for
something like this if your base salary isn't even what it should be. It's
time to be saving money. Companies are trying to limit spending wherever
possible.

2) Most companies are assuming that not everyone is even going to work their
regular amount due to children, and other duties. I don't particularly expect
people to be compensated more for working at home when it's possible people
can't do their job as effectively as before.

3) A lot of companies don't even pay you for commuting time or other similar
commitments that are required for getting into work. If they did pay for that,
then you would actually be getting a pay cut for working from home since
that's time saved.

4) Plenty of companies that already hire people to work remotely, do not pay
them more because they don't work in an office. That said, they may pay for
your internet since it's considered essential for you to do your job,
especially if your role requires decent internet (eg software
dev/operations/on-call rotations).

These are just a few reasons of the top of my head.

~~~
mrpigeonpants
Those are good reasons. To add to that:

1) Companies are still paying for office space right now, even though people
aren't using it. If they reduce their physical spaces in the future, the
capital will likely go into hiring more people, which I'd rather see.

2) It's tricky from an accounting perspective, though I like the one-time
stipend idea mentioned in the comments here.

3) Not having a commute saves time AND a lot of money, I've personally spent a
few hundred dollars upgrading my desk / accessories to get comfy, but saved
many times that on commuting and misc expenses.

4) Adding to the above, there are many things that companies generally aren't
expected to pay for, like wardrobe, transportation, food, cell phone, etc. It
seems like home office falls into that bucket as well based on precedent.
Maybe that will change, but I don't have any expectations that it will.

------
graton
I'm genuinely curious what economic perks have disappeared that were a
significant part of people's income?

I consider free food a perk, but it is not income. I consider income to be
monetary compensation. So I'm curious what kind of monetary compensation perks
people had that disappeared.

Myself I am spending a lot less money than before when I had to drive into
work everyday. I spent usually 70-90 minutes each day driving and the cost of
fuel. For me it has been a net positive on the economic side for me working
from home.

Do I miss free soda and snacks? Yep! I'll admit I'm starting to get tired of
only eating food we prepare ourselves. So I'm looking forward to doing some
more takeout in the future and hopefully actual sit-down dining at some point.

------
vladsanchez
5 yrs ago, I got a loaded iMac 27 with extra monitor plus up to $200/month for
internet and phone expenses, but I never exceed $100 on both. They've also
reimbursed my headset and office chair.

My company has been the most generous I've seen so far, and we were a small,
40 person company, now 64. I'm grateful for it.

------
synicalx
My company won't even let us take home a keyboard from the office, let alone
actually pay for anything. So I'm working entirely from the one thing they did
let me take home - my laptop. Productivity loss from only having one tiny
screen and a bad keyboard is noticeable but as I've told my boss "I haven't
got any monitors or a desk at home".

------
bob1029
I am finding it increasingly ironic how WFH is no longer being perceived as
the panacea of productivity and happiness that it once was.

I've been doing WFH for 5 years now. The amount of money you are saving by WFH
full-time, assuming you properly leverage the opportunity (i.e. cooking own
meals and multitasking chores), far outweighs any paltry notion that could be
provided in recompense for you dutifully enshrining a guest bedroom as your
employment zone.

I am also pretty sure they aren't paying you for those rounds of Overwatch you
sneak in between PR review requests. But, they also can't tell you are doing
that, so it seems to work out OK.

~~~
Fradow
> I am finding it increasingly ironic how WFH is no longer being perceived as
> the panacea of productivity and happiness that it once was.

Forced WFH is very different from planned WFH. There are quite a list of
things you might not have with Forced WFH, that isn't an issue with planned
WFH, because it's, well, planned:

* a dedicated "work" space, be it a room, a desk you can convert, or even a desk at all. The couch/bed/random chair will have to do. You just can't buy it either if you are living in a small appartment.

* childcare (if applies). Though luck for single parents.

* reliable internet connection, or an internet connection at all.

* reliable phone line , or the capability to use a phone at all (dead zones are still a thing).

* organizational structure to support remote work, including working communication tools

Note: every single item applies to at least a coworker (small team of 10
persons) or my close family.

~~~
em-bee
a single parent wouldn't be able to work in an office without childcare
either, so working at home would not change that.

~~~
riezebos
I believe a lot of single parents had this covered by school, the current
variant of forced WFH in a lot of countries has an added bonus of "school from
home" which does change the childcare situation quite a lot.

~~~
em-bee
right, the current situation is of course extra difficult for single parents.

------
chiph
In the US, deducting home office expenses are often a trigger for an audit,
and can cause problems when it's time to sell the house. If your employer is
paying for some of it, things could get really messy with regards to
ownership. Consult a tax expert or CPA.

~~~
itake
You can't deduct home office if you're full time employee.

------
throw03172019
No. I’ve seen companies offering up to $1,000 to buy products for their home
office. I haven’t seen any companies offer rent subsidies. Anyone else?

~~~
mtmail
Same. Companies pay for headphones, webcams, chairs, even internet, but not
rent.

~~~
thomspoon
Isn’t that what your salary is for?

~~~
BossingAround
If my home is my work place, then no (unless you're a contractor of course).

------
wetpaws
My company is still keeping me employed. Sounds good enough in my book

------
a-saleh
On the bright side: * no pay-cuts, all the benefits are still there * the
mandate to have at most one day W.F.H. a week will probably be relaxed even
after this is over * we have one time allowance of a low-ish sum to get some
gear sent home (mostly would cover keyboards/mice/headphones) * managers are
fine to approve more * everybody is understanding of the lower productivity

On the less positive: * no monitors? * we still pay for the big empty office *
paying for rent is not really an option?

------
shoo
Current employer basically offers no perks apart from paying salary, which I
reckon is a neatly decoupled way to structure life. BYO lunch, BYO social
life, BYO health insurance (largely covered by public system). Employer offers
salary in exchange for services, as an exchange that does fine.

Employer gave everyone a bit less than AUD 100 as one off bonus to help cover
home office supplies (which is then taxed).

In Australia, can claim AUD 0.80 / hr as tax deductible working from home
running expenses at end of financial year -- this is federal government tax
office policy, independent of company policy.
[https://www.ato.gov.au/general/covid-19/support-for-
individu...](https://www.ato.gov.au/general/covid-19/support-for-individuals-
and-employees/employees-working-from-home/)

One small downside is that I can no longer drink the mediocre free coffee at
work. But can instead make my own coffee at home, which is more enjoyable
(better coffee + better ritual). Costs me about AUD 0.26 in beans and AUD 0.06
in electricity to produce each 1L french press payload of black coffee, so
cost is negligible.

Don't have to lose 1.5 hours of my life commuting to work and back every day,
don't have to sit in noisy shared office environment where we don't even have
fixed desks. On the whole working from home is a massive net win. My working
from home setup is sub-optimal (small apartment, little space) but that said
home is a lot better than the office and I don't want to ever go back!

Compared to other sectors of the economy or other employment situations where
low-paid workers who are already vulnerable are laid off, no longer have any
income, and have experience in industries that are approximately dead
(tourism, hospitality) absolutely nothing to complain about at all. Still have
a job, still have regular income, no drama.

------
dzhiurgis
In NZ there was announcement companies can pay something like $10 USD a week
for employees using home office.

Personally I expense 1/3rd of my housing costs as home office - totally normal
practice here.

I think that's one of the bigger benefits of self-employed + remote deal. It's
a pity regular employee expenses benefit employer only.

~~~
youngtaff
In the UK you can claim a small tax allowance if you have to work from home -
[https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-
home](https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home)

------
mcs_
My house is not an office. It will never be one. It is my home if they pay,
they will decide what to do with it.

------
smanikim
My company is paying $ 200 if someone wants to buy something to help with home
office setup. On top of that, we are allowed to take equipments from office in
case feasible. IMO, one of the reason that company doesn't want to spend more
is saving cash in tough market.

------
joe202
My employer has been encouraging WFH for a while but mandated it for half our
office before government requirement (didn't want everyone in key teams sick
at the same time). We have been allowed to buy a monitor and have been
supplied with a new laptop; we can also borrow any of the kit we need for the
duration (I have borrowed an additional monitor). I moved house last year and
chose one within walking distance to work and with an office (personal
computer is also there). Tax authority allows tax-free compensation if
employer requires WFH but that might complicated tax when house selling.

------
EllipticCurve
No. We are not even allowed to bring a monitor home temporarily during this
phase. Explicitly forbidden to take any kind of working equipment.

So I guess we're expected to work in the 15" laptop? No wonder productivity
goes down.

~~~
BossingAround
It's not only productivity that goes down, but one's health if one's not
careful.

Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

------
cableshaft
I've been working from home for two years. My employer hasn't paid for
anything in my home office. I have company issued computers and monitors
(nothing amazing), the same ones I was using when we still had an office, but
that's it.

Honestly, my expenses besides that have been minimal. I bought a new office
chair once on my own dime, but that's pretty much it. I'm still using a long
card table for a desk that I've had for probably a decade now. Internet costs
I was already paying for anyway.

------
plerpin
I'm positive that tax law would get in the way of such a scheme.

~~~
itake
Can you tell me more about how tax law would get in the way? Self-employed can
take a "home office" deduction on their taxes. Full time workers can as well,
but its slightly more complicated.

[https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/deduct-home-
office-v2/](https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/deduct-home-office-v2/)

------
giantg2
My company will not pay you. They will allow you to buy common equipment
through their supplier and have it shipped to your house, obviously after
manager approval.

------
BossingAround
Not paying for rent, no, but we have been issued a one-time bonus (100 USD I
think) for whatever you need.

I think it's indeed a valid question. I am sympathetic to small businesses
that can't afford such expenses, but I went from my amazingly ergonomic setup
to sitting on a chair that doesn't provide proper back support, using a non-
adjustable desk where my keyboard doesn't even fit.

I am worried about my posture and health.

~~~
ckdarby
>I am worried about my posture and health.

If this is a concern may I ask why this wasn't dealt with at all before
covid19? I'm guessing but think it is fair to say you've probably used your
desk & chair prior to this WFH covid19 but that same setup existed then as it
does today.

~~~
ytjohn
They probably didn't come home and sit in it for hours on end each day.

Myself, I've been WFH for 6 years and have a nice setup in a detached
garage/office. But once schools shut down, I had to migrate back into the
house, sitting the dining room table in order to also take care of the kid
during the workday. After a month, the old 2nd-hand kitchen chair I was
sitting on actually broke, so I brought in my desk chair. By the end of the
second month I accepted that this was going to be much more permanent and I
ended up purchasing a new desk and chair for inside the house, much smaller
than what's out in my office, but usable.

------
tracer4201
I expensed a large monitor, but that's about as much my company has offered to
pay. I'd love to purchase a proper desk for myself while my spouse uses the
other desk we have, but I don't have a lot of space for it, and honestly feel
my employer should foot the bill, not me.

------
kortex
We have a generous hardware budget. Some people have used it for home office
stuff but most choose to just buy it with their own money so they can keep it
if they were to leave or use it outside work.

Some people get noise cancelling headphones or monitors with their budget.

------
mister_hn
No, they just gave us a Laptop and a docking station.

------
frakkingcylons
My employer gave everyone in the company a one-time $500 stipend, no questions
asked.

------
0-_-0
Why would you have to isolate from the rest of the family and house?

~~~
Darmody
Have you tried to work with several kids running around? You can't just have
your laptop on your living room.

------
epylar
Yep, I'm getting up to $50 total for office supplies.

