Accounting For The Cost Of Going To Work
It’s the last piece in the puzzle as employers entice fiscally conscious staff to return to the office
4 min
Time spent in peak hour traffic, unreliable (and crowded) public transport, the cost of petrol and the ever-elusive quest for a parking spot — the daily commute has long been synonymous with inconvenience and expense.
But as companies urge their employees to reclaim their desks, a fresh wave of calculations has entered the scene and many are now meticulously tallying up the cost of heading into the office compared with working from home.
“Getting back into the office can be great for productivity but it comes at a cost to workers,” says Angus Kidman, money expert at comparison website Finder.
“Whether it’s paying for parking or fares to catch public transport, commuting into the office can be a hefty cost for consumers travelling into the office every day.
“But while remote work eliminates the need for commuting and transport costs, there are still plenty of other costs to be considered working from home.”
It’s no secret that patterns of work have changed drastically since the early days of 2020.
Where once we were content with the daily trip into the office — complete with full corporate wardrobe, coffees, lunch and drinks after work — the pandemic highlighted the ease with which many of us were able to work from home. Fast forward a few years and hybrid work arrangements are now more commonplace. However, in recent months we’ve seen many larger companies beginning to put their foot down on flexible working arrangements.
The truth is that thanks to the rising cost of living and those unrelenting interest rates many Australians are now paying more regardless of where they choose to work. But it seems a conservative estimate of around $10,000 per year to go to the office is the norm when you consider travel, food and your work wardrobe.
Research from Finder reveals consumers spend $122 per week on the commute which amounts to $5,856 over a 48-week work year.
Once we’re at work the spending doesn’t stop, with data indicating Australian workers spend around $1548 a year in their lunch hour — and that doesn’t include your morning coffee.
Commutes and coffees aside, the other big expense with working from the office is undoubtedly the corporate wardrobe although, according to experts, these days it’s more acceptable to be a little less corporate than we may have been used to pre-pandemic.
“Even prior to COVID we were witnessing a more relaxed workplace dress code and now that people have had a taste of dressing more casually, we won’t be in a rush to get back to the corporate that we used to know,” says stylist and corporate image consultant Caitlin Stewart.
“Designers have amended their offerings to reflect greater comfort and versatility in their garments so when curated carefully additional comfort elements can be implemented and still look professional.”
Stewart says a corporate wardrobe update can cost anywhere between $3000-$5000.
She also says while most men are still opting for suits in a corporate environment, the days of office heels and a full face of makeup for women are definitely over.
“A woman can look exceptionally polished in professional, flat loafers and a light face of makeup or just a clean and fresh face.”
Naturally, the actual costs people incur in the office or at home will depend on their specific circumstance but for Simon Kuestenmacher, co-founder of The Demographics Group, the bottom line is clear.
“There’s no question working from home is a cheaper option for many employees — especially in the capital cities,” he says.
“There’s no tolls, no public transport fees, cheaper lunch, and you can get away with a smaller work wardrobe. Of course, working from home can incur extra costs but these are minimal compared with what it costs to actually physically go into the office each day.”
Undoubtedly, the biggest out- of-pocket expense in the current economic climate when working from home is increased electricity usage and associated bills.
Data from Finder estimates the extra electricity used when working from home will add between $324 in summer and $340 in winter to the average quarterly electricity bill — or an average of around $110 per month.
“You can claim a portion of those costs through tax, but the rules around that are being tightened this year,” warns Kidman.
According to figures from the ATO, almost nine million Australians claim about $22 billion worth of work-related expenses, many relating to working from home.
Other costs to consider in an home office include furniture, equipment, and software. However, according to Kuestenmacher, companies will often foot part of that bill for employees.
Further, experts say the savings associated with working from home are not just financial.
“One of the drivers for people to continue working from home is the cost of lost time that many people experience because of long commutes,” says Dr Penelope Williams from QUT’s Business School and the Centre for Decent Work and Industry.
“For many, the extra time they get back by not travelling to and from another workplace, not only helps them achieve better work-life balance, but also increases their productivity.
“It’s important to consider the financial aspect just as much as the impact of social connections, career advancement, networking and development opportunities.”
That being said, Williams points out that there are physical and mental benefits and challenges for both office and WFH environments.
“It’s really dependent on the needs of the individual and the requirements of the workplace.”
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
Couples find that lab-grown diamonds make it cheaper to get engaged or upgrade to a bigger ring. But there are rocky moments.
4 min
Wedding planner Sterling Boulet has some advice for brides-to-be regarding lab-grown diamonds, which cost a fraction of the natural ones.
“If you’re trying to get your man to propose, they’ll propose faster if you offer this as an option,” says Boulet, of Raleigh, N.C. Recently, she adds, a friend’s fiancé “thanked me the next three times I saw him” for telling him about the cheaper lab-made option.
Man-made diamonds are catching on, despite some lingering stigma. This year was the first time that sales of lab-made and natural mined loose diamonds, primarily used as center stones in engagement rings, were split evenly, according to data from Tenoris, a jewellery and diamond trend-analytics company.
The rise of lab-made stones, however, is bringing up quirks alongside the perks. Now that blingier engagement rings—above two or three carats—are more affordable, more people are dealing with the peculiarities of wearing rather large rocks.
Esther Hare, a 5-foot-11-inch former triathlete, sought out a 4.5-carat lab-made oval-shaped diamond to fit her larger hands as a part of her vow renewal in Hawaii last year. It was a far cry from the half-carat ring her husband proposed with more than 25 years ago and the 1.5-carat upgrade they purchased 10 years ago. Hare, 50, who lives in San Jose, Calif., and works in high tech, chose a $40,000 lab-made diamond because “it’s nuts” to have to spend $100,000 on a natural stone. “It had to be big—that was my vision,” she says.
But the size of the ring has made it less practical at times. She doesn’t wear it for athletic training and swaps in her wedding band instead. And she is careful to leave it at home when traveling. “A lot of times I won’t take it on vacation because it’s just a monster,” she says.
The average retail price for a one-carat lab-made loose diamond decreased to $1,426 this year from $3,039 in 2020, according to the Tenoris data. Similar-sized loose natural diamonds cost $5,426 this year, compared with $4,943 in 2020.
Lab-made diamonds have essentially the same chemical makeup as natural ones, and look the same, unless viewed through sophisticated equipment that gauges the characteristics of emitted light.
At Ritani, an online jewellery retailer, lab-made diamond sales make up about 70% of the diamonds sold, up from roughly 30% two years ago, says Juliet Gomes, head of customer service at the company, based in White Plains, N.Y.
Ritani sometimes records videos of the lab-diamonds pinging when exposed to a “diamond tester,” a tool that judges authenticity, to show customers that the man-made rocks behave the same as natural ones. “We definitely have some deep conversations with them,” Gomes says.
Not all gem dealers are rolling with these stones.
Philadelphia jeweller Steven Singer only stocks the natural stuff in his store and is planning a February campaign to give about 1,000 one-carat lab-made diamonds away free to prove they are “worthless.” Anyone can sign up online and get one in the mail; even shipping is free. “I’m not selling Frankensteins that were built in a lab,” Singer says.
Some brides are turned off by the larger bling now allowed by the lower prices.When her now-husband proposed with a two-carat lab-grown engagement ring, Tiffany Buchert, 40, was excited about the prospect of marriage—but not about the size of the diamond, which she says struck her as “costume jewellery-ish.”
“I said yes in the moment, of course, I didn’t want it to be weird,” says the physician assistant from West Chester, Pa.
But within weeks, she says, she fessed up, telling her fiancé: “I think I hate this ring.”
The couple returned it and then bought a one-carat natural diamond for more than double the price.
When Boulet, the wedding planner in Raleigh, got engaged herself, she was over the moon when her fiancé proposed with a 2.3 carat lab-made diamond ring. “It’s very shiny, we were almost worried it was too shiny and was going to look fake,” she says.
It doesn’t, which presents another issue—looking like someone who really shelled out for jewellery. Boulet will occasionally volunteer that her diamond ring came from a lab.
“I don’t want people to think I’m putting on airs, or trying to be flashier than I am,” she says.
For Daniel Teoh, a 36-year-old software engineer outside of Detroit, buying a cheaper lab-made diamond for his fiancée meant extra room in his $30,000 ring budget.
Instead of a bigger ring, he got her something they could both enjoy. During a walk while on an annual ski trip to South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Teoh popped the question and handed his now-wife a handmade wooden box that included a 2.5-carat lab-made diamond ring—and a car key.
She put on the ring, celebrated with both of their sisters and a friend, who was the unofficial photographer of the happy event, and then they drove back to the house. There, she saw a 1965 Mustang GT coupe in Wimbledon white with red stripes and a bow on top.
Looking back, Teoh says, it was still the diamond that made the big first impression.
“It wasn’t until like 15 minutes later she was like ‘so, what’s with this key?’” he adds.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
