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Here's a napkin-math breakdown my colleague gave me. Prior to lockdown he had the following: 1 hour commute every way. 2 hours every day, where he was stuck b

Here's a napkin-math breakdown my colleague gave me. Prior to lockdown he had the following: 1 hour commute every way. 2 hours every day, where he was stuck behind the wheel. 260 workdays = 520 hours, every year. That's 65 8-hour workdays, just spent commuting. He just recently bought an EV, but drove a car that used around 0.8L / 10 km. His daily commute was 150 km in total. So he roughly spent 12L of diesel every day. In a year, that's 3120L of diesel. 1L of diesel here is currently 21 NOK, or approximately $2. So in a year, he spent over $6000 in fuel alone. Not to mention all the other wear and tear on his car. He can use his lunches more effectively. Instead of spending all 30 minutes in the lunchroom, or surfing the web, he can do housework, do his daily errands, shopping, or what not. All in all, by working form home, he saves money and time. And lots of it!

fzeroracer 3y ago
When you do the math, WFH just wins in all aspects like you mentioned. People need to get in the habit of enforced RTO being a strict pay downgrade. If a company isn't willing to pay you more to force you to spend hours in traffic and thousands in gas to come to work, then it's time to leave.
Gigachad 3y ago
This is why public transport is so important. I can spend my 30 minute trip in reading the news or learning something rather than driving a car.
- bitcharmer 3y ago
  I reckon you haven't had the pleasure of commuting on the tube in London. You can forget about reading anything on a train packed beyond capacity. And that's every day.
- vladvasiliu 3y ago
  While I agree that public transport is very important and am happy my local transit authority is improving the situation, sibling commenter bitcharmer is on point. That's exactly my experience here in Paris, too. And even if it weren't the case, you'd still have to do those 30 minutes at that specific time, you can't move them around. Don't want to read a book today, but practice something? Tough luck. Also, where I live, most people having a 30-minute commute will need to change trains / buses. Can't exactly read while walking between platforms or for 5 minutes under the pouring rain while waiting for a bus. Podcasts and audiobooks could work, though. Oh, and that 30 minutes trip may double or triple without prior notice. Hope no-one was depending on you that day. Happens fairly often here, too.
swarnie 3y ago
> Instead of spending all 30 minutes in the lunchroom, or surfing the web, he can do housework, do his daily errands, shopping, or what not. This is by far the most beneficial part of working from home for me and one my employer semi-appreciates. Time to do those very short tasks which usually get dumped over on to the weekend. Laundry for example. I put a load on before i start work in the morning, move it to the dryer a few hours later (when every office person is stood at the coffee machine) and fold / put away at lunch. Its only 15-20 minutes of tasks but spread over four hours, it means i don't have to spend half a weekend day stuck at home.
- gwd 3y ago
  It means you can do some dinner prep mid-day, including potentially starting something long like a slow-cooker, pressure cooker, or oven so that you don't need to start the "total cooking time" clock after you arrive home. Additionally, it means you can do this stuff during the day, when you have solar and/or the electricity is cheap. My own commute is only 12 minutes by cycle, so this is actually the biggest annoyance on days when I'm forced to be in the office.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 3y ago
    Yeah, I often do the mise en place for dinner during my lunch break, even if the dinner doesn't need a slow cooker or pressure cooker. It saves a bunch of time to just take a bowl or three of chopped stuff out of the fridge.
Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago
65 days is like 3 months of work, so when comparing salaries, subtract 3 months for in office work. That's insane

fzeroracer 3y ago

When you do the math, WFH just wins in all aspects like you mentioned. People need to get in the habit of enforced RTO being a strict pay downgrade. If a company isn't willing to pay you more to force you to spend hours in traffic and thousands in gas to come to work, then it's time to leave.

Gigachad 3y ago

This is why public transport is so important. I can spend my 30 minute trip in reading the news or learning something rather than driving a car.

bitcharmer 3y ago
I reckon you haven't had the pleasure of commuting on the tube in London. You can forget about reading anything on a train packed beyond capacity. And that's every day.
vladvasiliu 3y ago
While I agree that public transport is very important and am happy my local transit authority is improving the situation, sibling commenter bitcharmer is on point. That's exactly my experience here in Paris, too. And even if it weren't the case, you'd still have to do those 30 minutes at that specific time, you can't move them around. Don't want to read a book today, but practice something? Tough luck. Also, where I live, most people having a 30-minute commute will need to change trains / buses. Can't exactly read while walking between platforms or for 5 minutes under the pouring rain while waiting for a bus. Podcasts and audiobooks could work, though. Oh, and that 30 minutes trip may double or triple without prior notice. Hope no-one was depending on you that day. Happens fairly often here, too.

swarnie 3y ago

> Instead of spending all 30 minutes in the lunchroom, or surfing the web, he can do housework, do his daily errands, shopping, or what not. This is by far the most beneficial part of working from home for me and one my employer semi-appreciates. Time to do those very short tasks which usually get dumped over on to the weekend. Laundry for example. I put a load on before i start work in the morning, move it to the dryer a few hours later (when every office person is stood at the coffee machine) and fold / put away at lunch. Its only 15-20 minutes of tasks but spread over four hours, it means i don't have to spend half a weekend day stuck at home.

gwd 3y ago
It means you can do some dinner prep mid-day, including potentially starting something long like a slow-cooker, pressure cooker, or oven so that you don't need to start the "total cooking time" clock after you arrive home. Additionally, it means you can do this stuff during the day, when you have solar and/or the electricity is cheap. My own commute is only 12 minutes by cycle, so this is actually the biggest annoyance on days when I'm forced to be in the office.
- SAI_Peregrinus 3y ago
  Yeah, I often do the mise en place for dinner during my lunch break, even if the dinner doesn't need a slow cooker or pressure cooker. It saves a bunch of time to just take a bowl or three of chopped stuff out of the fridge.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y ago

65 days is like 3 months of work, so when comparing salaries, subtract 3 months for in office work. That's insane