Most people are willing to take pay cuts and lose benefits to keep working from home

[midian182]

Why it matters: One of the effects of the pandemic is that many people now work from home or use a hybrid home/office system. According to the latest in a long line of surveys showing the same result, the vast majority of employees want to keep it this way—and would be willing to give up pay and perks in exchange.

‘The Future of Work in Financial Services: Remote or In-Office?’ is a collaboration between market researcher Atomik Research and enterprise video platform maker Vidyard. It uses data gathered from 503 financial service professionals working in sales, marketing, human resources, and client services, focusing on their work-from-home opinions.

The survey reveals that a massive 96% of people would be willing to give up a percentage of their salary to work from home permanently. And not just a small amount: 30% would give up half or more, while 2 in 5 would take between 25% and 50% less pay to keep working from home indefinitely.

Illustrating just how desperate some people are to stay out of the office, 97% of respondents said they would be willing to give up one or more benefits to work from home permanently. Of that group, 38% said they would sacrifice their health insurance, another 38% said they would give up all their paid time off, and 10% were willing to lose both perks in exchange for permanent WFH or hybrid work.

The reason why many people want to keep working from home

Why do so many employees not want to return to the office? The most common reason in this survey (40%) is fear that their productivity would decline. That’s followed by concerns their dog would miss them—a more valid reason, in this writer’s opinion—followed by worries of job satisfaction plummeting (33%) and increased stress (30%).

While plenty of CEOs argue that in-office work is essential for getting the most from staff, 88% of financial service professionals said they experienced more success while working from home, and 82% believe productivity at their organization has increased since WFH schemes began at the start of the pandemic. Almost half say limited distractions and no office politics have helped them do more work in a shorter space of time.

But there are some negatives to working from home compared to the offices. Most (86%) respondents feel employees who choose to work in the office receive better perks than remote staff, who often feel ignored and unacknowledged. There were also complaints of receiving less feedback and missing out on business opportunities.

Several tech giants encouraged employees to work from home at the start of the Covid outbreak, and most staff don’t want to go back, but many executives feel they should—Microsoft even published a study that claims WFH threatens productivity and innovation. However, with the emergence of the Omicron Covid variant, companies have been delaying their return-to-the-office dates.

Masthead credit: Telecommuting by Creative Lab

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93081-most-workers-willing-take-pay-cuts-lose-benefits.html

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

I would be willing to donate half my liver and take a major pay cut to be able to work from home…even for just one or two days a week. Unfortunately that’s not even a remote possibility. Consider yourselves lucky.

 

[Dimitriid]

I wouldn't say they're willing, more like they have to because of irrational believes of needing to go back to offices for many businesses needlessly for many positions.

It's unsurprising to me that corporations would try to leverage the savings people make on not having to commute in terms of time and money spend on transportation, meals, etc. And instead of passing that along to employees or at the least keep things the same (Since well, the work hasn't changed and we know people are just as productive remote) they're trying to drive down wages because of it because any time employees are vocal about something they want they'll use that to drive down wages.

 

[Squid Surprise]

I'm surprised that "commuting" wasn't the number one reason people wanted to work from home. I am fairly fortunate, in that I live about 15-20 minutes from the school I teach at... but in Toronto, I believe the average commuting time is about 40-45 minutes...

Being able to have 90 minutes "extra time" is a huge incentive for most... not to mention saving on transportation costs (public transit tickets, gas, car insurance, etc).

Also, the ability to work without wearing pants is pretty sweet...

 

[Hexic]

I’m still performing the same level (at times significantly more) of work at home as I would in the office. If you can at least perform just as well WFH, all you’re doing is saving the company more money. And they’re coming up with excuses to take more money now for the “perk”? Get out of here.

Any company who attempts to fleece their employees in this manner (in instances when WFH is entirely possible) don’t deserve to have top-tier employees.

Either mandate your employees to come in the office, or continue on with the same benefits and progression. You can’t have it both ways and expect to have happy employees who will stay.

 

[stewi0001]

I can't afford a pay cut. Trying to support my family. Of course this study doesn't tell you anything about the type of people surveyed, how much they make, etc.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Imagine, in this economy, where prices are rising constantly and nobody can find employees, that you'd state you'd give up pay AND BENEFITS just to continue working from home.

What nonsense. People are so short sighted. Giving up power doesnt grant you anything, numbskulls.

I wouldn't say they're willing, more like they have to because of irrational believes of needing to go back to offices for many businesses needlessly for many positions.

It's unsurprising to me that corporations would try to leverage the savings people make on not having to commute in terms of time and money spend on transportation, meals, etc. And instead of passing that along to employees or at the least keep things the same (Since well, the work hasn't changed and we know people are just as productive remote) they're trying to drive down wages because of it because any time employees are vocal about something they want they'll use that to drive down wages.

You should be careful which side to simp for here. Before calling it irrational, consider this, if you can work from home, and you all are so persistant in claiming such, then you are no longer competing with your neighboor for your job, you are competing with the whole world, and there are literal billions out there who will do your job without complainy for $1 an hour.

Widespread work from home is the NAFTA of the white collar class. You guys are going to get utterly screwed over by it.

 

[wiyosaya]

For about 9-months of 2020, I was working from home, and I would bet that my productivity increased due to the lack of distractions, and basically, being able to go from bed directly to work each day. It afforded me only one luxury in that I had more time to go hiking - time that I do not have when commuting to and from work.

I would not, in the least, be willing to give up benefits or pay for working from home since my productivity increases. Giving up pay or benefits for WFH, IMO, is just another way that the modern company wants to screw their employees in the name of higher profits. If my company told me that they would expect me to give up pay or benefits for WFH, I would look for another remote job that pays more.

Its a moot point for me, though, because since January 1, 2021 I have been back working in the office.

 

[McMurdeR]

Been at home for a good while now. I get more work done and I'm happier. My current employer is flexible. I'll be doing half days in the office soon, allowing me to pick up the kids from school before I continue my day at home. I have already saved thousands in childcare. It's been amusing explaining that to the head-hunters, and in fairness a lot of them are also offering some kind of flexibility.
The one good thing about the pandemic is how it has challenged so many aspects of work and office culture.

 

[wiyosaya]

I'm surprised that "commuting" wasn't the number one reason people wanted to work from home. I am fairly fortunate, in that I live about 15-20 minutes from the school I teach at... but in Toronto, I believe the average commuting time is about 40-45 minutes...

Being able to have 90 minutes "extra time" is a huge incentive for most... not to mention saving on transportation costs (public transit tickets, gas, car insurance, etc).

It would not save much on insurance for me since my car is a need whether or not I am commuting to/from work.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

People tend to work more from home than at an office, and work a longer schedule. I find myself working all hours of the day and night. I'll work a few hours, then go do something else, then back. In the end I'm more productive, but sometimes feel like I have less personal time. At least at the office, when we left, everyone was offline.

Now it's 24/7. I still much more prefer work from home than the time waste at the office.

 

[Aceseven]

I can't afford a pay cut. Trying to support my family. Of course this study doesn't tell you anything about the type of people surveyed, how much they make, etc.

exactly, all of the people I've met who work from home and are happy about it are, imho, very well off.

they either have well paying jobs that are guaranteed, meaning they're needed and the position can't just be scuttled off to some other company or overseas.

they also all seem to own houses, and not some tiny house, but a home thats spacious enough so they have an office or place thats quiet enough so they can work in peace and not be bothered by their family.

when you see it from that angle then yeah, it makes sense why they dont wanna go back to an office.

 

[BadThad]

I love working from home! However, I would not give up ANYTHING to keep it. I still have to go in about once a week to make sure the young workers are staying on track and take care of some things in our laboratories (I am a scientist).

For the work I primarily do (Regulatory Affairs) I am more efficient at home without the distractions. I mainly appreciate not having to drive to/from work. I live in a big city and it takes me about an hour each way due to very frustrating traffic even though it's only about 20 miles away. I have saved hundreds on gasoline!

 

[dnous]

Imagine, in this economy, where prices are rising constantly and nobody can find employees, that you'd state you'd give up pay AND BENEFITS just to continue working from home.

What nonsense. People are so short sighted. Giving up power doesnt grant you anything, numbskulls.

You should be careful which side to simp for here. Before calling it irrational, consider this, if you can work from home, and you all are so persistant in claiming such, then you are no longer competing with your neighboor for your job, you are competing with the whole world, and there are literal billions out there who will do your job without complainy for $1 an hour.

Widespread work from home is the NAFTA of the white collar class. You guys are going to get utterly screwed over by it.

That's a bit shortsighted if you ask me. COVID proved that WFH is perfectly fine. So by your reasoning we are already competing with everybody on the world. And if the only thing that is stopping my employer from outsourcing my job to India is me sitting in the office, then he's an *****.

But I strongly agree with you that giving up benefits and pay to continue WFH is not the smartest thing to do. But the people who they interviewed probably can afford to give them up, which makes the survey pretty much meaningless.

My company already said that full time in the office is not coming back. It's going to be 2 days in the office and 3 days from home. Which is perfectly fine for me, I even get compensation for the extra costs I make by working from home (electricity, heating, coffee/tea, internet), but still get my travel costs fully reimbursed for when I go the office. If I had to give up any of those benefits, especially travel costs, then I would immediately start searching for a new employer.

 

[Toju Mikie]

I'm working from home currently, but it's a low-paid position. If people were asked to come back to the office where I worked, most people would just quit. It's not worth driving to work, burning gas, paying toll fees, buying more food, etc. when not making much in the first place.

Imagine, in this economy, where prices are rising constantly and nobody can find employees, that you'd state you'd give up pay AND BENEFITS just to continue working from home.

What nonsense. People are so short sighted. Giving up power doesnt grant you anything, numbskulls.

You should be careful which side to simp for here. Before calling it irrational, consider this, if you can work from home, and you all are so persistant in claiming such, then you are no longer competing with your neighboor for your job, you are competing with the whole world, and there are literal billions out there who will do your job without complainy for $1 an hour.

Widespread work from home is the NAFTA of the white collar class. You guys are going to get utterly screwed over by it.

-"nobody can find employees" is a myth, most likely they aren't paying enough to attract new hires
-constantly trying to find cheaper and cheaper labor worldwide doesn't work long term. Developed countries consider using cheaper labor from China and India, and China considers using cheaper labor from Africa. What happens is that those wages in those countries go up and jobs overseas get brought back. A lot of remote jobs from India were brought back to the US recently because of rising wages in India, including some of the companies related to the company I work for.

 

[stewi0001]

exactly, all of the people I've met who work from home and are happy about it are, imho, very well off.

they either have well paying jobs that are guaranteed, meaning they're needed and the position can't just be scuttled off to some other company or overseas.

they also all seem to own houses, and not some tiny house, but a home thats spacious enough so they have an office or place thats quiet enough so they can work in peace and not be bothered by their family.

when you see it from that angle then yeah, it makes sense why they dont wanna go back to an office.

I work from home but I do not consider myself very well off nor do I live in a large fancy house. I do not care about going back to my office since I am no longer working with the part of the business that is there. If I was, I would still go in because it is a lot easier to collaborate in person. Basically there are pros and cons for both to me. Obviously everyone's situation is not the same either.

 

[nodfor]

Those willing to accept pay cuts probably relocated somewhere with lower costs, otherwise this doesn't make much sense.

 

[Shadowboxer]

I can work from home, I have done for most of the last 2 years but I really hate it. Fortunately our boss is making us all come back into the office from Monday. Also we no longer have to test twice a week. Things are looking up.

 

[Ludak021]

Inflation will sort this out.

 

[trgz]

To not have to travel (time & money both factors), better food, and to not have to listen to certain of my coworkers would have been worth a pay cut!

 

[trgz]

People tend to work more from home than at an office, and work a longer schedule. I find myself working all hours of the day and night. I'll work a few hours, then go do something else, then back. In the end I'm more productive, but sometimes feel like I have less personal time. At least at the office, when we left, everyone was offline.

I never had a problem switching off at the end of my 8 hour day, even though my work and gaming PC monitors/keyboards/mice were all on the same desk - I set my day up (4hr/1hr lunch/4hr) and 95% of the time I stuck to itm but I would grudgingly shift my lunch for the odd on-line meeting. That said, I would agree that I was more productive as I suffered far fewer interruptions.

 

[mrSister]

Meanwhile I live a 7min walk away from the office and I´m dying to be allowed to return to the office daily.

Bigger desk, bigger screen, better chair, free electricty, heating and coffee (lol) but above everything else I'm dying to be able to remove my office laptop, keyboard, mouse and associated cables, headphones and other office stuff from my desk at home.

The anxiety of seeing my desk always full of stuff is killing me. It used to be clean an minimalistic

 

[Austinturner]

Those willing to accept pay cuts probably relocated somewhere with lower costs, otherwise this doesn't make much sense.

I’m surprised no one else mentioned this, I work in the city once a week now, its 2.5hrs each way commute, but my house costs half as much as the equivalent within commuting distance of the office, we live in a smaller city with everything we need, we can get to the beach in 10min.

I would need a 50% higher salary to move to the city and work in an office just to cover the costs of living there (sydney).

 

[Mister_K]

Imagine, in this economy, where prices are rising constantly and nobody can find employees, that you'd state you'd give up pay AND BENEFITS just to continue working from home.

What nonsense. People are so short sighted. Giving up power doesnt grant you anything, numbskulls.

You should be careful which side to simp for here. Before calling it irrational, consider this, if you can work from home, and you all are so persistant in claiming such, then you are no longer competing with your neighboor for your job, you are competing with the whole world, and there are literal billions out there who will do your job without complainy for $1 an hour.

Widespread work from home is the NAFTA of the white collar class. You guys are going to get utterly screwed over by it.

Look if you want to devalue your output and product, by all means, go and get your $1 employee and see how that goes. Let me tell you, not well.

Company I work for started outsourcing developers after our "lead" developer left. Instead of hiring a new locally based developer, they ended up with cheaper alternative. They are having nightmares due to 1) times zones 2) communication barriers 3) sub-par performance.

Same can be said about ANYONE who is looking to undercut you for cheaper labour. They WILL BE ****. If **** suits you, by all means

You can get a videographer $100 cheaper then the next guy, but you get what you pay for. Cough up, pay well, appreciate. Just as there are many people looking for a job out there, there are many good companies looking for quality employees.

 

[hwertz]

There's plenty of successful businesses now that are distributed companies -- not 100% remote due to Covid, they've just realized that Zoom & Slack work just fine for communications between employees and never got extensive office space to begin with. They probably have a small office space somewhere for a few executives, and for those items where it's just assumed a company must have a fixed physical address.