Before the COVID-19 pandemic lured employees to work from home, a sizable portion of paychecks was spent on avoidable expenses.
Your friend at work is no longer down the hall and inviting you to lunch every Wednesday. You don’t have to spend money on gas to commute back and forth to work. That same group of co-workers that always goes out for drinks after work on Tuesdays doesn’t because they are also working from home and not inviting you.
PRPioneer.com conducted a survey which revealed work-from-home employees in Virginia are saving $229 million per month, an average of $210.58 per employee. PRPioneer.com surveyed 3,206 work-from-home employees and determined how much they were saving in expenses by working from home.
“Many employees, who were new to working from home at the start of the pandemic, underestimated how many supplies and how much office equipment they would need in their new home workspace,” James Ellis, spokesperson for PR Pioneer, said in a press release. “It is, however, clear that a significant number of people prefer the idea of working from home, as compared to going into a physical office. Pocketing a solid amount in cash savings each month also grants employees the ability to buy things they may not have been able to afford prior to working from home.”
Nationally, employees are saving $281.61 per month. The survey revealed that 35 percent of employees have been able to buy items they normally would not because of the savings created by working from home.
The biggest savers were found in Wyoming, where work-from-home employees are saving $57 million per month.
The survey revealed that nearly two-thirds of employees prefer working from home. However, some disadvantages do exist for work-from-home employees. Some did not have the space or equipment to set up a home office, and found it necessary to purchase additional supplies, such as a desk, office chair, printer, stationary, or even a laptop. A majority of survey respondents said that employers should reimburse employees for these additional costs.
More than a quarter said that slow internet access at home affects their day-to-day job performance. And 39 percent of respondents believe that small businesses near offices affected by the shift to work from home, including local coffee shops, restaurants and bars, should be financially compensated for any loss of business.
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Rebecca Barnabi
