Paying their entire rent is a hard sell, but I would think it reasonable to pay for an employee to have a setup at home that would be as good as they would get at a modern office.
* computers, monitors, whatever you would provide for them at work
* subsidies for lunch and snacks if it's the norm in your locale (it is for lots of companies in Silicon Valley)
* adequate lighting
* decent bandwidth internet connection
* housing market rate cash for the employee to rent a space with 1 additional bedroom than what they previously had, that can be converted into a dedicated workspace
* some reasonable budget for art/decorations/plants/whatever in your dedicated workspace. basically stuff that you would normally have in a modern office
All of this would probably still add up to much, much less than they spend on employees at a real office. It's for the company's own good as well -- do you really want your employees working out of a noisy cramped bedroom with 4 other housemates and strapped for cash to buy only used IKEA furniture with missing screws and sit cramped between a bed and a tiny desk, or do you want your employee to be focused in a comfortable workspace and get work done?
Eh? An employer should ensure all of this; money normally spent on that employee's workspace should be spent on their home setup. This should include enough money so that the employee can move houses to a place with a spare room, desk, chair, screens, electricity, internet connection, etc. Take what you pay per employee in desk space, and pay it to your employees directly.
And open up your wallet for relocation, since it's unlikely they'll find housing in SF.
Thanks! Was actually talking more about larger offices and when startups leave shared office spaces. It seems today a lot of businesses want a cool looking space to attract talent, but wondering if this is something they’d fork out the money for, and if so how much per employee. I’m the founder of www.uneebo.com that aims to solve what you said for an affordable price - packages of office furniture essentials or if you have more money more custom options. Feedback would be very much appreciated!
I think if a company is going to be fully remote, they should provide an office budget to every employee, so you can either rent an extra bedroom / buy a bigger house / or rent space in a co-working facility.
Working from your bedroom with a desk crammed in the corner is a serious downgrade IMO from having an office with good vibes.
The cost of outfitting an employee with state-of-the-art equipment for their home office is at most a few months of commuter benefits. It's a comically small price to pay for employee happiness and productivity.
Employers that don't or aren't willing to pony up are going to be losers in the long run. Cheap is cheap.
A nice chair, a desk, a monitor. (Not that I have space for a nice chair at home!)
But an office? No way.
Perhaps it's because renting an office costs similar to renting a flat where I live (even though you get less space when renting an office).
I have had positive signals towards paying for a desk in a shared workspace... But wait, aren't we working at home to avoid sharing workspaces at the moment?
I agree with you generally but there’s also the question of whether an expense is reasonable. Should you be expected to put a desk in your bedroom and have that be sufficient? I live in New York and have an extra bedroom for my office, should my employer be forced to pay for that instead?
Unless there's no physical office at all, and the employees are told to work from home (the article mentioned this), I think it's a hard sell for employers to pay their employee's share of rent.
If I were an employer and have rented an office space, whether the space is full or empty or half empty, I'm still paying more or less the same. Yes, there are coworking spaces where I can pay per headcount, but it's much more expensive (because the problem is now passed to the operator).
I get what you’re saying and business is often like that, but buying employees computer equipment for their home office is common for example. Tech is also on the cutting edge of pampering employees in exchange for better work. Why not an increased salary for more space at home.
They are benefiting from this just as much as you are. Remind your employer that he's also saving money by not having to pay for an expensive office space in the city center and all the things that go with it like hiring cleaning services or building staff. Any equipment you use to work on should be either reimbursed by him or factored into your salary as well (monitor, laptop, internet connection, office chair, desk, etc). There are a lot of bargaining chips, just depends on how you present them.
The amount of rent paid per employee has been driven down over the decades as the square foot space dedicated per employee has driven down. Give employees those savings and it would amount to converting an already used space (a closet) in your home to some pale representation of what you had in the office. Certainly would not justify adding on to the employee’s house, and not everyone has spare space they bought or rent that they magically don’t need for personal use anymore.
wouldnt it make sense to include the costs for the physical workspace into the employee costs as a employee not only needs a salary and benefits but also a place to sit, a computer to work on and maybe some coffe to drink?
I'd be open to that... but the pricing on these things are sometimes absurd. Unless my employer were to pay for it, I'm not paying for it, I'll hack it out at home.
One company tried to open a space like that for individual office rentals out in suburbia where I am.
Monthly price was more than half my monthly mortgage payment, I'm not going to do that for a tiny bit of office space.
I suspect that unless employers are happy pay for it the price I'm willing to pay wouldn't float these companies...
That doesn't sound too bad if your employee payroll is going to be >= $1M/yr.
To put it another way, I'd rather have a dedicated space for 10 employees than have 10.5 or 11 employees all working from their bedrooms and starbucks.
If you're creating a real dedicated space then that can be justified. If it's to the point where you have to buy a new house/apartment with an extra room then I'd rather just have a real office space instead, especially as an employer.
Do you charge your company for desk space at your house?
It's not being talked about much, but since companies are okay paying landlords billions, they seem to be shy to pay their employees for use of their homes as offices.
That includes things like:
* office-quality furniture -- sit/stand desks, chairs, videoconference equipment
* computers, monitors, whatever you would provide for them at work
* subsidies for lunch and snacks if it's the norm in your locale (it is for lots of companies in Silicon Valley)
* adequate lighting
* decent bandwidth internet connection
* housing market rate cash for the employee to rent a space with 1 additional bedroom than what they previously had, that can be converted into a dedicated workspace
* some reasonable budget for art/decorations/plants/whatever in your dedicated workspace. basically stuff that you would normally have in a modern office
All of this would probably still add up to much, much less than they spend on employees at a real office. It's for the company's own good as well -- do you really want your employees working out of a noisy cramped bedroom with 4 other housemates and strapped for cash to buy only used IKEA furniture with missing screws and sit cramped between a bed and a tiny desk, or do you want your employee to be focused in a comfortable workspace and get work done?
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