Would You Take a Pay Cut to Continue to Work From Home?

LIncidentalCase on 10/04/2021 - 12:47

I've been talking to some peers at competitors and they have mentioned they are being forced back to the office, much to their displeasure.

I was wondering if you would take a pay cut to retain the increased standard of living you experience at home, e.g. decreased transport costs, lowered risk of flu, increased social life, increased leisure time, and more.

If you would accept a pay cut, how much would be acceptable? I'll let the mods determine whether they want to create a poll.

Disclaimer/Background: I'm both a businessperson and employee. I'm technically an intrapreneur at the moment. Undoubtedly I have seen some people exploit work from home, but for others it has increased productivity. The problem I foresee in growing the business I am part of (have equity), is who to cut and whether we instead keep them on but at a reduced pay packet. Ultimately, reduced pay may lead to better outcomes for the workers as they will have less expenses, otherwise we must let people go.

Basically I want to see what the waters would be acceptable to both employee and employer. A lot of the competition are currently making decisions and it seems like they are going down the path of forcing people back to the office to try and improve productivity, but I personally believe the habits and lost productivity from those workers may not ever return. What are your opinions?

Education & Work

Comments

      • axlfan on 14/04/2021 - 20:41

        I will be ready to go to office if things change.

  • bobolo on 13/04/2021 - 21:44
    +1

    If you were a business owner and were forced to have employees work only from home, why wouldn't you just outsource your staff overseas for 1/4 of local salaries? You also don't need to pay employee benefits, tax, super, annual/sick/maternity leave, etc.

    Works both ways people…

    • crawfs on 16/04/2021 - 11:35

      Because "just outsource your staff" isn't that simple? You need to hire people with specifically that set of skills in order to run your business. And if it's an industry related to banking or payments that the difference in timezones would be a big deal as suddenly the time at which your payments are processed has changed completely based on the new timezone of the 9-5 workers.

      This is theoretically a possibility but that has always been the case that companies can outsource their entire staff. People now having the choice to work from home isn't a significant factor in businesses deciding whether to do this or not.

  • Bunnyburger on 13/04/2021 - 22:38
    +2

    The government won't stand for this, they have to cater to special business interests in the CBD.

  • nephilim on 13/04/2021 - 22:53

    How do people working from home get a foot in for promotions?
    I work away from my office and feels like it's a negative, literally last time my state boss rang me was because someone under me made a mistake which upset his boss. Yet at office we could catch up everytime.

    • serpserpserp on 14/04/2021 - 08:02

      Make a time to call your boss to talk about your achievements.

  • apiecost on 14/04/2021 - 01:02
    +4

    I hire a bunch of people in the ICT field and currently have people working from home a lot, and also people working in an office and retail environment. Never occured to me to offer somebody less money to stay at home - I thought it was a way for me to save money and hassles by not having people cluttering up the place, and making noise all day. Or having them "duck out" to move their car every two hours.

    Even though I get the occasional "my Internet at home is busted for the next 4 hours so I'm out" I figure that's less than the amount of time people need to go home and let the plumber in or whatever, anyway.

    So for me I'm sticking with, "Don't pay people less, but reward productivity" regardless of where they work from. People in the office can stuff around just as much as people at home. Actually, people in the office are worse because they can waste their own time and then also go looking for other people's to waste too. They might also book meetings. And have meetings. And waste everyone's time.

    In other words, let everyone work from home and ban meetings.

    • whyisave on 14/04/2021 - 01:14

      it comes down to identifying those that work sincerely and diligently
      and rewarding that behaviour, because it only reinforces their inputs.

      sincere workers work properly at home or at at the workplace too,
      as they take pride in their work and work like it's their "duty" to the company.

      it's the lazy scumbags that ride on their coattails, and this includes managers too.

      bad managers tend not to trust their subordinates
      and end up micro-managing and bullying those under them too.

      so, i totally agree on rewarding good behaviour = increases productivity,
      but not everything can be measured in terms of 'productivity' ,
      because not every industry is in the business of "production".

  • richmond12 on 14/04/2021 - 11:11
    +1

    Depending on your job unless its one of those processing jobs, WFH is a balance. Working in the office is a critical mass sort of thing, if everyone else is there, there are intangible things you do at work.

    Sometimes management weather its down or up, you have to show your face here and there…

  • kiwimex on 14/04/2021 - 16:19
    +1

    If you think your job can be full time WFH without the need to present at an office, there is nothing stopping your job being outsourced overseas…….Imagine the benefits for your employer.

    Don't be concerned about a pay cut….be more concerned about losing your job altogether.

  • liongalahad on 14/04/2021 - 18:37
    +1

    No, I hate working from home, it's boring and makes me work for longer hours, the day seems to never end

  • yamahamoto on 14/04/2021 - 20:34
    +1

    Our team did exceptionally well wfh last year so we now only have to go in the office once per fortnight. Our manager fought to keep the wfh level as high as possible as we already showed we can perform the job even if we wfh. I even got extra bonus during these tough times for performing well throughout the year. There is no reason we have to take a pay cut to wfh. Offices save so much money with people not going to the office.

  • dlakers3peat on 14/04/2021 - 23:28
    +1

    Reading the title of this post infuriates me.

  • crawfs on 15/04/2021 - 08:02

    Absolutely not, there are enough companies that are now offering full time work from home that I would laugh at any employer that gave me the "option" of taking a pay cut to work from home.

    • richmond12 on 15/04/2021 - 10:25

      Can I ask what type of job is that? I think its depnds on the type of job we are ignoring in this thread.

      • crawfs on 15/04/2021 - 10:31

        Sure, I work in IT managing the server infrastructure and whatnot in order to keep enterprise applications running. My entire job can basically be done from anywhere in the world.

        • kiwimex on 15/04/2021 - 15:47

          Anywhere int e world by someone else at probably less than 1/4 of what you are being paid.

          • crawfs on 16/04/2021 - 11:27

            @kiwimex: Possibly but that doesn't mean I'm going to spend an hour commuting each way 5 days a week just so my employer thinks that's the only value I hold. Also I'm not seeing this working from home trend having a negative impact on wages. So far I've actually seen the opposite with a number of recruiters cold calling me for remote work with a significant (50%+) pay rise.

            The other thing to consider is that a lot of employers and employees still value the social aspect of coming to work and hanging out on Friday nights etc. My current place is likely to come into work probably at most 2 days/week to catch up with people and meet face to face. This is valuable social interaction that is valued by both sides of the equation. It's easier to manage someone's workload if you've met them and talked face to face to build a rapport. Not so easy if they live on the other side of the world.

  • brad1-8tsi on 15/04/2021 - 12:00
    +1

    No. My EBA says they can't do it.

    I'm never going back to the office.

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