Office migration: A hot summer has prompted 1 in 3 Louisiana workers to return to the office to save on energy bills, surveys reveal – L’Observateur

Office migration: A hot summer has prompted 1 in 3 Louisiana workers to return to the office to save on energy bills, surveys show

Published Saturday 24 September 2022 13:28

• Some workers are moving back to the office to save on other expenses like free internet.
• 36% say the financial savings from going back to the office are more important to them than being independent from home.
• Infographic showing office migration in each state.

Commutes, expensive lunches, and updating your work wardrobe—it’s no surprise that so many workers have resisted their employers’ efforts to encourage them to return to work. But is home office (wfh) actually a savings game changer for employees?

While working from home means you can skip the commute amid sky-high gas prices, a home office certainly doesn’t come for free. With the rising cost of energy for air conditioning or heating, as well as internet, printer equipment, stationery, groceries and other home office necessities, working from home comes at a price and it seems it doesn’t come cheap…

CouponBirds surveyed 2,809 employees to find out how many have already returned to the office or plan to do so to save money due to the high costs associated with working from home. That’s what the research revealed Nearly 1 in 3 (30%) of Louisianians working from home are returning to their usual pre-pandemic jobs — almost entirely for personal financial reasons.

This is perhaps unsurprising given that the latest figures show this summer has burned through the record books. In fact, high temperatures erupted in more than 1,200 locations daily in August. Many employees who work from home have had to limit their air-conditioning use to keep their electric bills under control as they also grapple with spikes in the price of groceries, gas and other essentials. Faced with the choice of working from home in sweltering conditions or spending large chunks of their budget on air conditioning, many have chosen the free and comfortable environment that the office offers. And now that we’re moving into the colder months of the year, many workers are having to budget for heating bills.

That number was highest in hot Oklahoma, where 67% of workers said they plan to return to the office to save on exorbitant WFH costs — temperatures hit a record 110 degrees in Oklahoma City on July 19. Only 15% of employees in comparatively cooler Washington said they plan to return to their offices.

Infographic showing office migration in each state

Aside from free air conditioning and heating, more than a third (36%) of workers looking to return to the office say they will likely save the most on meal and beverage costs when they return (they are likely to eat more at home , where the kitchen is often just a room away), while 19% said free internet will be the biggest savings factor and 17% said they will save the most on office supplies in general.

Finally, more than a third (36%) said the financial savings of going back to the office are more important to them than being independent from home.

‘With inflation rising and the cost of living ever soaring, it’s understandable why many workers are looking to reduce their financial expenses by returning to work and using their employer’s facilitiessays Tricia Smith of CouponBirds. ‘It’s a good idea to calculate your potential expenses in both circumstances to see if the savings from going back to the office outweigh those from working from home.’