What is the $ value of telework?

[Anonymous]

Current fed with 4 days a week in office. Have offer for non-fed job with 2 days in office and 3 days telework. I have preschoolers so telework is valuable to me. Job will have a pay cut though…I am struggling with how much of a pay cut is telework worth?

[Anonymous]

I think it is really situationally dependent. For example, if you're making $50K I would say TW is only worth the costs you save by not going in because you probably don't have much margin to make cuts. If you make $500K I would say the TW benefit is more valuable because the time saved and convenience is going to be worth more to you than the money at that income.

[Anonymous]

I took a 10% paycut to telework (pre-covid). It was worth it at the time, but raises were so small and limited. Within five years I was in a different area of life, and I happily went back to an office, and increased my pay.

[Anonymous]

I wish employers would stop painting telework/remote work as some super valuable luxury they “provide” to employees. Unless you work for a firm that provides a stipend or reimbursement, you are on the hook for developing your own office space and maintaining office supplies yourself, including maintaining an internet connection.

Anyway, given the flexibility it provides for pickups/dropoffs/sickdays, I would take maybe a 10-15% pay cut. That said, it’s no skin off their back to “let” you work from home and in fact requires a much lower investment. I went from making 80k for a 4-day in office job to 115k fully remote.

[Anonymous]

Give us your current salary and the amount they’re offering. How long (and tedious) is your commute now and how long would the new commute be? Is the new job going to be a step up, back, or laterally career-wise? How old are you and how many years of fed service? How much is your current position and/or agency at risk for being cut? Are you a solo parent?

[Anonymous]

It depends entirely on how much the paycut hurts you. If you can absorb it, then IMO it's probably worth it, all other things (including job security) staying equal. If it's going to have painful or long term consequences, keep looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish employers would stop painting telework/remote work as some super valuable luxury they “provide” to employees. Unless you work for a firm that provides a stipend or reimbursement, you are on the hook for developing your own office space and maintaining office supplies yourself, including maintaining an internet connection.

Anyway, given the flexibility it provides for pickups/dropoffs/sickdays, I would take maybe a 10-15% pay cut. That said, it’s no skin off their back to “let” you work from home and in fact requires a much lower investment. I went from making 80k for a 4-day in office job to 115k fully remote.

It is valuable since so many are looking for it and can’t find it. So the market will bear lower wages for it. It’s capitalism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish employers would stop painting telework/remote work as some super valuable luxury they “provide” to employees. Unless you work for a firm that provides a stipend or reimbursement, you are on the hook for developing your own office space and maintaining office supplies yourself, including maintaining an internet connection.

Anyway, given the flexibility it provides for pickups/dropoffs/sickdays, I would take maybe a 10-15% pay cut. That said, it’s no skin off their back to “let” you work from home and in fact requires a much lower investment. I went from making 80k for a 4-day in office job to 115k fully remote.

It is valuable since so many are looking for it and can’t find it. So the market will bear lower wages for it. It’s capitalism.

Maybe more employers should offer it, since it’s so valuable. Supply and demand!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish employers would stop painting telework/remote work as some super valuable luxury they “provide” to employees. Unless you work for a firm that provides a stipend or reimbursement, you are on the hook for developing your own office space and maintaining office supplies yourself, including maintaining an internet connection.

Anyway, given the flexibility it provides for pickups/dropoffs/sickdays, I would take maybe a 10-15% pay cut. That said, it’s no skin off their back to “let” you work from home and in fact requires a much lower investment. I went from making 80k for a 4-day in office job to 115k fully remote.

Most of us already pay for home internet and have a desk or a dining room table we can work from. The added costs are...pens? Refilling the printer ink 2x per year? It's pretty minimal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish employers would stop painting telework/remote work as some super valuable luxury they “provide” to employees. Unless you work for a firm that provides a stipend or reimbursement, you are on the hook for developing your own office space and maintaining office supplies yourself, including maintaining an internet connection.

Anyway, given the flexibility it provides for pickups/dropoffs/sickdays, I would take maybe a 10-15% pay cut. That said, it’s no skin off their back to “let” you work from home and in fact requires a much lower investment. I went from making 80k for a 4-day in office job to 115k fully remote.

- Already have a home office space that i made my own happily and use outside of work
- Office supplies? I need a pen and a pad of paper which work will give me. What do I have to maintain? Massive printing? Nope
- Laptop? Work provided
- Internet? Already have it

[Anonymous]

It's so valuable to me that while I'm not a super high earner, I wouldn't trade my lifestyle for anything - at least until my high school aged kids are out of the house.

[Anonymous]

I would look at how many commuting hours you'd save and multiply by your hourly rate.

For me, 100% remote with a preschooler is worth a paycut. I already don't get to spend enough time with him as a working parent.

[Anonymous]

I wish employers would stop painting telework/remote work as some super valuable luxury they “provide” to employees. Unless you work for a firm that provides a stipend or reimbursement, you are on the hook for developing your own office space and maintaining office supplies yourself, including maintaining an internet connection.

This. It's worth zero to me. If my employer wants me to work at home (and save money on office space/supplies), then I want a commensurate pay increase.

[Anonymous]

I value my remote work way more than a higher salary. I can’t give you specifics but I’m sure many of my former classmates make double what I make as a fed. My time at home being able to pick up kids and keep the house running is better for the family than more money. My commute would be an hour each way. Now I can work in the evenings when everyone is in bed peacefully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's so valuable to me that while I'm not a super high earner, I wouldn't trade my lifestyle for anything - at least until my high school aged kids are out of the house.

+1 it's huge to me, my kids are in preschool and ES. I'm a lawyer and honestly the value is like $200k+ to me (as in, I wouldn't leave my WFH got a higher salary job unless it was paying that much more).