Lol. I remember when Mark Shields said in one of his last appearances on the PBS News Hour something like "The democratic party used to party of the PBR and a whiskey shot, but now it's the party of Sauvignon Blanc." I guess I'm technically a tech bro, but I think you are spot on pointing out this conversation about "work" ignoring very important work that can't be done remote.
Copernican
This article is saying the average is ~$500 a month. Imagine pre pandemic work norms. If your employer offered you $500 less a month, but the trade off was you got to work fully remote, would you take it?
It's more having your cake and eating it too. When pandemic hit and you got to keep your salary and work remote, maybe move to a cheaper area, no one complained that they kept all the benefit of the in office pay. But now that you got to keep the same pay, and are asked to come back into the office, you aren't suddenly making less money. You're just paying for the cost that was always expected as an employee that was hopefully accounted for in giving you a reasonable salary.
And some of these costs that add up to "a month of groceries" can be mitigated by having flexible in office policy. It's not that transport takes a month of groceries. The cost is transport + childcare + pet care. For some childless and petless workers the cost of in office transport isnt that bad, and might be tax free if you have programs for it. And child care and pet care can be reduced with flexible in office requirements. Some companies used to let people bring their dogs to the office, for example.
Yep. The way I've heard of it actually happening to folks where I work is when they moved during the pandemic their pay didn't immediately change. But when they got their promotion, they got a 0% percent increase because that was when they recalculated the cost of living adjustment. So maybe they got a 12% raise, but moved to a place with a 15% lower cost of living. So they weren't going to piss off the employee by rewarding with a pay cut, but use that as the time to reset compensation leveling.
Cost of living adjustments are real. The value of your work is based in part of market rate. And part of that market rate is based on location due to various costs of livings, taxes, laws etc. I think the thing is the pre pandemic salaries should have accounted for those factors, but when those factors change due to people moving etc. it is reasonable to expect the question to be asked about adjustment. You're not being punished for being frugal.
New yorker here. Sometimes the MTA sucked, but my 40m door to door gave me time to listen to a podcast in the subway and decompress from work before stepping in my front door. I also read the news a lot more. I don't do those things nearly as much now. Also beers in the office and happy hours where team workers forced me to stop working at a reasonable hour were helpful to make me turn off the workaholic side of me.
Curious. Are you fully remote or do you still have an office to go into? Is there any culture left in your office if you do go in?
Me too. I miss my chill office culture where everyone showed up, but the norm was roll in anytime before 1030 or 11am and leave early if you need to. And expected to work from home a day or maybe 2 a week if needed. As long as you showed up for the important meetings in person and attended had a known presence in the office while you were there, it was all good. And being in the office felt good because it was a good collaborative environment. Now I can opt in to go to the office, and have all the sedative isolation of home without the comforts.
By that logic if you are an adult over 22 years old , you are defacto a MAGA member.
It's not really young or old that are fucked. It's still the poor and rich, and guess which one is fucked. Over time the wealth gap is widening which sucks for younger people. But it's still a rich and poor problem, and I think we should have sympathy for those with financial insecurity regardless of age.
As a millennial I figure this POV being criticized is more like gen z not having real life experience after college. There's a lot to be critical about from previous generations, but when it becomes vindictive, retributive, etc. it is not call. This is the type of POV and shit that arms the Republicans of accusing libs of wanting death panels for grandma and grandpa. The lemmyverse unfortunately reads like university Marx reading group populated by edgelords.
This. And those 5 minute walk and chats, although annoying at times (also they could be fun and productive at times), were less painful than the endless meeting invites I get now. Because a 5 minute walk and chat folks know you are busy. If they see you at your desk plugging away they no you're busy. But for some reason people now think they are entitled to unscheduled time on your calendar.