Inflation complicates return to office
When companies were initially considering reopening for work, anticipated and expected concerns from employees included the basic less flexibility and more time in transit. Now, after a couple of months, the concerns have shifted.
The new set of concerns onset by inflation include the rising price of gas and food, especially in heavily populated commercial areas with businesses that are the hardest hit by inflation. Employees are advising one another on internal messaging apps as to where to find the cheapest gas. Security firm KnowBe4 has been trying to bring back physical work, they've offered snacks like pickles and Nutella in order to ease the transition. However, many of the company's employees still have other expenses like getting dog sitters, childcare, etc, and have informed their managers that they would prefer working from home. As a result, KnowBe4 informed its employee population of about 1,500 that they could work from home indefinitely.
HR managers of multiple firms point out how coming to work at this point is just too expensive. The RTO plans were already strained due to emerging variants of the coronavirus and the demands of an emboldened workforce, it is now being coupled with the pressures of inflation. The cost of a daily routine consisting of food, coffee, and travel is much higher now than when the offices shut. Consumer prices have increased by 8.5 percent within the last few months.
Source: The New York Times
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