Am I justified in how I feel towards my employer requesting I travel to the office?

MeleeDamage

Hello All,

First-time user here..

So, I’ve recently made the transition to a new role in the company and to my surprise, the increase in my wage wasn’t much more than what I was earning previously, though I’ll be honest and admit that it’s certainly not something which dissuades me from the role itself. 

However, I’ll now be required to travel once a week to the office (perhaps more if ever I’m asked) and this is a very costly and time consuming endeavour, with around £500 to £600 being spent on travel expenses per month and two of my evenings being completely lost as a result.

When calculating the total expenditure, it turns out that I’ll be taking home less each month despite my yearly wage having increased, but it’s also the amount of time this takes from me which doesn’t promote a positive work-life balance in my opinion.

I’d like to make a success out of my new role, but the company has denied to even contribute towards my expenses and I’m unsure of what to do, especially as I’m not yet able to move closer to the office.. at least not until eight months from now.

I don’t drive so I’m heavily reliant on public transport too.

It’s exhausting to have to travel like this and to have to wake up at 3am (sometimes 4am), but am I being unreasonable in how I’m feeling? 

What should I do?

Bradden

The ideal time to discuss this wouold jhave been before chaging roles..I'm not sure there is anything you can do if your company isn;t willing to help/listen.

[Deleted User]

Only if they told you that the role was 100% home based. If not, one day a week is extremely low in terms of workplace attendance.

Most people factor commuting costs into any job offer, so that should have been considered at the time. 

Sandtree

The time to discuss how often you need to go to the office is before you accept the job. My previous client did hire people much further afield than they traditionally have but were very clear that post pandemic a hybrid working model was expected with at least one-two visits to the office a week. Some of those guys were commuting each day, others decided to stayover when a multi-day week was required.

Given its a permanent arrangement then any contributions they'd make to your commute would be taxable benefit and not expenses.  

Have you double checked your tax code? New jobs dont always get the right code from HMRC immediately meaning tax can initially be higher but its not 100% clear if you have changed jobs or employers - the issue occurs with the latter mainly... may explain the less than expected take home pay. Nothing you can do about it as your employer takes their instruction from HMRC but will be corrected in due time if that is the case.

Working in central London many people have notable commutes... generally the further you go from the office the more your money gets you in terms of property. Most those I work with have been doing their commutes for a decade or more and so have chosen a 3hr commute to have the 6 bed detached house in large plot of land which cost the same as our 2 bed flat thats a 30 minute commute away from the office. Everyone has their own priorities. A few with the longer commute however are not keen on the return to the office despite having done it for years before. 

TBagpuss

What was discussed before you accepted the new role? 
Unfortunately the time for these conversations is normally before you accept a role, not after.

However, as with many things, you are more likely to be able to get the employer to change things if you offer them solutions that work for them.

So think about why you are travelling to the office - if you are able to go back to them to request that you do more WFH and go in less frequently, then being able to set out how you will manage the asks that you are currently going in for, and any benefits to the employer, would increase your changes of persuading them to agree to the change.

Why is it so expensive? If it is due to using public transport at peak hours would it be possible / less expensive to shift your hours so you start and finish later on days you are in the office? 

If that is not possible, then on a personal level, look at whether you could approach it differently - for instance, pre-booking a budget hotel closer to the office,  and doing 2 consecutive days once a fortnight, rathe than one day a week, possibly also travelling in the night before, might be less expensive and less exhausting than paying for peak time travel . Other than moving it to 2 consecutive days the other arrangements wouldn't affect your employer, but might well reduce how expensive and tiring things were for you. You would of course lose out on time at home but (depending on your personal situation) might find that the benefits outweighed the disadvantages, especially if you are likely to be able to move closer in due course so it is only a temporary arrangement. 

theoretica

You would also, reasonably, have been annoyed with the company if they had refused to consider you for the new role because of where you live.  The big question is whether they were clear about what the new role involved and paid before you accepted it.

TELLIT01

If you were surprised at the salary AFTER accepting the job that is your failing, nobody else's. I say that as somebody who ended up with less money following promotion many years ago.  My base salary was increased, but I moved from shift working to days and lost the shift allowance.  My fault for not doing my sums!

Was your previous job always totally home based, or WFH due to Covid?  If it was home based due to Covid there would probably be a requirement to return to office based at some point.  Does the job description for the new role mention anything about being home based, office based or a mix of the two?

Jillanddy

MeleeDamage said:

Hello All,

First-time user here..

So, I’ve recently made the transition to a new role in the company and to my surprise, the increase in my wage wasn’t much more than what I was earning previously, though I’ll be honest and admit that it’s certainly not something which dissuades me from the role itself. 

However, I’ll now be required to travel once a week to the office (perhaps more if ever I’m asked) and this is a very costly and time consuming endeavour, with around £500 to £600 being spent on travel expenses per month and two of my evenings being completely lost as a result.

When calculating the total expenditure, it turns out that I’ll be taking home less each month despite my yearly wage having increased, but it’s also the amount of time this takes from me which doesn’t promote a positive work-life balance in my opinion.

I’d like to make a success out of my new role, but the company has denied to even contribute towards my expenses and I’m unsure of what to do, especially as I’m not yet able to move closer to the office.. at least not until eight months from now.

I don’t drive so I’m heavily reliant on public transport too.

It’s exhausting to have to travel like this and to have to wake up at 3am (sometimes 4am), but am I being unreasonable in how I’m feeling? 

What should I do?

Ditto what everyone else said - the time to consider all of these issues was before you took the job.

Why would you have assumed that working from home, for the most part a pandemic thing, would continue forever, especially since you knew that the office is a long way from your home?

And expenses for homes to work travel are taxable anyway - and steeply taxable as it is your responsibility to get to work, not the employers. Ditto the time element. The commute you choose is your responsibility and not working time. 

Are you being unreasonable? That is a matter of opinion. 

What should you do? Either move, suck up the choices that you made, or get another job seem to be the most obvious options. 

MeleeDamage

Thanks for the replies thus far.

With regards to what was confirmed prior to me accepting the role, I was pretty much informed to wait for my new contract and that I’d be contacted with reference to my salary, as they needed to “sort some things”.

Perhaps it was foolish of me to accept this role before I had the necessary information, but I thought of this opportunity as a step forward (which it is) and that’s why I chose to wait for the confirmation, though I didn’t receive it until just days prior to my start date, despite the fact that I had chased for this a handful of times.

When the salary was confirmed, it was then that I was surprised it wasn’t what I was expecting, especially as this team is of higher standing and the office itself is located in a much more affluent area, so at this point I had to set a new budget for travel expenses and found that I’ll be taking home less each month as a result (regardless of the slightly increased wage).

So, yes… maybe I shouldn’t have been hasty and avoided making assumptions.

I’d prefer to be diplomatic in this situation in the hopes that maybe a temporary arranging or a straight change can be made to this arrangement. 

Marcon

MeleeDamage said:

Thanks for the replies thus far.

With regards to what was confirmed prior to me accepting the role, I was pretty much informed to wait for my new contract and that I’d be contacted with reference to my salary, as they needed to “sort some things”.

Perhaps it was foolish of me to accept this role before I had the necessary information, but I thought of this opportunity as a step forward (which it is) and that’s why I chose to wait for the confirmation, though I didn’t receive it until just days prior to my start date, despite the fact that I had chased for this a handful of times.

When the salary was confirmed, it was then that I was surprised it wasn’t what I was expecting, especially as this team is of higher standing and the office itself is located in a much more affluent area, so at this point I had to set a new budget for travel expenses and found that I’ll be taking home less each month as a result (regardless of the slightly increased wage).

So, yes… maybe I shouldn’t have been hasty and avoided making assumptions.

I’d prefer to be diplomatic in this situation in the hopes that maybe a temporary arranging or a straight change can be made to this arrangement. 

Everyone seems to have piled in to point out the obvious, which I think you could have spotted for yourself, so absolutely no point saying it again!

You know your employer; nobody else does. Diplomacy means different things to different people and you need to assess the approach they'd be most likely to warm to. If you give them the figures/point out the time implications (mentioning almost in passing that you had tried on various occasions to get this information...), what do you want them to do? Give them a clear indication of what you'd like and see how they react.

You need to be clear on how you'll respond if you don't get what you want. 

TELLIT01

Have you raise any of the concerns voiced in the first post with your employer?  If not, why not, and if you have, what has been the response?