The cost of returning to the office

After two years of teleworking, workers and managers are returning to offices. However, whether desired or apprehended, this great return in a hybrid or flexible formula has a cost. Expect to have to rebalance your budget and your energy!

Isabelle Dube
The Press

Attention, expenses straight ahead!

Returning to the office after two years at home involves costs. Overview of the different expenses that many people have been using for other purposes since March 2020, including saving more, according to Statistics Canada data.

The price of clothes and shoes

In 2019, Quebec households spent an average of $471 on shoes. Many must have felt more comfortable in slippers or bare feet as shoe sales dipped in 2020 to $405 per household. We bet that many of them will want a new pair of shoes in 2022, especially those returning to the office.

“People want to wear new clothes, observes Jeff Golf, stylist and co-owner of Ludique. Not those of 2019 nor those of the pandemic. They want something new to feel good about themselves right away in a new daily life after all that we have been through. »

The co-owner of Ludique notes an increase in demand for the styling support service, particularly for professionals in all fields who will return to the office during 2022 and for teachers who have already been since September 2021. Some silhouettes have changed since March 2020, and it looks like the dress code in offices has changed too. There is a more laid back atmosphere. Since people don’t want to arrive in slouches or suits, we need to reimagine a professional wardrobe that is also comfortable and appropriate for this new atmosphere.

“We first look at what people have in the wardrobe and we adjust according to needs and budgets. Ludique’s customers, 60% women and 40% men, spend $500 to $5,000 to update their wardrobes. The styling service, meanwhile, costs $395 or $300, depending on the package chosen.

The price of transportation

The big challenge for public transit users will be to determine if they need less than 30 trips per month, the equivalent of approximately 3 days per week round trip. Beyond this number, it will be better to opt for the monthly card.

Thus, for a 10-pass ticket, Montrealers will pay $30, commuters from the North Shore and South Shore, $45, and those who have to take the train, $54.

At 30 passages, we reach the price of a monthly pass of $90.50 for Montreal; at 32 passages, that of a card for the suburbs at $147; and at 33 passages, the price of a card of $180 for the north or south crowns.

It should be noted that those who live in L’Assomption, Saint-Jérôme, Mirabel or Rigaud pay their monthly pass 26.5% less since the unification of the five zones.

Someone who always travels to the office on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays will generally have to use 24 to 28 trips per month. Someone who has to go from Tuesday to Thursday will have to deal with 30 passages for the month of March.

“Before the pandemic, 70% of users had a monthly card, explains Simon Charbonneau, of the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority, on the phone. People don’t know the other titles. We therefore expect a mode of transition, a continuous evolution of the situation, and we want to offer what corresponds to the needs of users. »

Users who lose the count of their remaining tickets can check the content of their OPUS, Solo or L’Occasionnelle card on their smartphone with the application stopwatch.

Workers who opt for the automobile must add to their budget the increase in the price of gasoline, car insurance and parking.

The cost of daycare

The children arrived just in time for the start of school and returned home immediately after the sound of the last bell of the day. This routine is subject to change.

Thus, for three days at the office, it will cost $14.55 per day per child for daycare. Maybe less depending on the region. That’s about $174.60 per month for one child, double that for two, because the number of children doesn’t lower the rate. And, of course, the bill goes up when the parent arrives late at night.

The price of lunches and coffees

It’s hard to find complete lunches for less than $15 including taxes, especially in downtown Montreal. In general, the budget advisers of the cooperative associations of family economy (ACEF) provide $20 per week for this expense. If the money is not completely spent on meals, it will be spent on coffees or snacks at around $3. A good vegan cookie around 2:30 p.m.? Unless you are a worker with a personality resistant to this type of temptation, it takes a minimum of $80 per month. The total rises to $312 if you succumb to the meal-coffee-snack combo during the three hybrid days at the office.

The price of mental health

The return to work generates stress and anxiety for many employees and managers. Normal, ensures the D^D Christine Grou, president of the Order of Psychologists of Quebec, because the current situation has lasted for two years.

First of all, the body and the spirit are deconditioned, explains the psychologist.

“Remember when you went on vacation in the summer. The daily rhythm was difficult to resume the first days. Returning to the morning routine of lunches, office clothes to put on, running to be on time, required effort because the mind and body had changed rhythm. »

Since March 2020, we have been afraid of dying, of falling seriously ill, of being alone in the hospital, of not getting treatment. We juggled with schools closed, reopened remotely, daycare centers closed then reopened, Christmas then no more Christmas, the deprivation of our parents and friends. Some have also lost loved ones and / or their jobs, ”lists the D^D Christine Grou.

“In addition to this long list, we have no control over the outcome of the situation and we don’t know when it will all end. »

In this context, it is therefore normal, she says, to apprehend the return to a routine daily life which required a good dose of energy which we are now lacking.

Many have seen the benefits of not being in the office daily: efficiency, less travel, no pressure to be late, no stress of negotiating with the employer when a child has a runny nose and has to stay home. House.

The thought of losing this flexibility creates anxiety.

Mentally more tired, some workers and managers are apprehensive about returning to the office, because no one knows exactly how it will happen, the health instructions being set to change… again.

Unpredictability is a huge stressor, and so is lack of control, says D^D Group.

“I don’t think people are reacting because they have comforted themselves, but because they are still faced with unpredictability, faced with a situation over which they have no control and in a context where it has been 24 months that they adapt. The psychic reserve is exhausted. »

However, apprehension is often worse than what happens in the end, argues the psychologist. “You have to remember that it’s normal to be tired, we all are, and that it’s normal to wonder how we can do more, because we have limits. »

“The simple fact of staying physically and mentally healthy for 24 months is already an accomplishment. We must also remember that, ”she concludes.

The price for three households

For request of The Press, three ACEF Rive-Sud budget advisors calculated the changes that could be made to the monthly budget of three different households with a hybrid return to the office three days a week. Salaries and situations are inspired by real cases.