Return to office mandates result in a difficult choice: Relocate cross-country or quit

David Paul Crouch, a 41-year-old software engineer at Grindr, was in a regularly scheduled all-hands meeting when he learned that, going forward, all software engineers would need to work in person at the company’s Chicago office.

The problem? Crouch lives in the Dallas area, 900 miles from Chicago. He was hired as a remote worker in 2022, and liked his work building a web version of the popular gay dating app. But he’s also the primary caretaker for his mother, a stroke survivor. He couldn’t justify the move. Rather than relocate, Crouch quit.

“I’ve worked at quite a few different places over my career. I was looking for something with a little more longevity, something that I could really be proud of. And I (thought) I found it. Everything was going great,” Crouch says. “Then this came like a torpedo to the boat.”

It was easy for Crouch to make the choice, and he’s not alone in being willing to quit his job to work remotely. Nearly half (42 percent) of U.S. workers who support a fully remote schedule would change their industry, job or company in order to work remotely, according to an August 2023 Bankrate Survey. Also, 37 percent of those who support a four-day workweek or hybrid role would change their industry, job or company for it.

As return-to-office mandates pick up speed nationwide, ending remote work becomes more than giving up working from the couch. When workers have low incomes, children in school, medical needs and other commitments, a return to office mandate becomes a choice between uprooting their lives or quitting their jobs altogether.

Key Bankrate insights on remote work preferences

Americans spend up to $1,553 more on common in-office expenses than they did in 2019

Major companies like Amazon, Meta and even Zoom have called workers back into the office for a hybrid work schedule, and office traffic is now only 35 percent lower in August 2023 than it was in 2019, according to Placer.ai, a technology company that regularly tracks office foot traffic. That’s a dramatic improvement over June 2020, when offices were virtually empty. It’s also an improvement since August 2022, when office traffic was 41 percent lower than it was in 2019.

Working in an office can mean spending more than usual on common expenses: buying more lunches out, filling up on gas more frequently and spending more on child care. That can add up, especially because the cost of most goods shot up in 2022 due to a combination of COVID-19 lockdown effects, supply chain delays, rampant inflation and other economic factors. However, workers aren’t impacted by inflation now as severely as they were in 2022 — compared to a recent high in June 2022, the inflation rate has more than halved, now 3.7 percent as of August 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Still, workers are spending more on common expenses than they have in years.

In 2022, the average household spent $19.53 more a week on food and drinks out than in 2019, according to the BLS’ 2022 Consumer Expenditure Survey data analyzed by Bankrate. (That average only includes consumers who had expenses like restaurant food or drinks out, not all U.S. adults.)

On more infrequent purchases, like gasoline, child care and parking fees, the average household spent up to an additional $1,214.54 a quarter in 2022, compared to 2019.

Though not every worker has the same spending habits when they go into an office, U.S. households spent an average of up to $4,154.72 on quarterly purchases and $104.62 on weekly purchases on office-related expenses in 2019, according to BLS data. That total rose to an average of $5,369.26 quarterly and $124.15 weekly by 2022.

Average weekly household office-related costs, by year

Average quarterly household office-related costs, by year

Spending on day care and gasoline, which were already often a strain on household budgets, rose the most of any spending category as prices increased dramatically during surging inflation in 2022. Spending on day care rose 71 percent between 2019 and 2022, while gasoline spending rose 68 percent.

Additional data shows that workers spend $862 a month on average working in the office, twice as much as their co-workers who work remotely ($431 a month), according to the July 2022 State of Remote Work survey from Owl Labs, an office technology company. Hybrid workers say they save $19.11 daily working at home compared to when they work in the office, according to the report.

Bankrate U.S. Economy Reporter Sarah Foster says companies tend to trim back on benefits — including remote work — for both current employees and job seekers when workers have fewer options, like during a job market with few openings.

“Job postings in the industries considered most remote work-friendly are falling at the quickest pace, and positions that mention remote work as a perk have been on the decline,” Foster says. “But we’ve also never lived through a recession and subsequent expansion when so many Americans have had the taste of freedom. Remote work may not be like flipping a light switch on and off. It’s hard telling just how irrevocably those preferences could change and shape the way workers view and prioritize their careers.”

Having remote work pulled out from under him has made Crouch wary of job postings as he looks for his next role. Crouch lives in a rural area, and the last time he worked in an office in 2018, his commute into the city was over an hour. He’s reluctant to take on what he calls the “mental drain” of a long commute again.

“If a posting says it’s fully remote, but ‘We might be in the office in a year,’ I skip it. No matter how good of a job it is, I skip it, because if you’re in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I’m not moving there,” Crouch says. “It’s limiting my search a little bit. Because I have to look for the ones that are either fully remote or if they’re hybrid, they have to be in this area. I had a lot more options before.”

Ending remote work can lead to workers paying more for housing

Though major U.S. companies are often based in large — and pricey — metros, the advent of remote work allowed many workers to move to more affordable locations, or apply for companies far from the company headquarters.

Now, workers moving for return-to-office mandates may need to pay far more to rent an apartment or buy a house close to work.

Crouch, who faced a possible move from Dallas to Chicago, would have seen his cost of living increase significantly, especially to rent an apartment. The cost of living is 12.25 percent higher in Chicago than it is in Dallas, meaning a worker making $50,000 in Dallas would have to make $56,122 to maintain their current standard of living in Chicago.

And though Dallas and Chicago are both large cities, their housing costs set them apart. The average monthly apartment rent is $2,994 in Chicago, 86 percent higher than the average rent in Dallas, which is $1,580. Also, a worker looking to settle down in Chicago would pay, on average, $550,943 to buy a home, 21 percent more than in Dallas, where they’d pay $456,536 on average.

Tech workers like Crouch tend to have more options for remote work, but as major companies like Meta and Amazon issue return-to-office mandates, those tech workers will often have to move to much more expensive states. Computer, mathematical and engineering jobs tend to have the most remote work opportunities of any industry, according to the World Economic Forum. However, those remote-friendly jobs tend to be located in states like California, Massachusetts and New York, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which have some of the highest housing costs in the U.S.

Massachusetts and California residents pay the highest rent in the U.S., over $3,000 a month, according to Rent.:

California and Massachusetts are also two of the most expensive states in the U.S. to buy a house, according to Zillow:

The high cost of owning a home means some Gen Zers and millennials (ages 18 to 42) are willing to sacrifice something to get it, according to a March 2023 Bankrate survey. More than one-fourth (29 percent) of Gen Zers and millennials would move out of state to purchase a more affordable home, 24 percent would move to a less desirable area and 19 percent would move away from work.

Workers living in an area with a lower cost of housing can save a lot of money by working remotely, but there are trade-offs. Companies commonly set salaries for remote workers, like Crouch and his colleagues, based on their local cost of living. But even though they were told to move to Chicago, because Crouch’s employer wouldn’t adjust their salaries in accordance with Chicago’s cost of living, he said it would have been too expensive for some of his co-workers to live there.

“In the tech world, we get paid pretty well. At my current salary, if I had moved, I would have been fine,” Crouch says. “But I know some people who wouldn’t, because you’ve got family, you’ve got kids.”

42% of American workers say they are likely to ask for more work flexibility in the next year

Return-to-office mandates are coming even as many workers are asking for more flexibility at work. More than two in five (42 percent) workers had planned to ask for more flexibility at work, such as for different hours or the ability to work from home more frequently, as of a March 2023 Bankrate survey. Relocating is far less popular: Only 26 percent were looking to relocate for a job.

Anne, a telecommunications employee who had worked at the same company for over 30 years, received more remote work flexibility at work years ago, which made it more confusing for her when she was told to go into the office. She had worked from her home in New Jersey for over 10 years, popping into a nearby office location occasionally when needed. (Anne’s name has been changed so she could speak freely about her company’s return-to-office policy.) When her company implemented a return-to-office policy, she was told to commute to a new office building across the state, even though the office she had been using already was much closer. Rather than do the commute, she quit and took severance.

“I would have to go in and do this three times a week. So, that’s six hours, at minimum without traffic, that I’d be giving up for my family to go and do the exact same work that I could do eight miles away (at my local office), or zero travel, sitting in my home office as I have for the last 11 or 12 years,” she says. “It doesn’t pass the logic test for me.”

Nearly one in three (30 percent) workers said a work-life balance quality, such as flexible working hours, working remotely or having more vacation time, is the most important quality of their job going forward, according to Bankrate as of March 2023. Far more women workers said that a work-life balance quality was their most important job factor going forward: 35 percent, compared to 26 percent of men.

Foster says that remote work is especially beneficial for working mothers who need flexibility and job seekers who can widen the scope of their search.

“For many Americans privileged enough to work in fields that afford them the flexibility, remote work has been about more than the ability to work comfortably from home in your pajamas,” Foster says. “Amid the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, it was the key feature that allowed many white-collar workers to continue switching jobs and scoring higher pay, even during the toughest recession since the Great Depression.”

3 reminders when budgeting to return to the office

Whether you’re returning to work in an office for the first time in three years, or if you have never worked in an office before, you may be surprised with new expenses that crop up, like commuting and buying lunch. You may not be able to make your commute as short as the walk to your living room was, but a few budgeting tips can make the sting a little easier:

1. Check your workplace perks.

Companies commonly give benefits to on-site workers to ease the budgetary strain of coming into the office. Does your workplace offer commuting benefits? Does it offer free or discounted meals on-site? How about child care benefits? Pet care benefits? If you’ve never worked at your office, you may be unaware of what benefits you now have access to. Check your employee handbook or with your human resources department to see if you have unused benefits that can save you money.

2. Make a commuting plan.

Commuting can be expensive and can take a lot of your energy. Your commute will vary widely depending on where you live, but make sure to make an affordable plan ahead of going into the office. See if you can take public transportation or, if you need to use a car, if you can use services like park and ride or a toll pass to avoid bumper-to-bumper traffic.

3. Allow yourself to splurge a little.

Budgeting doesn’t mean depriving yourself. If you’re reluctant to go into an office, try budgeting out of your discretionary budget, or the portion of your budget that doesn’t go to bills and necessities, for something like a nice lunch once a week or for comfortable shoes. By working it into your budget ahead of time, you’re less likely to spend impulsively, but you now have something to look forward to when you go to work in the morning.

• Methodology

  Bankrate.com commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey on a four-day workweek, hybrid and remote work. Total sample size was 2,367 US adults, of whom 1,137 are working full-time or currently looking for full-time employment. Fieldwork was undertaken between 20th – 24th July 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18+). The survey was carried out online and meets rigorous quality standards. It employed a non-probability-based sample using both quotas upfront during collection and then a weighting scheme on the back end designed and proven to provide nationally representative results. Bankrate.com commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey on job seekers. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,417 adults, among whom 1,524 were either employed or looking for work. Fieldwork was undertaken on March 8-10, 2023. The survey was carried out online and meets rigorous quality standards. It employed a nonprobability-based sample using both quotas upfront during collection and then a weighting scheme on the back end designed and proven to provide nationally representative results.
  
  Bankrate.com commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey on job seekers. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,417 adults, among whom 1,524 were either employed or looking for work. Fieldwork was undertaken on March 8-10, 2023. The survey was carried out online and meets rigorous quality standards. It employed a nonprobability-based sample using both quotas upfront during collection and then a weighting scheme on the back end designed and proven to provide nationally representative results.
  
  Bankrate commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey on affordable housing. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,545 US adults (18+), among whom 1,338 were homeowners and 1,207 were not homeowners. Fieldwork was undertaken March 22 – March 24, 2023. The survey was carried out online and meets rigorous quality standards. It employed a non-probability-based sample using both quotas upfront during collection and then a weighting scheme on the back end designed and proven to provide nationally representative results.