London commute drains salary: Indian refuses to work 5 days a week from office
Gen Z employees prioritise flexibility and health, writes Vinaykiya, not willing to 'drain' her income commuting in London just to be physically present at a desk
A LinkedIn post by an Indian London resident waxes eloquent on why she flatly refuses to work from office five days a week.
Pointing out that Gen Z employees prioritise flexibility and health, 25-year-old Taruna Vinaykiya said she is not willing to "drain a third if not more of our income" commuting in London just to be "physically present at a desk".
Her post which appeared three days ago has predictably gone viral with more than 6,000 reactions and dozens of comments agreeing with her.
Expensive commute
As the return-to-office debate rages, Vinaykiya shared her views on the rising cost of living and stagnating salaries and their impact on the return-to-work policy for GenZ employees. Her primary argument is that she is not ready to “drain” her income while commuting in London, which is expensive.
“I won’t be working 5 or 4 days in the office. PERIOD,” stated Vinaykiya categorically. Her LinkedIn profile says she is a Global Influencer Strategy Manager for the Lego Group. The 25-year-old squarely blamed the high cost of living for her refusal to work from office.
Despite having a so-called “good” career, she still struggled to pay her bills every month, she said. Living in London is expensive and she was still clawing her way out of her bills every month and will “probably never own a home”.
Morever, she sees no point dreaming about going up higher in the corporate ladder since jobs at the top are held by people who won’t retire. So, she felt there was no point in working harder for marginally better pay that still won’t keep up with the cost of living.
Also read: JP Morgan employee gets 'fired' for questioning CEO on return-to-office rule
Stagnating salaries
While refusing to work from office five days a week, Vinaykiya also highlighted the point about stagnating salaries. According to her, Gen Z got the short end of the stick when it comes to corporate perks and salaries.
“We’re expected to survive on salaries from 5 to 10 years ago while paying 5 to 10 times the cost of living,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “Meanwhile, the older generations have their houses, savings, and vacations—yet we’re the ones being told we need to ‘show up’ more.”
Also read: Delhi: 50% of govt employees to work from home due to 'severe' air pollution
Why should she spend a huge chunk of her already-taxed income on London’s expensive commute, only to sit in office and attend video calls that she can easily take from home too, she asked.
On the perks that older generations got to enjoy, she wrote: “Early Millennials, Gen X and boomers at some point in their careers got free lunches, reimbursed travel, travelling to new places for work, bonuses, stock options and actual face-to-face meetings with clients over coffee. Now? A slice of lukewarm pizza and a beer after work if you’re lucky.”