Hybrid Workers Spend $36 More When They Work in the Office, and the Biggest Expense Is Lunch

If your work situation has shifted, and you now have to put in regular in-person appearances in an office, then you might’ve noticed that you’re spending a bit more than you did when you were working from home. If that’s the case — and those grab-and-go lunches and afternoon caffeine fixes have started to add up — you’re definitely not alone. 

Owl Labs, a company that builds video-conferencing systems for hybrid workspaces, has released its annual “State of Hybrid Work” report, and the results will not be surprising to anyone who’s noticed that they’re getting Starbucks Rewards Stars a lot faster than they used to. 

For this report, Owl Labs surveyed 2,000 full-time workers based in the United States who work for a company with at least two or more employees. 

Of those who responded to the survey, a full two-thirds (66%) report that they work in an office, just over a quarter (27%) have a hybrid work environment that allows some remote work, while the remaining seven percent are fully remote. Those numbers have changed significantly from last year, when 41% of respondents were in-office, 25% were hybrid workers, and 34% worked remotely. 

Almost half of those with a hybrid work arrangement (45%) are on-site three days a week, nearly a quarter have to materialize at the office two days a week (24%), and 7% only have to work on-site one day every week. 

Interestingly, more than half of hybrid workers (58%) said that they actively practiced “coffee badging,” which means that they go into the office long enough to have their morning coffee and show their face for a couple of hours before leaving the premises and working elsewhere for the rest of the day. 

When the respondents who had a hybrid arrangement or worked fully remotely were asked what they’d want if they were required to be on-site every day, 29% said they would “expect a pay increase to make up for the additional costs” and 28% said that they’d like free or partially subsidized food and beverages to be available at their workplace. 

And that’s a relatively fair request when you learn that the surveyed hybrid workers reported spending $51 every day that they had to work in the office, $36 more than if they were working from home. The cost of lunch (a reported $16 per meal, on average) was the most significant part of that total, followed by costs related to the commute ($14), breakfast and/or coffee ($13), and parking fees ($8). 

On the bright side, just think of all the cafe, restaurant, and coffee shop loyalty programs you can still join. And that you can try to keep up with. And that you’ll inevitably forget about.