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Sydney Morning Herald
03-08-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
The cost of the commute to work adds up
Working from home, which began as a crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has evolved into a lasting shift in workplace norms. Hybrid work is putting cash back into household budgets. But not all employers are keen. Some are taking a hard line on workplace flexibility, forcing some workers to decide whether their job is really worth it. So far, Amazon, Tabcorp and Dell are among large employers to issue strict return-to-office mandates, requiring staff this year to be in the office five days a week. But it's not cheap to get to work. The fluctuating cost of petrol, train and tram fares, tolls, parking costs, coffee and lunch adds up. Train fares in Sydney vary based on distance and the time of day. A single trip can range from $4.20 to $10.33. The daily cap for full-fare rides on Melbourne's public transport network is $11 a day. The average person spends about $99 a week on commuting costs, according to Finder, equivalent to $4367 a year. This includes $42 for fuel. Toll roads, parking and other costs such as car insurance are excluded. Public transport costs are about $39 a week on average. Not adding up Workers are feeling the pinch because their wages aren't keeping up with rising costs, leaving them worse off than they were a year ago. Wages increased 3.2 per cent over the past year, but it might not be enough to outpace the cost of living. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.4 per cent in the 12 months to February 2025. Everyday essentials like groceries, utilities, rent and fuel outstripped wage gains in many regions. A worker earning $80,000 a year receiving a 3.2 per cent raise will gain about $2560 a year. However, they are likely to be about $3000 worse off when rising costs across groceries, rent, fuel and other essentials are accounted for. Loading Working from home also allows workers to save money by having more time to handle household tasks, gardening, errands and childcare, and preparing meals at home rather than relying on takeaways. If you're commuting to the office, here are some ways to cut costs. Concessions: Check to see if you're eligible for any public transport concessions. Carpool: Find someone in your local area travelling at the same time each day and take it in turns to do the driving, halving your petrol costs. Carshare: If you don't use your car much beyond commuting, it could be worth considering carsharing. You can book a car by the day and let the owner pay maintenance and registration costs. Travel another way: Add it up. If it's cheaper to take public transport, walk or cycle to work, commit to travelling a cheaper way at least one or two days a week. Try a co-working space: Check if there is a co-working space in your suburb and ask your employer if you can work from there instead, which could halve the cost of your commute. Find cheaper parking: It might be convenient to park in the multi-storey carpark but look for cheaper or free parking spots further away and walk to the office from there.
The Age
03-08-2025
- Business
- The Age
The cost of the commute to work adds up
Working from home, which began as a crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has evolved into a lasting shift in workplace norms. Hybrid work is putting cash back into household budgets. But not all employers are keen. Some are taking a hard line on workplace flexibility, forcing some workers to decide whether their job is really worth it. So far, Amazon, Tabcorp and Dell are among large employers to issue strict return-to-office mandates, requiring staff this year to be in the office five days a week. But it's not cheap to get to work. The fluctuating cost of petrol, train and tram fares, tolls, parking costs, coffee and lunch adds up. Train fares in Sydney vary based on distance and the time of day. A single trip can range from $4.20 to $10.33. The daily cap for full-fare rides on Melbourne's public transport network is $11 a day. The average person spends about $99 a week on commuting costs, according to Finder, equivalent to $4367 a year. This includes $42 for fuel. Toll roads, parking and other costs such as car insurance are excluded. Public transport costs are about $39 a week on average. Not adding up Workers are feeling the pinch because their wages aren't keeping up with rising costs, leaving them worse off than they were a year ago. Wages increased 3.2 per cent over the past year, but it might not be enough to outpace the cost of living. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.4 per cent in the 12 months to February 2025. Everyday essentials like groceries, utilities, rent and fuel outstripped wage gains in many regions. A worker earning $80,000 a year receiving a 3.2 per cent raise will gain about $2560 a year. However, they are likely to be about $3000 worse off when rising costs across groceries, rent, fuel and other essentials are accounted for. Loading Working from home also allows workers to save money by having more time to handle household tasks, gardening, errands and childcare, and preparing meals at home rather than relying on takeaways. If you're commuting to the office, here are some ways to cut costs. Concessions: Check to see if you're eligible for any public transport concessions. Carpool: Find someone in your local area travelling at the same time each day and take it in turns to do the driving, halving your petrol costs. Carshare: If you don't use your car much beyond commuting, it could be worth considering carsharing. You can book a car by the day and let the owner pay maintenance and registration costs. Travel another way: Add it up. If it's cheaper to take public transport, walk or cycle to work, commit to travelling a cheaper way at least one or two days a week. Try a co-working space: Check if there is a co-working space in your suburb and ask your employer if you can work from there instead, which could halve the cost of your commute. Find cheaper parking: It might be convenient to park in the multi-storey carpark but look for cheaper or free parking spots further away and walk to the office from there.
News.com.au
19-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Entirely unsurprising': Issues with return-to-office mandates coming to light
Late last year we saw a huge increase in companies issuing strict return-to-office mandates, with many requiring staff to be in the office five days a week starting in 2025. Among the businesses that have issued these types of orders are Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Tabcorp, AT&T and Dell. Now, a few months on from many of these mandates being in force, it seems things may not be going as smoothly as decision makers would have hoped. In the case of technology giant Dell, a new report from Business Insider has suggested the company is dealing with significant issues in the return-to-office rollout. In March 2025, Dell began requiring all employees who live within an hour from an office to return to in-person work five days a week. An internal memo stated all employees that met this criteria would be expected to do a 'regular working day in the office', though there would be 'flexibility as needed'. It has been over three months since staff were ordered back to the office, with 10 Dell employees painting a very varied picture of how things are panning out. Business Insider reported the degree of enforcement very much varies between managers, with some employees saying they were in eight hours a day, while others seemingly coming into the office to show their face and leaving soon after. One employee, a program manager, said the lack of blanket enforcement was causing 'lots of in-office politics', with this 'haphazard' nature leading to friction among employees. 'So much of this is dependent on leaders,' they said. A recent internal FAQ obtained by the publication laid out examples of when employees may be approved to work from home, such as a temporary medical condition, needing to provide temporary care, or adjusting in-office hours to avoid peak traffic. However, of the five employees who claimed they sometimes work from home, none said it was due to any of the reasons listed above. 'I personally have not been adhering to eight hours a day,' one employee said, claiming they were aware they may be breaking the rules but have not yet been corrected. Another said that, while their team was in the office full time, they usually only work about half the day in person before finishing the rest of their shift at home. One staff member claimed they had intentionally been coming in less as the new policy made them feel like they were being 'treated like a child'. Speaking to Rebecca Moulynox, ANZ General Manager of Great Place To Work, said the issues we are seeing arise from widespread return-to-office mandates were 'absolutely predictable'. 'Our data couldn't be clearer – when employers mandate work location, whether remote, hybrid, or onsite, productivity drops, retention plummets, and relationships with managers deteriorate,' she said. 'We found that employees who can choose where they work are three times more likely to want to stay with their company. 'When companies ignore this data and impose mandates anyway, the outcomes we're seeing at Dell and elsewhere are entirely unsurprising.' Dell is far from the only company experiencing return-to-office issues. Earlier this month, a leaked internal memo from JPMorgan showed morale had taken a hit in the wake of the RTO mandate. Every year, employees are asked to complete a survey that asks them to assess aspects of the company culture, such as internal mobility, work-life balance and health and wellbeing. An internal memo from CEO Jamie Dimon and Chief Human Resources Officer Robin Leopold, obtained by Barron's, revealed the company's health and wellbeing scores had dropped, with leaders attributing this to the return to office. 'Health and wellbeing scores remain favourable, though they dipped slightly year on year,' the memo stated. 'We know return full-time to the office has been an adjustment and one that not everyone agrees with, but we continue to believe in-person is how we do our best work and how we foster connections and mobility opportunities.' Elsewhere, there have also been complaints of companies introducing RTO mandates but actually not having the capacity for everyone to come back. Telecommunications giant AT&T required staff to come back to the office five days a week from January 2025. In the wake of the return, several workers from the company's Atlanta offices told Business Insider that there was a shortage of available desks and the parking lots had become overcrowded. There were also claims of increasingly long wait times for elevators, leading to the company posting signs with 'motivational quotes' encouraging staff to use the stairs. Ms Moulynox said one of the key drivers behind the issues we are now seeing is a 'fundamental disconnect' between executive decision making and employee needs. 'The specific issues like desk shortages and inconsistent enforcement stem from companies trying to force a one-size-fits-all approach without understanding why employees value flexibility in the first place,' she said. 'When you mandate where people work without recognising that employees need flexibility for things like picking up children from school, managing family responsibilities, or avoiding toxic office dynamics, you're bound to face resistance and practical failures.' Neal Woolrich, Director, Advisory in the Gartner HR practice, has also noticed that, not only are organisations struggling with unclear policies, there is also a lack of guidance for how leaders are meant to be applying the policies. 'So there's that lack of consistency, and that leads to feelings of inequity or unfairness,' he told Mr Woolrich said some companies are also running into issues because they haven't established in advance how they are going to enforce the mandates. 'What we've seen over the last few years is that, where organisations have set a target for in-office attendance, on average, most organisations are just not getting close to that target,' he said. This means that companies are now in the position where they have to get serious about their enforcement mechanism and how strict they want to be. Mr Woolrich said the 'logical extension' is that not meeting in-office targets becomes a performance issue that could then impact promotions or pay rises. On the extreme end of things, companies may be having to decide whether they exit people from the business for noncompliance to RTO mandates. 'Different organisations are taking different views to that. Some are using return-to-office mandates as a bit of a Trojan horse, and using it just as an excuse to exit people from the business quickly,' he said. 'Others don't necessarily want to go down that path, but then that might be where it leads to if they really want to be strict about in office attendance.'
News.com.au
17-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Tab fined $4m for sending thousands of text messages
Australia's largest gambling company Tabcorp has been slapped with a $4,003,270 fine after sending its VIP customers thousands of messages over text and WhatsApp without giving people a way to unsubscribe. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found the waging company sent 2598 SMS and WhatsApp messages to its VIP customers in the three months between February 1 and May 1, 2024. ACMA also found that 3148 SMS and WhatsApp messages did not contain adequate sender information across the same period, and 11 SMS messages were sent without consent between February 15 and April 29, 2024. While these messages were sent to VIP customers, ACMA said there was a difference between them and traditional 'high rollers'. ACMA said customers receiving these messages may not have the same means to deal with significant losses. ACMA authority member Samantha Yorke said the breaches were deeply concerning as they involved noncompliance by a large and established gambling provider that targeted VIP program customers. 'This is the first time the ACMA has investigated and found spam breaches in a gambling VIP program,' she said. 'These programs often involve personalised messages offering incentives such as bonus bets, deposit matching, rebates and offers of tickets to sporting and other events. 'The gambling industry needs to understand that spam laws apply to all direct marketing — whether it's generic campaigns or personalised messages.' The spamming occurred before chief executive Gill McLachlan joined the business. In a statement to NewsWire, Tabcorp acknowledged the ACMA's findings. 'Tabcorp is remediating and significantly improving our processes, systems and overall compliance pursuant to an enforceable undertaking, a TAB spokesperson said. 'Tabcorp assisted the ACMA throughout the investigation and will continue to work closely with the regulator to ensure ongoing improved compliance.' Under the Spam Act 2003, businesses must have consent before sending marketing messages. But customers who are sent messages with consent must have a way of unsubscribing should they no longer want to receive the communications. 'When people make choices to unsubscribe from a service they must be able to do so easily and their decisions must be respected by companies,' Ms Yorke said. TAB has also entered into a three-year court-enforceable undertaking, which includes an independent review of its direct marketing systems, quarterly audits of its VIP direct marketing, staff training, and regular reporting to the ACMA.
Perth Now
17-06-2025
- Business
- Perth Now
Betting giant fined $4m for spamming VIPs
Australia's largest gambling company Tabcorp has been slapped with a $4,003,270 fine after sending its VIP customers thousands of messages over text and WhatsApp without giving people a way to unsubscribe. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found the waging company sent 2598 SMS and WhatsApp messages to its VIP customers in the three months between February 1 and May 1, 2024. ACMA also found that 3148 SMS and WhatsApp messages did not contain adequate sender information across the same period, and 11 SMS messages were sent without consent between February 15 and April 29, 2024. TAB has been hit with a $4m fine NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia While these messages were sent to VIP customers, ACMA said there was a difference between them and traditional 'high rollers'. ACMA said customers receiving these messages may not have the same means to deal with significant losses. ACMA authority member Samantha Yorke said the breaches were deeply concerning as they involved noncompliance by a large and established gambling provider that targeted VIP program customers. 'This is the first time the ACMA has investigated and found spam breaches in a gambling VIP program,' she said. 'These programs often involve personalised messages offering incentives such as bonus bets, deposit matching, rebates and offers of tickets to sporting and other events. 'The gambling industry needs to understand that spam laws apply to all direct marketing — whether it's generic campaigns or personalised messages.' ACMA said TAB did not allow its VIPs an easy option to unsubscribe. NewsWire / John Appleyard Credit: News Corp Australia The spamming occurred before chief executive Gill McLachlan joined the business. In a statement to NewsWire, Tabcorp acknowledged the ACMA's findings. 'Tabcorp is remediating and significantly improving our processes, systems and overall compliance pursuant to an enforceable undertaking, a TAB spokesperson said. 'Tabcorp assisted the ACMA throughout the investigation and will continue to work closely with the regulator to ensure ongoing improved compliance.' Under the Spam Act 2003, businesses must have consent before sending marketing messages. But customers who are sent messages with consent must have a way of unsubscribing should they no longer want to receive the communications. 'When people make choices to unsubscribe from a service they must be able to do so easily and their decisions must be respected by companies,' Ms Yorke said. TAB has also entered into a three-year court-enforceable undertaking, which includes an independent review of its direct marketing systems, quarterly audits of its VIP direct marketing, staff training, and regular reporting to the ACMA.
