Work from home. What does the company provide?

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

Not even the work laptop?

Nope

But you said you have your work desktop at home in addition to a laptop, no?

My office PC I had to ask for. None of us got offered anything.

 

[Crayons]

talking about savings, don't forget about the money not spent buying snacks from the canteen or vending machines at the office.

You don't eat snacks at home? I eat way more. The pick n pay specials get cancelled out by the quantity you will now consume.

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

What'd be nice is if they provided assistance/guidance in claiming back tax on all the WFH expenses.

On that note, is there a thread for that and how to reasonably maximise that claim?

I tried and ended up owing SARS. I put in a dispute for me to remove that claim, but I'm still waiting for SARS to get back to me on that.

Also the bunch of paperwork and proof that they require are just stupid, hence me saying **** it, let me redo my submission without the WFH expenses.

 

[Athos]

A laptop.

 

[R13...]

Nope


My office PC I had to ask for. None of us got offered anything.

Weren't you remote even before the virus arrived? How'd they expect you to work without a device to remote in to the sites you support. Assume you do standby and been remoting in all along?

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

Weren't you remote even before the virus arrived? How'd they expect you to work without a device to remote in to the sites you support. Assume you do standby and been remoting in all along?

Before COVID, I could use a work laptop, however when lockdown kicked in, I didn't know how long it would last for so I told them I'd use my own laptop. My laptop was faster than the work one and if I was going to use one or the other for a prolonged period of time, I'd much rather use my own.

After the mugging, it's too much effort now for me to go to the office. It needs to be a coordinated effort. Myself, my manager and the infrastructure manager all need to be at the office building at the same time to sign out the laptop. So I'm just going to push on with my office desktop PC until the insurance pays me out for my laptop.

Being stuck at home because of having to use the desktop is still something I'm getting used to. On quiet days (if I knew I had no meetings), I'd go sit and work at Dros or a similar place and work from there. Just for a change of scenery and to get out of the house a bit.

 

[The_Mowgs]

Weren't you remote even before the virus arrived? How'd they expect you to work without a device to remote in to the sites you support. Assume you do standby and been remoting in all along?

.

 

[duckgray]

You don't eat snacks at home? I eat way more. The pick n pay specials get cancelled out by the quantity you will now consume.

I eat substantially less snacks while WFH. Guess walking from the dining room to the kitchen is more effort than going down to the coffee shop at the office lol

 

[Alton Turner Blackwood]

.

 

[Johnatan56]

Got two screens, could take the desktop or remote, don't think anyone asked for the chair as everyone already had good chairs. Mouse and keyboard as well, I got my own peripherals anyways, but lots liked the keyboards work gave (think Das Keyboards as a standard, they start around R3k).
I think I could have probably asked them to cover UPS but didn't bother.
Net wise they helped out the one dude using mobile data as beginning of pandemic he was moving houses, once he got net that stopped, since everyone pretty much already pays for net, it doesn't really matter.

Brother they paid for net, let him take work machine home, supplied UPS.

The difference is more that my salary was substantially higher than his, so when you start griping about having internet costs, doesn't really make sense as already paying that anyways, and get to save petrol and time to get to office, and I had my own screens anyways (so never even collected office ones).

I'd expect if you are earning <R15k that your company should offer money to pay for net if you forward them the invoice as proof as it's a work expense, usually it means employees will be able to upgrade to decent speeds that they might not have done before so could result in better productivity (e.g. fiber's base price is quite high compared to mobile data, so you'd have employees use an unstable mobile connection, or run out in the middle of a call or something and then can't work until they go and buy more). Anyone above that is usually in an area with good net and will already have DSL, LTE-A, or fiber.

UPS side I am on the fence, if it's work that is production based, e.g. you going through excel sheets and correcting data or something, where it doesn't matter if available at any given moment and can reschedule, then no, but if e.g. call center where can't have drop in the middle of a call, company should provide UPS.

You don't eat snacks at home? I eat way more. The pick n pay specials get cancelled out by the quantity you will now consume.

Not really, that's self-control, my food bill went down when I started WFH, since can start a little earlier, take a longer break and make food with what's in the fridge, rather than waking up even earlier to prepare lunch and forgetting sometimes, or being too tired that morning. Eating out can end up being pretty expensive, even if healthy stuff.

I rarely eat snacks in terms of chips and stuff either way, so no change for me.

 

[PhireSide]

Fibre line fully paid for (20/20 but currently on 50/50 with the Frogfoot promo)
Dedicated router for work (SD-WAN)
Office chair should we choose
2x work monitors
Inverter

I do miss the free coffee machines in the office, though

 

[dj_jyno]

Work laptop allowed, but normally I use my personal laptop. Everything else I supply out of my own pocket, but that means I can get exactly what I want. Just picked up 2x 22" monitors, which is a very nice upgrade from my old "single 19" and laptop display" setup.

 

[duckgray]

And now reinvested time lost in traffic? That hour or two you can now wash the dishes.

This is why dishwashers were invented. Ain't nobody got time for that.

 

[RandomGeek]

What does my company provide WFH-wise? Work laptop...and then headaches and deadlines! In return if I dont have to commute I save money and time by not commuting...I still come out better overall in my mind

 

[badtrev]

A small cash subsidy. Some people got work laptops and LTE routers and data. I only got the cash as I had been partly working from home for the last 6 or 7 years anyway and I was using all my own equipment already.

 

[Herr der Verboten]

This is why dishwashers were invented. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Literalist

 

[Corelli]

Just a chair and a monitor. Nothing else.

I have to pay for my own internet 50mbps minimum speed plus uncapped avail. By running imports and updates I use about 200gb of data pm just for work.

I have a laptop thats really the slowest i5 possible with barely any ram. My warranty has expired and I was told to use my personal laptop should that break.

I dont save on petrol as I really stay 5km away from my work. Have to pay for my own coffee, tea, electricity.

And now they want me to work from 7am till 7pm daily, even though my hours is from 8-4h30. And they demand me to take leave as they dont want their leave balances messed up, but I must take leave, and still be avail all day for work, and must check data imports etc. So I have told them i dont see the need for leave.

Now they want me to come back 4 days a week, but when i get home i must still work till 8pm

 

[Corelli]

oh and i had to buy my own ups, and have to pay for 4g data on the side, should there be a power failure.

 

[Corelli]

The problem with claiming WFH taxes, you need to setup a seperate dedicated office at home and you will be liable for 20% Capital Gains Tax when you sell your property. If you rent, go ahead, but if you own the house, well youre royally screwed. So you dont bother claiming. SARS will hound you forever.

 

[Slamz]

got a laptop, screen and 4g card(which i hardly use)

got fibre at home which i was already paying for so no biggy

i like working from home, freedom of time, eg can have breakfast, lunch and supper with the family all together(although lunch is only when the kids get back from school)

i can do my runarounds during the day if theres not much work, i work after hours if i have to(no complaints)