A financial argument for wfh that leadership might actually understand

We work at a financial services company. Many of us literally help clients build wealth for a living. So let’s talk about return-to-office in terms that should be very familiar to leadership: compounding, assets, and long-term value.

Parking in the city where I work is $19 a day. That’s not unusual.

$19 × 5 days × ~48 weeks = $4,560 per year just to show up.

Not gas. Not wear and tear on a car. Not lunch. Just parking.

Over time, that turns into real money:
• 10 years = $45,600
• 15 years = $68,400
• 25 years = $114,000

That’s before growth.

If that same $4,560 per year were invested in a Roth IRA or brokerage account at a modest 7% return:
• 10 years ≈ $63,000
• 15 years ≈ $119,000
• 25 years ≈ $315,000+

That’s the difference between an employee retiring stressed and an employee retiring secure.Now think about this from the company’s perspective.

Right now, that money is flowing into:
• Parking garages
• Gas stations
• Downtown lunch spots

What if, instead, that money was flowing into:
• Roth IRAs at our bank
• Brokerage accounts at our bank
• Deposit balances at our bank

Flexible work doesn’t just “make employees happy.” It redirects thousands of dollars per employee per year into assets held at the institution they work for.Which makes the timing of the new “Total Rewards” program especially interesting.

We’re being encouraged to consolidate deposits, investments, and cash with the bank. Leadership clearly understands the value of employee assets sitting here.But at the same time, we’re being required to spend thousands of dollars per year just to be physically present — money that could otherwise be sitting in those very accounts.You can’t ask employees to bring their cash to the bank while also designing policies that drain that cash into parking garages.

That’s a contradiction we can see very clearly, because this is what we do for a living.We talk every day about helping customers build long-term financial security.

Why are we designing policies that force employees to divert thousands of dollars a year away from their own financial future and into parking infrastructure?This isn’t about culture. This is about capital flow.

You can choose:

Employees investing in their futures at your institution
or
Employees funding city infrastructure to sit in a cubicle

One of those builds loyalty, assets, and long-term value.

The other builds parking revenue.

For a company that understands compounding as well as we do, this feels like an odd choice.

#Company #Culture #EmployeeRelations #EmployeeSatisfaction #WorkLifeBalance

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It's not only employee expenses that going up.. PNC's own expenses are going up for RTO... They have to spend millions to outfit offices that haven't been used and to retro fit offices for people to be there for 5 days. It doesn't make any sense... nobody is really gaining anything financially (aside from taxes...)

@aj I live an hour outside the city, two with rush hour traffic. I was also hired in remote and took a cut from the last PNC position and also didn’t get a raise this year so I cannot afford parking. The rest of my team is staying remote. I got the because I said so line essentially. It was a too bad so sad, we don’t care.

@dc How so?

Simple and well-done. Hadn’t seen it that way before. Thanks.

@ah Tough to make an argument that the city and PNC needs us when PNC is pushing the AI technology and some remote work to [P]une [N]ew-delhi [C]hennai. This isn't the 20th century anymore. It's time for PNC to get with the tempo and elect a new CEO who isn't a boomer.

@OP "This is about capital flow." no this sounds more like money laundering.

@ah in a perfect world that might be the scenario. But Pittsburgh wastes money on stupid sh-t that doesn't benefit more than 10 people or for more than 3 weeks. Pittsburgh is a shithole and will eventually look like detroit.

This RTO five days a week makes no sense. We all know and have been told that more and more branches are becoming automated and not having people in them. They said times are changing and things are becoming more automated. Why are you not having people in branches and closing them if it’s important to have face-to-face contact. What is being done is so contradictive. It seems like they think we forget about things that were previously announced. I feel like Pnc bank is stuck in the 80s.

I don’t disagree that cities have a financial interest in office occupancy. That’s true.

Your argument is asking individual employees to personally absorb thousands of dollars per year in costs in order to prop up commercial real estate valuations and city tax structures built around pre-2020 commuting patterns.

That’s a macroeconomic and policy problem. It’s not an employee compensation or financial wellness responsibility.

If a city’s tax base depends on workers spending $4,000–$6,000 a year on parking, gas, and lunches just to be physically present, that’s a structural issue that probably needs to be addressed at the city and corporate level. Not solved by quietly transferring that cost onto employees.

Especially at a financial institution, where we spend our days teaching people how to stop money from leaking out of their lives unnecessarily. This isn’t about whether cities benefit from commuters. Of course they do.

It’s about whether it makes sense for a company to design policies that require employees to redirect significant personal funds away from their own long-term financial health in order to support an urban economic model that may no longer fit how work actually functions.

@ah Actually a respectful and realistic take. Wish upper management would just be honest and say something along those lines instead of the ol' "because i said so" one-liner.

I think you're missing the bigger picture.

The city collects taxes based on the value of those office buildings and office buildings at capacity inject mass amounts of money into the cities and surrounding businesses. Workers will re-shuffle into positions closer to home or move closer to work. That part sorts itself out.

A city rotting from the core is a far bigger issue. If the jobs are remote the next issue is the residential core hollows out. Property values and in turn tax revenues collapse.

The cities need your position occupied. They need the injection of life and money.

Too bad none of the "powers that be" will ever take the time to read or consider this.

Thread regarding PNC layoffs

A financial argument for wfh that leadership might actually understand

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