You know the old chestnut about people being willing to work for peanuts if they just get to work, but there’s a whole other side to the coin that people rarely talk about the actual cost of showing up to work.
It’s this hidden expense that’s piled on top of your rent, your groceries, and it keeps going up and up, even before you’ve earned a single dime.
The thing is, you’ve got to pay just to make that money in the first place – which is, to put it mildly, a bit of a weird situation.
Start with transport.
Those transit passes used to be about $90 a month a few years ago… Now they’re nudging up against $120. And if you’re driving to work, good luck with parking and the gas, you’re not getting a discount anytime soon.
Just How Much Showing up Really Costs
Then there’s the food costs.
That coffee you grab on the way in. The sad excuse for a lunch at your desk because you were too busy to pack one it all adds up, and to be honest, it adds up faster than you’d think.
And then there’s the biggest expense of all time. You’re leaving earlier to get to work, and coming home later, all for free.
Yep, free. Nobody is actually paying you for the time you’re stuck on the bus or staring at brake lights, or standing on a platform in the cold.
So the real cost of working. it’s like a slow leak that’s sapping away at your bank account and your life. People feel it, but they rarely sit down and actually add it all up. But maybe they should the cost of going to work might just surprise you, and that might change the way you think about that next job offer.
