I was having lunch with someone from a large company and we were discussing various problems when he mentioned that his boss offered him to work from home 100% of the time. I was amazed as from what I had previously heard this company was not very flexible on that particular type of work style.
I found out the reason actually came down to money. There are actually very legitimate reasons to cross charge between different departments. It ensures that the resources are used as productively as possible. However, I think that the group that manages the property took this as opportunity to try and become a profit center internally.
I didn’t know how much to expect but I was told that his office space would cost his department 1200 EUR per month, which considering that their single room was beyond the edge of town seemed a bit excessive. I thought with a price tag like that it must also be “all inclusive” for some of those other little things like phone and network infrastructure, but sadly no, that costs extra. As a matter of fact, each phone cost extra excluding actually calling people. He didn’t say how much this charge was but it must have also been fairly high as his department was simply renting a office with a single phone and lot of desks. He was instructed that if he needed to make phone calls he should use his company cell phone.
Our lunch was delivered about this time so I never heard about the other costs that were associated with his having a laptop, cell phone and software. It is possible that they were a bit more reasonable, but I wouldn’t count on it.