Brussels pushes remote working to ease energy crisis • Hacker News Board

Re: Brussels pushes remote working to ease energy crisis

#11

Post by general1465 » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 12:41 PM UTC

classified wrote: post #10

scotty79 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be great if governments decided they should instead.

No, it wouldn't. Everyone would have to pay the taxes for that, but not everyone drives a car. Also, there would be no incentive to use cheaper transportation. In other news, it would be great if I could eat for free and didn't have to pay rent.

If you are mandating to be in office and there are obvious expenses to be in office, like gas and car maintenance, then company should pay these expenses or stop mandating presence in office.

Re: Brussels pushes remote working to ease energy crisis

#12

Post by mindcrash » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 1:11 PM UTC

classified wrote: post #8

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #5

In other words, "corporations don't want to pay their overhead, so they are offloading it on all their employees individually instead."

Do companies pay for the gas your car consumes on your way to work and home?

In fact, a lot of companies throughout Europe do. Either through a fuel card (when leasing a car) or a travel allowance (which can either be used for gas or public transport).

Some governments, like in the Netherlands, also allow a percentage of travel costs to be deducted from yearly tax if a employer does not reimburse costs directly.

Re: Brussels pushes remote working to ease energy crisis

#13

Post by scotty79 » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC

classified wrote: post #10

scotty79 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be great if governments decided they should instead.

No, it wouldn't. Everyone would have to pay the taxes for that, but not everyone drives a car. Also, there would be no incentive to use cheaper transportation. In other news, it would be great if I could eat for free and didn't have to pay rent.

There would be every incentive to use the most optimal transportation (up to and including remote work) if business minded people were the ones bearing the cost.