Office vs Remote Savings Calculator

Office costs typically run several thousand per employee per year once rent, utilities, furniture, cleaning, and consumables are totalled — the exact figure varies widely by city, building grade, and team density. Remote work trades this for a home-office stipend (covering setup and ongoing connectivity) and potentially some productivity impact. The savings calculation compares the three numbers against each other.

50 employees at 10,000/year office cost = 500,000. Remote stipend 2,000/year per person = 100,000. Productivity loss of 5% on 60k average salary = 150,000 in lost output. Net saving: 500k - 100k - 150k = 250,000/year going remote, or 5,000 per employee.

Productivity research is mixed and depends heavily on role type. Software engineers and writers often show productivity gains remote; sales and collaborative roles often show losses. A blended productivity figure across a mixed team may not reflect any single role's experience — running the calculator with a few different productivity values across the plausible range often produces more useful information than a single point estimate. Hidden costs that the headline figure does not capture include lower office utilisation reducing landlord negotiating power, and lease obligations through the remaining contract term.

Quick example

With number of employees of 50 and office cost per employee of 10,000 (plus remote stipend per year of 2,000 and productivity impact of 5%), the result is 250,000.00. Change any figure and watch the output shift — it's often more useful to see the pattern than to memorise the formula.

Which inputs matter most

You enter Number of Employees, Office Cost per Employee, Remote Stipend per Year, Productivity Impact %, and Avg Employee Salary. Two inputs usually tip the answer one way or the other. Flipping each value past a round threshold shows which input moves the result most.

What's happening under the hood

Office savings = employees × (office cost - remote stipend). Productivity cost = employees × salary × loss %. Net = savings - productivity cost. The formula is listed in full below. If the number looks off, you can retrace the calculation by hand — that's the point of showing the working.

When the result is small or negative

A small or negative figure is information about the specific inputs entered. The largest contributor to a low result can be identified by adjusting each input in turn — the one that moves the total most is the input the answer is most sensitive to. For some teams the bottleneck is office cost (already low), for others it is productivity impact (large enough to wipe out the gross saving), and for some it is the stipend size relative to what office space actually costs.

What this doesn't capture

The result reflects only the inputs you provide and the assumptions built into the formula. It is a simplified model rather than a complete picture, and factors specific to your situation may matter just as much.