I have a cousin who works from home (like all feds), and she admitted to me about a year ago that it’s basically a part-time job. When I call her during the workday, she is always in the middle of a walk, or at the grocery store, or even out of town on a vacation - and it’s all on the clock.
She told me about a year ago that she’d like to retire (she’s 68), but she puts in so little effort that it would be silly given how much she earns. (Well into the six figures.) I bet that if she is called back to the office, in downtown DC from her home in Rockville, she will quit and take her cushy pension.
Many people have "perks" but at the cost of earning lower wages, seeing fewer pay rises, seeing no bonuses, little if any overtime etc. Ask her what she earns, it won't be 100,000.
This is an absolutely normal part of modern commerce. One's salary is the
not the only thing on the table when seeking a job, there are perks, like working hours, benefits like medical insurance and so on all of these are used to attract and retain staff.
I could pick up my phone tomorrow and get a salary of $ 250,000 and a good bonus, no real problem, perhaps Amazon or GoDaddy for example. But I'd be working more hours, weekends some times, be on call, have to meet pressing deadlines and so on and I'd be exhausted, I can't do that kind of load like I did in my thirties and forties.
I earn less than that and no bonus BUT I get perks like working from home, so what is your problem?
You start taking away perks it's the same as
reducing people's pay and people will leave and go elsewhere.
I worked once for American College of Physicians (ACP) in Philly, many years ago. The pay was very low but the hours easy and my duties fairly light, it was a booster wage hardly enough to really survive on had I been single. But it offered the absolute best medical insurance plans at zero cost to the employee. I showed my wife the plans and she was stunned because we could both be on the plan and it was like "gold plated", in her words.
At that time she was a senior manager at Citibank and earned very big money and got a big bonus but even at her level in that huge bank, the medical plans were nowhere close to ACP.
So perks are just an aspect of how one gets paid.