Revealed: the average £1,700-a-year cost of working in an office
It is the place where people come to earn money instead of frittering it away, but a survey has laid bare the eyewatering cost of day-to-day office life.
Workers spend an average of £1,715 a year on treats, gifts and gatherings with their colleagues.
The tally includes the likes of birthday presents for co-workers, teabags and coffee, and charity sponsorship pledges, but in a sign of the amount of money most people spend each year without realising it, it does not include lunch and travel costs.
Indeed, across a working lifetime of four decades, the average employee will fork out £68,601, the equivalent of more than two years’ takehome pay, based on the UK average salary of £30,420.
The survey, commissioned by Nationwide Building Society, found that drinks, parties and nights out with colleagues account for the lion’s share of the spending, at £292.32 a year.
Next on the list was the cost of clothing and bags used in the workplace, with the average Briton forking out £154.44.
It was closely followed by tech items, such as tablets, phones and calculators, which cost workers an average of £115.68.
Sweets and treats to be shared out among colleagues, meanwhile, amounts to £115.44, with coffee and tea supplies put at £114.96.
The poll of more than 2,000 office found workers across the country spend an additional £203 on average in December on secret Santa gifts for colleagues.
However, some 15 per cent of those surveyed admitted they would be unhappy buying secret Santa presents. The same percentage want to avoid shelling out for office Christmas celebrations, such as parties, lunches and dinners.
The research, conducted online by Censuswide, also found that around eight in ten (79 per cent) of office workers say they go out with colleagues after work.
Guy Simmonds, head of current account customer management at Nationwide, said: “As our research shows, it’s ironic that work can be so expensive given we get paid to do it.
“However, on the basis we spend so much time in and out of the office with colleagues, it is perhaps unsurprising that we pay out so much on and with each other, especially those in big teams.
“Yet, enjoying the camaraderie of working in a team can put pressure on the purse strings throughout the year, which is why it is important not to feel pressured and only put in what you can afford.”