Is WFH Every Friday Energy-Saving or More Wasteful?

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The government’s policy of implementing work from home (WFH) every Friday for civil servants (ASN) and private sector workers to save energy is deemed not necessarily effective. Labour observer from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Tadjudin Noor Effendi, stated that the expected savings cannot be confirmed without clear calculations. “Can it reduce significantly? I think not by much. In the end, they also use electricity at home, it’s the same,” Tadjudin said when contacted by Kompas.com on Monday (4/5/2026). Without such data, the effectiveness of the WFH policy is difficult to measure. “If it’s said to be efficient, it must be clear how much funds can be saved by them working from home on Fridays. And the increased electricity costs at home must also be calculated,” he emphasised. In practice, the WFH policy does bring changes to workers’ spending patterns. For example, civil servant Kiky (29) feels a significant difference when working from home. She usually commutes from Cibubur to her office in Cipinang, East Jakarta, a distance of about 18 kilometres. However, during WFH, those costs can be reduced because there is no need to travel. Nevertheless, other expenses actually increase. “At home, my electricity capacity is 1,200 kWh. Usually, before WFH, the bill was around Rp300,000 to Rp400,000 per month, but during WFH, it can rise to around Rp500,000 per month,” Kiky revealed. This increase is triggered by longer electricity usage, from laptops and Wi-Fi to room cooling. A similar experience is felt by private sector worker Sabila Malia. She admitted that her internet expenses have increased because she has to rely on data packages when working from home.