The commute makes a difference

I recently took a new position and while the position is the same, nothing special shaving down my commute from 25 minute one way to 8 minute one way really is a game changer for me.

It takes a lot of the stressful driving out of the picture. Just curious if any of you experienced this?

All things equal, shaving the commute down in fact does make a huge difference.

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MontagueVandervort

I guess this is a matter of personal preference. I like the commute as it's a good "transformation" period between home and work. In the morning it helps me to get geared into work mode and relax before getting there. On the way home it allows me to wind down from work so that when I get home I can be immediately productive.

I've never had a commute under and hour and as long as I live here, I never will. At first it seemed a bit of a stretch but after a short while I came to appreciate the time it gives me both to and fro work.

All that said, I'm glad you've found something that works better for you.

TheFORCE

Start using a bike now, you can save the environment that way too.

DatabaseHead

@Force I have to cross a major river everyday and the traffic on that bridge is chaotic.

I'd love to though, that would be freaking awesome.

Danielm7

Commute is a huge deal for me. I've worked an hour+ away from home and I hated it. Every Friday in the summer was 2+ hours home easily, I was miserable. My last job was a few blocks away and that was awesome but my current job is about 30 minutes away. Even with that I push for more remote work time.

DatabaseHead

Remote time would be nice, this company doesn't allow it for any reason.

I am hoping to pull some good experience from this role and move on to another position that at least as 1 wfh day a week. To me it means almost everything.

In fact I would leave this job immediately if I was able to find one that gave me 1 - 2 days a week.

NetworkNewb

Love having a short commute. About 10 minutes each way right now. Usually go home for about 30-40 minutes for lunch. Let the dog out, make some food, watch some tv on the couch or sit out on the deck. Love getting out of the office and relaxing at home for a little part of each workday.

Today actually drove to Home Depot, bought a part for a leaky bathroom faucet, went home and installed it in during my lunch hour.

Not sure if I would like 100% remote. Like actually interacting with people during the day. One or two days a week might be nice though.

Danielm7

Yep I'm one day a week WFH now, I'd like to ask for more. If I could come in Tues and Thursday, or something like that, it would be great. I mean really, 100% of the work I do don't need actual physical hands on.

DatabaseHead

Daniel that is a pretty sweet set up.

Truth be told, I can find things to ***** about quite often. With that said, there has been one constant in my search and that is remote days from home. It truly an objective of mine which has eluded me.

Back in 2009 I had was able to WFH on Fridays and my last job as needed, (any patterns and that was looked down on).

I've been trying to get back to that ever since then......

jelevated

Hey Man, we are blessed. I know some people have to commute 1-2 hrs each way to get to their job. Mega commuters they are called.

I usually leave on the off hours and get home in about 15 minutes. Before that I did an entire circuit which includes car -> bus -> train -> van.

WFH is nice but if you don't manage it carefully it can seep into your Homelife. Some people like not opening their work laptop for anything anytime, ever once they step through the door.

UnixGuy

it makes a HUGE difference. You get an extra hour or two of sleep (which increases your life span!!).

Less stress overall. It's a massive deal.

Having said that, my current job is a longer commute than the previous, but it's a much better job. Commute is a factor, but other things come into play such as the nature of the tasks you do in your job and how they will benefit you getting your next opportunity

Ryan9764

When I was going to school. I drove hour and a half there and hour and a half back. It was long drive and I didn't mind it, and I still don't. I might have to do it again when I get a job.

DatabaseHead

UnixGuy wrote: »

it makes a HUGE difference. You get an extra hour or two of sleep (which increases your life span!!).

Less stress overall. It's a massive deal.

Having said that, my current job is a longer commute than the previous, but it's a much better job. Commute is a factor, but other things come into play such as the nature of the tasks you do in your job and how they will benefit you getting your next opportunity

Exactly, you get time back on your life.

Driving in a car for an hour + each way is a major life suck........ (I can't believe someone would actually want to do this willingly). It's seems like a huge waste of time.

3 hours a day * ~21 working days a month. That's 63 hours a month used to travel, working off the assumption your commute is 3 hours combine. 756 hours a year, extropolate 63 over the course of 12 months. That's terrible......

Thankful for the short commute it's a game changer.

hurricane1091

I could of worked from home three days a week but never did. Ultimately from the time I left my house and got the train and made it to work, it was 50 minutes or so. Now have a 15 minute drive. And it's a half hour shorter day. Real game changer. I have at least an hour and a half more time each day.

jcundiff

I am 100% remote... co-worker contact is phone, IM and email... was driving 3 hours away and staying in a hotel on my own dime... then went to 3 there and 2 at home to 100% remote... LOVE it my commute is about 20 steps downstairs to my office... I shut down at quitting time and unless something goes to hell, shut my office door until about 6 am the next morning

dhay13

Just about any security related job for me will be about a 45-50 mile commute. Not many businesses closer than that have a security department. My current job is 48 miles but after about 8 months there I went full remote. The commute is nice...lol. There is absolutely no chance of advancement at my job but if there was I'm pretty sure working from home would hurt my chances of getting that promotion. My team communicates mainly through IM and email so there is alot of communication but sometimes that face to face interaction is nice. Not nice enough to want to drive 45 miles but I also understand if I want to advance my career then I will most likely have to gas up my truck and start driving.

MontagueVandervort

dhay13 wrote: »

I also understand if I want to advance my career then I will most likely have to gas up my truck and start driving.

Same... and an hour's drive is no big deal, rather enjoyable. The way I look at it is I"m getting paid to drive. Since any salary I would earn an hour away is going to be almost twice the amount plus the chance for advancement far outweighs what I could access here. And actually, I did literally get paid (overtime) to drive to and from work on my first job. That was a really nice experience lulz, especially for a first job.

NOC-Ninja

It all counts. Commute and work load = stress level
I used to commute for 1hr in 30mins 1 way to work. 2hrs going back if its traffic which is 80percent of the time.
I commute 30-40mins now without traffic. I feel way better. Also, saves your wear and tear in the car.
Time in traffic = money.

mbarrett

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

Time in traffic = money.

That's another useful way to look at it. I have a very short commute right now, and while I could go elsewhere and make more $$ the lack of stress + time going back & forth are making up for it somewhat.

Fulcrum45

Makes a huge difference for me as time has always been more valuable to me than money. I changed jobs and my commute went from a 25 mile commute (1+hours) to a 2 mile one (5+minutes) and I love it.

Queue

I have a 7 mile commute. When I was young living at home out in the suburbs I would drive 35 miles for a job. Now I'm not sure how the IRS determines its reimbursement mileage figure, but it doesn't take long to realize a far drive is expensive.

35 mile commute (70 round trip x 5 work days x 50 weeks a year) = 17500 miles = that comes to an IRS figure of $9450 at .54 cent's reimbursement.

Double the commute double the cost. If you have a high paying job and live in the suburbs, but commute to a city it may be time to look into a second home or a rental if WFH is not available. Here some people I work with live over 80 miles away and have done that. I guess it depends on where you live though, because I'm in one of the cheaper places in the country.

sillymcnasty

NYC, whatever your commute is, add 50% to that and that's how long you have to set aside because the MTA sucks. Sometimes add 100% lol

ITSec14

It would have to be a FANTASTIC job for me to commute 1+ hours...or they would have to give me mileage reimbursement. That's what I did at my last job. Told them I needed mileage for how much I was driving and they agreed to it. Company even gave $0.65 per mile.

blatini

I would never commute more than 45 min one way. There isn't enough time in the day to justify wasting that much of it getting nothing done. You can listen to some podcast or ebook but that doesn't come close to evening it out for me.

josephandre

thankfully I've never had more than a 20 -30 minute commute and have typically worked odd hours that afforded me the luxury of missing traffic both ways. I've also never really had a super short around the corner commute either. Things feel good though, and the drive is definitely my on/off switch.

Cisco Inferno

Less traffic=less screaming at people=happy life

Chevel

I honestly didn't mind the 1hour 30 minute commute, beauty absolutely no traffic. Now I commute about 45 minutes with congestion to light traffic. I hate it.

blatini

What was your commute that it was an hour and a half w/o traffic daily? Alaska?

Chevel

blatini wrote: »

What was your commute that it was an hour and a half w/o traffic daily? Alaska?

The pros of rural living

NetworkingStudent

I live in a rural area, so my travel time is typically an hour one way.

At my last job:
I did remote work for a bit.

I fought the idea of doing it at all.

My manager wanted me to work remotely.

This was a privilege that only a few got.

I LOVED IT!!!

I was more productive, and I had a lot more energy.

The day went a lot quicker too!

The hardest thing was getting used to IM. You couldn't talk to someone old school (face to face).

Towards the end of the project they made everyone come back to the site.

OctalDump

It does make a difference. I've worked jobs where it is hours a day sitting in city traffic, jobs where it's a 30-40 minute train journey, jobs where you walk 30mins, and jobs where you can cycle 20 mins. The worst is sitting in traffic. Train journey was nice, since I could sit and read (study), walking/cycling is nice since you get that incidental exercise, although you can't do much reading.

But I think you can be too close to work also. Probably 15 minutes door to door is the closest I would want to be. You need some kind of buffer, and an excuse to move a bit.