I was at a kid's birthday party today and one of the parents remembers my daily commute from Westchester into Brooklyn, since we met over a year ago at another party.
How long is your commute nowadays, post-covid and in this era of remote optional work?
Am I the one of the few nutjobs out there spending numerous hours driving to work?
Southern California BTW. And only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (work remotely Mon, Thursday and every other Friday (9/80 Schedule ))
Prior to COVID, my commute was 45 minutes, which isn't bad I guess but I hated it.
My brother-in-law has a 2-hour commute. I know he does it so my sister can live where she wants, which I respect, but I couldn't do it.
because there wasn't any.
I've been full time WFH since March 2020.
Understandably, some jobs are impossible to do from home.
Summer obviously has less traffic, except on Friday afternoons.
Glad to hear!
I’m in Rhinebeck now after being in Woodstock for a while, so I’ll grab Amtrak 2 hours down to the city and spend the night in a hotel the few times a month I need to be in-person with investors or clients.
We have learned even the younger workers, while they appreciate the option, actually don’t come in.
No one wants to commute if they have a choice. My brother is a recruiter for a global logistics firm and everyone he interviews wants to work 5 days a week at home, even though the company is just asking for 2 days a week in person. And because there’s so much competition, smaller firms will gladly allow new hires to work full time remotely.
You don’t realize how much time and money you save not commuting.
You don’t realize how much time and money you save not commuting.
The only people at my company who were going in were those in small apartments with kids, or younger people who really just wanted to go out with their work friends after.
When I lived north of Pittsburg I had 2 locations in opposite directions and each was 50 minutes mostly Highway, sometimes I miss that alone time with the tunes and a cigar
Prior to 2008, I worked in Hopkinton, MA which is 3 miles from my house.
Covid had improved work/life balance...
The entire office dynamic and telework has changed so much.
Still coming to grips with it and figuring out if the work mission is truly being completed. Work for DoD Army and all our programs have so pushed to the right and very concerned on the path forward.
2008-2012 I was fully remote.
Before that I was nearly 90 minutes door to door.
Walk to Train then walk across Grand Central to subway... then walk to work in FiDi.
Almost 4 hours away from home and not getting paid for it kinda sucks. At least I had time to read. Not so much anymore.
Walk to Train then walk across Grand Central to subway... then walk to work in FiDi.
Almost 4 hours away from home and not getting paid for it kinda sucks. At least I had time to read. Not so much anymore.
I hear you SB!
Dread moving back to VA. 29 miles from DC — 2 plus hrs in the a.m. and about 1 1/4 p.m. if I work late to 7 or so. All traffic all the time. Bumper to bumper all the way. Sometimes I feel like I live in the car.
Banker. Gotta do what ya gotta do.
I didn't live with him (parents were divorced, he was remarried) He'd leave the house around 4:30/5am and get home around 7pm.
I think he enjoyed the time out of the house, to be honest, lol.
Not as many good jobs down here and it took a while to find one. Took so long that I even accepted another job where I had to drive to Cranford over bridge again. Never stopped looking and applying and now have a cushy, scenic commute from Long Branch to Atlantic Highlands.
Worst part of commuting for me were the people who would sneak into an exit late. Mine was 22 East off of the GSP No. I won many a battle with these athletes because I didn't care if anything happened to my car.
Agree. I like being around people too. And not just at the office but out to lunch, after dinner drinks, getting coffee, walking around and even running into my neighbors on the train. Train isn’t bad for me, I have my phone so catch up on BBI, pods, s/m or just relax and look out the window. Wfh is okay, but people who want to do it all the time, like, doesn’t that get isolating? I’m an introvert but still, being at home all the time is not for me.
The traffic is murder, so he would leave the house in Napa at 4:30 am and get to the city at 5:30 and then take a two hour nap in his car.
Crazy. And needless to say he wound up getting divorced.
The one day a week I go into Manhattan is an hour (1:15 on the way home if the traffic sux)
I work with a group that is geographically diverse so I actually see more people now via video call than I did when I was in the office and simply talking to them over the phone.
It helps to have a separate room that is a home office so I can still separate work space from living space.
I am in sales and have been the past decade+, and it was always a "travel/WFH position" without office requirements.
I do like interacting with people, and I still have close friends from office camaraderie's and friendships built up over decades throughout my career. Spanning before and during my move to a sales role - and by friends I mean like going to each others weddings and on vacations together friendships, but I feel like being 100% WFH except for travel is perfect for me now. I never miss a kid's activity that I don't want to miss, I am here to tend to my dogs, and my 1 year old truck has 3800 miles on it. All the negatives of WFH IMO (and there are some such as when you work from home you never leave the office), are negated by the convenience factors.
That said, traveling is such a mental and physical drain, pre-COVID when I was 50% travel (or more) I felt like I was taking years off my life. Sitting in airports during flight delays and cancellations, standing in security lines, sitting on planes not moving on runways, waiting in cab lines, uber lines, using filthy airport bathrooms, eating shitty airport food, surrounded by selfish, annoying, disgusting (in many cases) human beings is like putting your daily dose of human interaction under intense amplification.
I meet with my colleagues as needed at my local office - used to be monthly, now it's mostly quarterly and we do our best to work hard/play hard during those visits and I think it makes that time more special. I continue to make new and expand old work friendships even as I morph into cantankerous old bastard persona.
I never worked from home, or rarely did, but I always felt driving in shitty traffic was a waste of 1-2 hours of my day/life. I'll never do more than 30 minutes ever again and much prefer to work on location.
This said, I never liked working from home and would much rather work in office through a "getting to know your people" lens... build camaraderie while working with teams..etc..
I'm sure there are studies/theories being written about this very topic right now on how commuting, WFH, and productivity all intersect (great higher Ed. material IMO).
I used to commute from Queens to Hicksville. I never once took public transportations. I always wondered how long it would take and figured about 2 hours. That was with the bus. I wonder what a lirr commute would have been like however. I would have had to go all the way west to woodside however and then take a train back out east. I can only imagine what that would have cost me and since I was an entry level analyst making like no money would have been completely impractical anyway. i commute 1 hour by subway each way now. yikes I am selling myself short.