How far do you travel to work?

Good Lord !!!!

Life is for living. Have a look at yourselves!!!! Sit down, assess your finances. Do you really need to have that brand new car? Do you need the top TV package with all the movies/sport etc? How much on the latest Nike/addias/UA stuff? What a month on a mobile phone!!!!!? Iphone9 for HOW MUCH????? Jesus I could go on and on. Stop chasing the dream!!! Your kids will only end up doing the same, if fact probably already are. You've bought them what phone now????????? On how much a month????

'Life is for living' is a nice mantra to go by. As long as you can afford it. Not much use if you can't afford to do anything to 'live life'. At 36 years old I've still got the majority of my working life ahead of me and with a young family to provide for I certainly need to work. Whether that is just down the road or thousands of miles away, that fact remains unchanged. I also want the best lifestyle I can afford for myself and my family and make no apologies for that. I work hard so why not have nice things? What that has to do with how long it takes me to get to work though I'm struggling to fathom.
 
I've been blessed with commutes.

The first was a 10 min bike ride through a wood and a field, the next two 10-15 mins in a car with little traffic.

My current one is the worst, should be 15 mins but traffic makes it 30.

Some guys at my work commute over 60 minutes on busy roads and they have young families, no idea how they do it.
 
How far do you travel to work and how long does the journey take you?A week ago we received notice that my office is going to close in a few years time. Luckily I'm likely going to be able to transfer to an office about 50 miles away, however this is not guaranteed and redundancy is an option, though probably only if I turn down a move. Remote working is not an option apparently.
However, I'm concerned with the time the commute will take. Public transport links to the new office from my home is poor meaning the journey will take approx 90 mins there and 90 mins back. I've been up to the new office this week for meetings by car and the journey ranged from 70 mins to 140 mins depending on traffic. With a young family at home moving closer to the new office isn't really an option. The travelling this week took it out of me and made me realise I've got a massive decision to make. Being out of the house for this amount of time each day would mean I'd see very little of my 3 year old daughter through the week. However, I need to work and the comments on Bladeplayer's thread hit home a bit. I'm spoilt at the minute as I can leave my house and be at my office in 6 minutes. Is this length of daily journey common?
Bit of an update since my first post. For the last 10 months or so I've been making semi regular trips to the new office as more and more meetings are held there. Average journey time is 1 hr 20 mins each way. On the days I've had to travel I often missed being back home in time to even read my daughter a bed time story. Didn't take long to fathom this wasn't for me going forward.

As I mentioned previously my employer was willing to pay my travel expenses for 5 years in either a lump sum or via my wages each month as well as making a contribution to relocation costs. All very reasonable. However, moving was a definite no no and there would be no general bump in salary. At one point it looked like they would consider home working but back tracked and decided against that as an option.

The result of this is that despite joining direct from uni and having been there for 16 years I decided to move on. I managed to secure a new job, on promotion, with a 20 minute commute door to door which I start next week. Home working is an option up to 3 days a week and the new firm are paying to kit out a room in my house. The time effectively wasted travelling each day was just not worth it. Almost 3 hours a day on top of my working day tipped the scales of the work/life balance too far in the wrong direction. For me I worked out life is too short to waste being stuck in traffic to miss out on your family growing up.
 
Onwards and upwards, good thing it's working out for you and I wish you well in the new job.

In my day employers generally were reluctant to allow dads to see school sports day, the nativity play etc etc and I realised how much of my son growing up work got in the way of, I now hope to see this through my grand children but you never get back what you miss!
 
Bit of an update since my first post. For the last 10 months or so I've been making semi regular trips to the new office as more and more meetings are held there. Average journey time is 1 hr 20 mins each way. On the days I've had to travel I often missed being back home in time to even read my daughter a bed time story. Didn't take long to fathom this wasn't for me going forward.

As I mentioned previously my employer was willing to pay my travel expenses for 5 years in either a lump sum or via my wages each month as well as making a contribution to relocation costs. All very reasonable. However, moving was a definite no no and there would be no general bump in salary. At one point it looked like they would consider home working but back tracked and decided against that as an option.

The result of this is that despite joining direct from uni and having been there for 16 years I decided to move on. I managed to secure a new job, on promotion, with a 20 minute commute door to door which I start next week. Home working is an option up to 3 days a week and the new firm are paying to kit out a room in my house. The time effectively wasted travelling each day was just not worth it. Almost 3 hours a day on top of my working day tipped the scales of the work/life balance too far in the wrong direction. For me I worked out life is too short to waste being stuck in traffic to miss out on your family growing up.


Really happy that things are sounding as though it will all turn out ok in the end mate.
I have been lucky with my work and have managed to be there for most of my young families life's so far.
 
mines about 2 hours each way and 60 miles each way. Live just outside Peterborough and work in central MK.

Been doing it for about 3 months as the company closed our office and everything moved over, cant move as my wife has a good job locally and its a lot cheaper to buy houses here than MK!

If i went by train its only 12 minutes longer, but have to go Down to London and the back up to MK - so not worth it!
 
Has varied over the years, now I commute less than 1 mile to Office which is perfect, worst was my last job which was about 26 miles but took 40 minutes door to door. Commuting is such a waste of life.....and expensive, necessary evil of course for many. A short commute say up to 15 minutes I think is ok as it can be a way to unwind a little, radio on, windows down, get your head/thoughts together.
 
I work from home, but have to go to head office in Reading every so often. I also travel to the US a fair bit. I must say, I do miss working from home when I am away. WFH isnt for everyone, but if you can make it work, its a fantastic perk.
 
50 mile each way to the office, takes about 40 min door to door. I only go in twice a week as I wfh the rest

That's quite good for that distance. Takes me about 25-30 mins for 11 miles, can be 40 mins after work if I time it wrong. I don't have all the connectivity I need at home but can work around that on occasion so it's a useful option now and again. I do prefer the office if I'm honest though. I'd say I'd do an hour max. Once went for an interview and aimed to get there for 8:45 despite the interview being at 11 to check the traffic situation. I got there at 9:15, asked myself if I could do that journey every day and decided to ring them and withdraw. Work/life balance is a big thing for me.
 
Work from home and have done for a long time, the last time i was forced to wake due to a company schedule was around 8 years ago.

Working from home should be everyones goal (If you have a nice home working environment) spending 5 to 20 hours a week going back and forth is my idea of hell and INSANE.

My commute consists of, if i want to work outside, i move a table and chair into the garden

I know people who work in London who do over 2 hours each way, 5 days a week.. are you fn mad?
 
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