How far would you travel for right role
Discussion
I have a new job offer and i have been thinking about traveling to work everyday. Its about 100 miles journey per day, not sure if its worth doing. Personally i don't like traveling but don't mind doing it if good salary is on offer. I have heard that it can be tiring and worn you off.
Please share your experience.
Please share your experience.
I did it for 3 years - door to door was roughly 1 hour in average traffic. I found it fine and actually enjoyed the bit of time to myself at the start and end of the day. Much more than an hour though and it would have been frustrating. I.e when it became 2 hours due to traffic it was just horrible.
It helped that I had a company car and fuel all paid for though
It helped that I had a company car and fuel all paid for though
I did a 200 miles round trip daily for 6 months a year ago. Expenses aside I found that if I got stuck in traffic I got tired quick lol
Always found Google maps to be useful as even though I knew the fastest route, I always set the navigation on so that if there was an accident or traffic building up ahead then it would automatically offer me a faster route which was very useful a number of times.
Get plenty of sleep, doing that kind of Mileage when your tired is dangerous.
Always found a coffee on the return journey gave me a bit of a boost, I would prepare the coffee just before I left work and then take the flask with me for the way back.
The rate being offered at the time plus the experience that was on offer was too good to turn down so I made it work. Could have stayed away like most but I have a young family with 3 kids so evenings at home were always worth it. Oh and I finished at 12 on Fridays so always beat the traffic home on a Friday which helped a lot.
You need AC I couldn't have done the journey in the summer without it, an auto would help if possible. I had use of the company pool car Passat Blue motion DSG which made the journey easier too.
HTH
Always found Google maps to be useful as even though I knew the fastest route, I always set the navigation on so that if there was an accident or traffic building up ahead then it would automatically offer me a faster route which was very useful a number of times.
Get plenty of sleep, doing that kind of Mileage when your tired is dangerous.
Always found a coffee on the return journey gave me a bit of a boost, I would prepare the coffee just before I left work and then take the flask with me for the way back.
The rate being offered at the time plus the experience that was on offer was too good to turn down so I made it work. Could have stayed away like most but I have a young family with 3 kids so evenings at home were always worth it. Oh and I finished at 12 on Fridays so always beat the traffic home on a Friday which helped a lot.
You need AC I couldn't have done the journey in the summer without it, an auto would help if possible. I had use of the company pool car Passat Blue motion DSG which made the journey easier too.
HTH
distance isn't an issue for me but time is, i wouldn't commute more than one hour a day. having said that it does depend on the route. i commuted from manchester city centre to north wales every day for 2 years and any accident on the m56 meant total chaos. this was probably once a fortnight on average. 18mths hull to doncaster was same distance but so lightly trafficked it was pretty much guaranteed to be a 50min journey.
For me, it's not the distance but the average travel time. Anything over an hour and it drives me crazy. Trying out the journey at rush hour a few times would tell you if you can stomach it or not. If you are a very early riser naturally, and the job allows flexibility (in early, out early) it might be a way to make it more palatable.
As others have said I think time of day, and the actual roads you will be using will be the big factors.
I was doing a 150 mile daily commute last year, normally 6/7 days a week for 4 months. 120 miles of this was the northern section of the M25, junctions 29-13 and back again
Journey time varied so much depending on what my start/finish times were. A really good run could be done in 65 minutes, the worst run took 4 hours
I wouldn't want to do it again, unless the offer was to good to turn down.
I was doing a 150 mile daily commute last year, normally 6/7 days a week for 4 months. 120 miles of this was the northern section of the M25, junctions 29-13 and back again
Journey time varied so much depending on what my start/finish times were. A really good run could be done in 65 minutes, the worst run took 4 hours
I wouldn't want to do it again, unless the offer was to good to turn down.
I often consider the edge cases in this sort of scenario. You look at the commute and you think it's do-able, although you won't get much time at home and will be a bit tired; there's not much margin. Then you need to consider:
- There's a pile up on the way home and you are delayed by two hours getting home - no time to eat/sleep/whatever
- There's a pile up on the way to work and you are delayed by two hours. Do you work late to make it up?
- The boss books a meeting just before the start of the normal working day. Do you make a crack of dawn start and hope for no delays, or a hotel?
- The boss wanders in bang on leaving time for "a catch up". Do you tell him (it's always a him, women have brains) to go away, you're leaving. # Or do you suck it up and again no time to eat/sleep/whatever.
- Project is overrunning and you need to pull some overtime. How do you cope with even an extra hour a day, on top of your commute? Or do you tell the rest of the team to carry you?
- Team are going out for drinks/meal/fun after work. Do you book a Hotel? Arrive home ridiculously late? Or miss out?
- You have to go and visit a customer on Tuesday, so you have an early start/late finish. How do you handy the commute on Monday and Wednesday?
2hrs door to door here, so 4hrs a day, and other than a short hop on the tube at the work end of things, the rest is in the car (south coast to London).
Back to doing it again after 18mths of a short commute along the coast. It's fine really, soon get used to it. Have switched between the train and driving a few times and driving always wins for me, get home nearly an hour earlier to see the kids at bedtime.
On the plus side, you get to throw ruinous mileage on some unsuspecting cars
Back to doing it again after 18mths of a short commute along the coast. It's fine really, soon get used to it. Have switched between the train and driving a few times and driving always wins for me, get home nearly an hour earlier to see the kids at bedtime.
On the plus side, you get to throw ruinous mileage on some unsuspecting cars
I spent 2½ years commuting 70 miles each way for a job on a £17k salary. Day 2 of that job took me 6 hours to get to work because the M1 was shut for an accident.
Tomorrow I'm in the unusual situation of having to leave the house and travel about 15 miles to do a five hour day, I tend to pay myself low six figures these days. Yet I can't begin to tell you how much I resent having to go. I think I might have had enough of this role.
Tomorrow I'm in the unusual situation of having to leave the house and travel about 15 miles to do a five hour day, I tend to pay myself low six figures these days. Yet I can't begin to tell you how much I resent having to go. I think I might have had enough of this role.
I live in Reading and did a similar commute to Swindon for 6 months. It was a total breeze, but mainly because I was going against the traffic at both ends. Now I commute Reading to Farnborough. It is 'only' 20 miles, but is such a ball-ache route that in Winter it takes 70-90 minutes by car.
The longer journey was by far the easier. My current route is susceptible to loads of incident blackspots, once a week there's an accident somewhere to totally FUBAR it.
Answer for me: commute by motorbike, I do this March-December, giving Jan & Feb a swerve just because of slippy roads - I'm a contractor and sole breadwinner, so any off could have big implications beyond and Billy Big b
ks 'I ride all year' claims.
Secondly, is the role flexible? I work in IT, so (with the full agreement of my client, in fact their suggestion) I work from home 8am-10am most days, then jump in the car after the rush hour has gone. The resultant reduction in my stress levels in incredible, I found I was becoming really stressed at my stty journey, now I just breeze in and take a nice backroad route, which allows me to, shall we say, explore the performance envelope of my car.
Next winter I'm considering getting a Brompton, so I can do 'cycle/train/cycle' , but after 20yrs of commuting by car/bike I don't like the idea of putting my journey into the hands of train operating companies.
The longer journey was by far the easier. My current route is susceptible to loads of incident blackspots, once a week there's an accident somewhere to totally FUBAR it.
Answer for me: commute by motorbike, I do this March-December, giving Jan & Feb a swerve just because of slippy roads - I'm a contractor and sole breadwinner, so any off could have big implications beyond and Billy Big b
ks 'I ride all year' claims. Secondly, is the role flexible? I work in IT, so (with the full agreement of my client, in fact their suggestion) I work from home 8am-10am most days, then jump in the car after the rush hour has gone. The resultant reduction in my stress levels in incredible, I found I was becoming really stressed at my s
tty journey, now I just breeze in and take a nice backroad route, which allows me to, shall we say, explore the performance envelope of my car. Next winter I'm considering getting a Brompton, so I can do 'cycle/train/cycle' , but after 20yrs of commuting by car/bike I don't like the idea of putting my journey into the hands of train operating companies.
All worth thinking about but a tad on the dramatic side. I have pretty much always done this length of commute when in the UK. It's not quite as bad as you make out. Normal day would go like this:
06:00 Alarm
06:30 Leave
07:45 In office
17:15 Leave office
18:30 Home
So to take your points & how it impacts the above.
1) Bad traffic on way home :- in my experience a 2hr delay is a once a year event, so no great shakes. If you do hit delays still home by 7pm in most cases.
2) Get in late due to traffic :- it all comes out in the wash, as long as you are not habitually late
3) Boss books a 7am meeting, no big deal get up 30mins earlier, not the end of the world. Gets sorted through the wash mentioned in 2)
4) Boss wanders in a leaving time. Again not the end of the world, you get home 30mins later than normal. Still home by 7pm. Again gets sorted in the wash.
5)Need to work overtime. So you just do it. An extra hour is no big deal, still home by 7:30pm. It's not the end of the world. Still time to eat/sleep/go up the pub/go to the gym
6)Team going out for drinks/meal. If it's important join them, again you will still be home by 9pm.
7) Early start/late finish one day...how do you cope the next...Really? Oh poor darlings how will they ever cope with life.
An hour or just over is not the end of the world. I'd prefer 10mins, but at the end of the day a lot of people do an hours commute to work every day. If you truly took door-to-door journeys I'd wager it's far higher than you think. 15-20 miles in the mornings can easily be an hour.
06:00 Alarm
06:30 Leave
07:45 In office
17:15 Leave office
18:30 Home
So to take your points & how it impacts the above.
1) Bad traffic on way home :- in my experience a 2hr delay is a once a year event, so no great shakes. If you do hit delays still home by 7pm in most cases.
2) Get in late due to traffic :- it all comes out in the wash, as long as you are not habitually late
3) Boss books a 7am meeting, no big deal get up 30mins earlier, not the end of the world. Gets sorted through the wash mentioned in 2)
4) Boss wanders in a leaving time. Again not the end of the world, you get home 30mins later than normal. Still home by 7pm. Again gets sorted in the wash.
5)Need to work overtime. So you just do it. An extra hour is no big deal, still home by 7:30pm. It's not the end of the world. Still time to eat/sleep/go up the pub/go to the gym
6)Team going out for drinks/meal. If it's important join them, again you will still be home by 9pm.
7) Early start/late finish one day...how do you cope the next...Really? Oh poor darlings how will they ever cope with life.
An hour or just over is not the end of the world. I'd prefer 10mins, but at the end of the day a lot of people do an hours commute to work every day. If you truly took door-to-door journeys I'd wager it's far higher than you think. 15-20 miles in the mornings can easily be an hour.
Flooble said:
I often consider the edge cases in this sort of scenario. You look at the commute and you think it's do-able, although you won't get much time at home and will be a bit tired; there's not much margin. Then you need to consider:
- There's a pile up on the way home and you are delayed by two hours getting home - no time to eat/sleep/whatever
- There's a pile up on the way to work and you are delayed by two hours. Do you work late to make it up?
- The boss books a meeting just before the start of the normal working day. Do you make a crack of dawn start and hope for no delays, or a hotel?
- The boss wanders in bang on leaving time for "a catch up". Do you tell him (it's always a him, women have brains) to go away, you're leaving. # Or do you suck it up and again no time to eat/sleep/whatever.
- Project is overrunning and you need to pull some overtime. How do you cope with even an extra hour a day, on top of your commute? Or do you tell the rest of the team to carry you?
- Team are going out for drinks/meal/fun after work. Do you book a Hotel? Arrive home ridiculously late? Or miss out?
- You have to go and visit a customer on Tuesday, so you have an early start/late finish. How do you handy the commute on Monday and Wednesday?
Quite true, I agree maybe I was over dramatic, however, I noted that the OP mentioned "I don't like travelling".
Which brought to mind my problematic colleague who only has an hour's commute but finds it borderline impossible (I have fifty minutes each way myself; since I gave him a day "working from home" each week that means I actually spend more time commuting than he does ... ).
Which brought to mind my problematic colleague who only has an hour's commute but finds it borderline impossible (I have fifty minutes each way myself; since I gave him a day "working from home" each week that means I actually spend more time commuting than he does ... ).
Looking at a new job currently that is a 90 min train commute door to door, its a bit more money and they are supposedly paying my travel costs, id be £500 a month better off but I would loose 2 hrs a day. Makes me cringe thinking about it.
My current role is 20 miles in the car each way including the m25. I work a 'later shift' (0930-1800) which allows me to avoid the majority of the traffic and my journey time is between 25-40 mins tops in the car and in 3 months or so Ive only hit major jams on the m25 2-3 times. Same journey when I have to start at 9am is 75 mins mostly stuck in loooong queues inching forward two or 3 cars length at a time. For me it depends on the length of time that is a problem rather than the distance.
My current role is 20 miles in the car each way including the m25. I work a 'later shift' (0930-1800) which allows me to avoid the majority of the traffic and my journey time is between 25-40 mins tops in the car and in 3 months or so Ive only hit major jams on the m25 2-3 times. Same journey when I have to start at 9am is 75 mins mostly stuck in loooong queues inching forward two or 3 cars length at a time. For me it depends on the length of time that is a problem rather than the distance.
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