How much is working close to home worth to you?

[TLandCruiser]

I'm an hour door to door travelling by train, which is the maximum amount of time I am willing to commute into work. I travel first class which makes a huge difference to the train journey, as I always get a seat and generally you have less inconsiderate people to annoy you.

[andy-xr]

Johnnytheboy said:

As a counterpoint, I think - depending on your job - there is an optimal distance from work.

I am at the just-senior-enough-to-be-useful level where I could be expected to pop in to work on a day off if something kicked off, or the alarm went off in the night, but being 35-40 mins away, am safe.

Also, however foul mood I leave work in, it's very hard to sustain it for more than half an hour.

So actually, I reckon that 'Goldilocks commute' is about 30 minutes.

I think it was Motorola who did a study and found it to be 20'ish minutes gives you enough time to disengage from work mode and be ready for home mode, but I dont remember if distance was also included.

The reason I say that is I've had driving commutes of close to an hour of fairly slow driving, covering maybe 15-20 miles and others where I've covered 60+ in the same time. The greater distance, I've found needed a bit of cooling down time afterwards, because either you're wanting to get in before a certain time in the morning, or you want to get home quicker, so where higher speeds of driving were involved I felt a bit frantic afterwards.

I now have the opposite problem of work from home = no commute, and sometimes I wish I had one. Soon as I finish work I'm into home life with kids/meals/play and there's not enough gap between the two to shut off from one and be ready to start another

[Chris Type R]

andy-xr said:

I now have the opposite problem of work from home = no commute, and sometimes I wish I had one. Soon as I finish work I'm into home life with kids/meals/play and there's not enough gap between the two to shut off from one and be ready to start another

I work from home full time, and have played around with the idea of renting an office/shared office space for just this reason. Cost is generally the reason not to.

[Johnnytheboy]

andy-xr said:

The reason I say that is I've had driving commutes of close to an hour of fairly slow driving, covering maybe 15-20 miles and others where I've covered 60+ in the same time. The greater distance, I've found needed a bit of cooling down time afterwards, because either you're wanting to get in before a certain time in the morning, or you want to get home quicker, so where higher speeds of driving were involved I felt a bit frantic afterwards.

Ah, whereas I find driving quickly much more relaxing.

Sadly my commute is 40-everywhere/limit-limpet/lorry rural A-road hell.

Except when I start proper early!

[Chicken Chaser]

I'm struggling with this at the minute. Love the job, although there is absolutely zero career progression unless I change course and the money is ok if not spectacular. I'm commuting between 50 mins and over an hour on just under 100 mile round trip. Its also a 12hr shift system so could be at either end of the day.

Its put my fuel bills up massively, including consumables for the vehicle.

[Sycamore]

My time > Money for me.

I'd rather make do on less money and have more time to myself than spend most of it commuting.

A 30 min cycle to work does me just fine.