3 ms·

As a self-admitted, lazy millenial, I have to call bullshit. Commuting 4 hours a day for a job, assuming that the job is 2 hours away, means devoting half of yo

As a self-admitted, lazy millenial, I have to call bullshit. Commuting 4 hours a day for a job, assuming that the job is 2 hours away, means devoting half of your ordinary-full-time hours to driving to a place to work. Outliers are absolutely an option when attempting to gain an advantage, but the ability to work remotely is an outsized economic and work/life benefit for almost any company.

shoo 10y ago
commuting 4 hours a day sounds like a pretty rubbish lifestyle, but if that is what it takes for a few weeks / months to bootstrap out of a bad situation, then it is at least doable. commute, save money & build up a little work history, find a place to rent/share much closer to work. i suspect many organisations here in melbourne (including some of the larger enterprise-y ones that pay developers quite well) are too disorganised / old-fashioned to consider remote workers.
- imron 10y ago
  Exactly. I have a friend currently commuting daily between Melbourne and Ballarat. It's a 2 hour door-to-door commute each way, but it means he's working in IT in Melbourne rather than a fruit shop in Ballarat (what he was doing until he found this job). He's planning to move to Melbourne as soon as feasible. To the author of the article, try finding remote work based in the US. The timezone isn't so bad if you find work on the West Coast - you get a few hours overlap in the Melbourne morning, Californian afternoon, which basically means you can wake up, have a meeting to discuss work for the day, work while your clients are asleep, provide an update to clients at the end of the day, which they get at the beginning of their day and which gives them time to provide feedback while you're sleeping, all ready for when you start the next day. It actually works out quite well.
qw 10y ago
I am gen X, so I guess we are a bit tougher ;) And I only did this for a couple of years. The commute was 1h20min by train, then 10min by bus. It took me 2 hours from door to door. I know people in my office that has an 1.5h commute by train because they can not afford a house near the city for their wife and kids
- m-i-l 10y ago
  The average time people in the UK spend commuting each day is 55 mins, with more than 3 million spending two or more hours and 880,000 people spending more than 3 hours each day[0]. In London the average is 74 mins a day[1], and from my experience in London an hour each way is perfectly normal, with 1.5 or 2 hours each way not too unusual, and I've even worked with some people who spend significantly longer than that travelling to work. [0] http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/09/million-people-two-hours-commuting-tuc-study http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/09/million-people-... [1] https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=average+commute+time+london https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=average+commute+time+londo...
- clappski 10y ago
  I don't mind my 1h25m commute, even if I don't get a seat on a train you can still read or write. It's not such a bad lifestyle as people think. Leave the house at 0730, home by 1840.
  - regecks 10y ago
    I live in metro Melbourne and had a 90 minute commute to get to work nearby the CBD. Throwing away 3 hours, day in day out was really, really stupid, and nearly drove me to quit within 1-2 years. You can fit a lot of life in 3 hours. It's not worth sacrificing when you have even the glimmer of a choice. Remote now and way less depressed.
- user_0001 10y ago
  genX here as well. I used to have to drive 1hr 45 / 2.5hrs each way depending on traffic. Always had to plan the journey would take 2.5hrs just incase. Definitely doable. Kids today huh?
  - pgeorgi 10y ago
    And here I thought progress was supposed to make it easier on each generation. But that only applies to washing machines, not when it's about avoiding "2 hours up-hill, in the snow, even in summer, both directions" commutes, I guess.

shoo 10y ago

commuting 4 hours a day sounds like a pretty rubbish lifestyle, but if that is what it takes for a few weeks / months to bootstrap out of a bad situation, then it is at least doable. commute, save money & build up a little work history, find a place to rent/share much closer to work. i suspect many organisations here in melbourne (including some of the larger enterprise-y ones that pay developers quite well) are too disorganised / old-fashioned to consider remote workers.

imron 10y ago
Exactly. I have a friend currently commuting daily between Melbourne and Ballarat. It's a 2 hour door-to-door commute each way, but it means he's working in IT in Melbourne rather than a fruit shop in Ballarat (what he was doing until he found this job). He's planning to move to Melbourne as soon as feasible. To the author of the article, try finding remote work based in the US. The timezone isn't so bad if you find work on the West Coast - you get a few hours overlap in the Melbourne morning, Californian afternoon, which basically means you can wake up, have a meeting to discuss work for the day, work while your clients are asleep, provide an update to clients at the end of the day, which they get at the beginning of their day and which gives them time to provide feedback while you're sleeping, all ready for when you start the next day. It actually works out quite well.

qw 10y ago

I am gen X, so I guess we are a bit tougher ;) And I only did this for a couple of years. The commute was 1h20min by train, then 10min by bus. It took me 2 hours from door to door. I know people in my office that has an 1.5h commute by train because they can not afford a house near the city for their wife and kids

m-i-l 10y ago
The average time people in the UK spend commuting each day is 55 mins, with more than 3 million spending two or more hours and 880,000 people spending more than 3 hours each day[0]. In London the average is 74 mins a day[1], and from my experience in London an hour each way is perfectly normal, with 1.5 or 2 hours each way not too unusual, and I've even worked with some people who spend significantly longer than that travelling to work. [0] http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/09/million-people-two-hours-commuting-tuc-study http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/nov/09/million-people-... [1] https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=average+commute+time+london https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=average+commute+time+londo...
clappski 10y ago
I don't mind my 1h25m commute, even if I don't get a seat on a train you can still read or write. It's not such a bad lifestyle as people think. Leave the house at 0730, home by 1840.
- regecks 10y ago
  I live in metro Melbourne and had a 90 minute commute to get to work nearby the CBD. Throwing away 3 hours, day in day out was really, really stupid, and nearly drove me to quit within 1-2 years. You can fit a lot of life in 3 hours. It's not worth sacrificing when you have even the glimmer of a choice. Remote now and way less depressed.
user_0001 10y ago
genX here as well. I used to have to drive 1hr 45 / 2.5hrs each way depending on traffic. Always had to plan the journey would take 2.5hrs just incase. Definitely doable. Kids today huh?
- pgeorgi 10y ago
  And here I thought progress was supposed to make it easier on each generation. But that only applies to washing machines, not when it's about avoiding "2 hours up-hill, in the snow, even in summer, both directions" commutes, I guess.