4 ms·
Something has to happen--my commute is only 11 miles but it often takes 40 minutes because of a stupid bridge that has had every social engineering plot applied
by ataturk 9y ago
Something has to happen--my commute is only 11 miles but it often takes 40 minutes because of a stupid bridge that has had every social engineering plot applied to it to no avail (HOV lanes with pay-to-use transponders being the latest fashion and cops to enforce the rules slowing everyone else down).
My career has suffered because I have never wanted the stress of a long commute nor could I afford the real estate prices and city problems involved with being closer in. It's a bunch of diminishing returns every direction I look, so my solution was to just find work that was less desirable but at least manageable in the context of my whole life situation. I contend that people who don't do that eventually suffer mental breakdowns, but have no evidence to back up that claim other than conjecture.
As it stands, my current commute is still bad, but I bet it's only 10% as bad as the hell most people around here go through. I've decided that working for a living is just generally bad for health, but a necessary evil, of course. I probably sound like a whiner, but I am truly interested in the commuting problem because I work for a company that heavily promotes cycling to work and ride sharing. Unfortunately, the infrastructure between my home and my work location precludes safe cycling along much of the route so I don't do it, but a lot of employees do. Instead, I stupidly get up at 5:45am, get out the door by 6:30am or so, creep along on a stupid, dark bridge with lots of other stupid people, then arrive to work around 7am or so, depending on the breaks. At least the drive home isn't as bad as long as I'm on the road by 3:15pm or so.
I do get the occasional work from home day, but our team is highly collaborative, so I'm at a disadvantage if I'm not at the office. In previous roles I had more autonomy and could thus make a better go of remote work. I worry that 100% remote roles make you a non-entity in your organization and thus dispensable.
- sokoloff 9y agoNot being effective enough is what puts you at risk of being dispensable. Being remote might contribute to, or increase the risk of, not being effective, but it's not the most proximate cause.
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago>a stupid bridge that has had every social engineering plot applied to it to no avail (HOV lanes with pay-to-use transponders being the latest fashion and cops to enforce the rules slowing everyone else down). Too bad just paying poor people not to use the bridge isn't politically correct. It would be a heck of a lot more efficient than combining a bunch of disincentives that affect the lower classes.
- marcosdumay 9y ago> Too bad just paying poor people not to use the bridge isn't politically correct. Why does nobody ever try free public transportation? Paying the poor brings a lot of practical issues, but at a minimum you can make them not pay for taking the long route.
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago> free public transportation Because someone has to pay for it.
- marcosdumay 9y agoAnd yet, here we are, paying it through the nose by losing time in transit, and contemplating wether it would be a moral thing to pay poor people into taking a longer route.
- JBlue42 9y agoYeah, commute times are lost productivity. The stress factor can lead to health problems. Society will always pay a cost.
- s73ver_ 9y agoThey generally have jobs that are the least likely to be flexible with start and end hours.
- JBlue42 9y agoNot a whiner at all. It sucks. I'm on the job market now and the most feedback I get are from jobs that would be 45 min - 1 hr minimum (in the same city). I've done it before, it's terrible for my health and mental state. Moving closer isn't an option because it's even more expensive than the already expensive area I live in now and the salaries won't compensate to offset that.