4 ms·

My family lives on the east coast. I live on the west coast. Christmas and family vacations are the only time I get to spend time with my mother, father, sister

My family lives on the east coast. I live on the west coast. Christmas and family vacations are the only time I get to spend time with my mother, father, sister, and brother. My parents are getting older--- I see them seldom enough that every time I'm surprised at how much older they look. This among other things makes me acutely aware of how we're each missing out on one another's lives. I hate traveling as much as the next person. Maybe more so since I do it regularly, around Christmas, every goddamn year. It's awful. It's hideously expensive. For my fiancee and I, it's costs more than $1000. And sometimes it's downright enraging. Of course I've questioned whether or not it's worth it, numerous times. My parents and I email one another. We talk on the phone. I play L4D2 with my brother online. But there's three hours' difference, and you might be surprised by how difficult that makes things. And for all of technology's virtues, nothing compares with having a once-a-year, sit-down dinner with the whole family; shootin' the shit in front of a warm fire; and so on.

sixtofour 16y ago
There is no substitute for being face to face with family and friends. For co-workers, not so much. Of course you lose something, but it's not as important a loss as not seeing family face to face. I think the solution, for some, is to live close to the people who are important to you. Commute and telecommute to your job, not your family.
- nostrademons 16y ago
  Telecommuting will shut you out of many of the most desirable employers (eg. startups, Google, FaceBook). You actually lose a lot in terms of communication efficiency and hence productivity, and most fast-moving companies are very aware of that. If you do get a job at, say, one of Google's remote offices, your project choices are much more limited than at the home office. My choice was to take the good job, see the family, and put up with the brain-dead TSA regulations for the 3ish times a year that I fly home. I don't like it, but it's the path of least resistance that lets me arrange the rest of my life optimally. I suspect many other people make the same choice.

sixtofour 16y ago

There is no substitute for being face to face with family and friends. For co-workers, not so much. Of course you lose something, but it's not as important a loss as not seeing family face to face. I think the solution, for some, is to live close to the people who are important to you. Commute and telecommute to your job, not your family.

nostrademons 16y ago
Telecommuting will shut you out of many of the most desirable employers (eg. startups, Google, FaceBook). You actually lose a lot in terms of communication efficiency and hence productivity, and most fast-moving companies are very aware of that. If you do get a job at, say, one of Google's remote offices, your project choices are much more limited than at the home office. My choice was to take the good job, see the family, and put up with the brain-dead TSA regulations for the 3ish times a year that I fly home. I don't like it, but it's the path of least resistance that lets me arrange the rest of my life optimally. I suspect many other people make the same choice.