4 ms·

How about treating commute time as hours on the job? It's not free time for you. So if an employer feels that it's very important to see your face in person,

by clarry 7y ago

How about treating commute time as hours on the job? It's not free time for you. So if an employer feels that it's very important to see your face in person, they should compensate for that privilege. And yes, commute should factor in as overtime as well. Imho economic incentive is best incentive. If employers saved money by not paying you to sit in a car 10 hours a week, it should make a compelling argument to try minimize commutes. It's a shame society can't bill them for the emissions & congestion & noise & other harms too.

foogazi 7y ago
Why would you not treat your commute as time on the job? People just trade their time for money, preferring to live farther away from work
- clarry 7y ago
  If you're not clocking time, it doesn't matter. In Europe, tracking hours is common and in many cases mandatory. Unfortunately you can't clock in the moment you step out of your door for your regular commute. So it's not counting towards your contractual hours or overtime compensation. If you actually track the hours and include commute, the incentive should change for the employer to minimize your commute time (because it costs them money). Of course there's a risk that they'd try to weasel out of it by a corresponding reduction in your base salary, so some additional checks would be needed for this scheme to work. I don't think people really want to trade time for money as much as they do when it comes to long commutes. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would choose shorter commute any time if given the choice, but right now the onus is on them to leave their nice home and find a more expensive (and probably tight) apartment in congested downtown if they want a shorter commute. It's all on them, and not on the employer to find a way to reduce commute.
  - CalRobert 7y ago
    The employer has an incentive to reduce commute times - when I was talking to recruiters I had a hard "_MUST_ be within a 30 minute walk, on a light rail line, pay X more, or 100% wfh" requirement. X was, for the market, a pretty high number.
CalRobert 7y ago
Speaking of incentive, though, this sets up a bizarre incentive to live further from the office, rather than closer. Right now avoiding a long commute is one of the reasons people are willing to pay more to live efficiently (closer to the office). It's also why companies are more willing to spend more to be in the middle of a city - it helps them attract talent.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
  It would probably balance out with companies not wanting to hire workers who have longer commutes.
mprovost 7y ago
In that case would a standard part of the interview process become asking the candidate for their home address and calculate how much their commute will cost the company? (Assuming that some companies still have offices and want staff to show up.) Would it be a valid factor in making a hire/no-hire decision? Or picking one candidate over another? What happens if you move during your employment? Would you have to ask for permission since it's going to cost the company money? Or potentially be fired because your commute becomes too expensive?
kube-system 7y ago
We'd need to make "neighborhood of residence" or "commute time" a protected class... Or that will lead to minorities being legally discriminated against for living in poor neighborhoods.
xboxnolifes 7y ago
It is treated as time when you are salaried.

by clarry 7y ago

foogazi 7y ago

Why would you not treat your commute as time on the job? People just trade their time for money, preferring to live farther away from work

clarry 7y ago
If you're not clocking time, it doesn't matter. In Europe, tracking hours is common and in many cases mandatory. Unfortunately you can't clock in the moment you step out of your door for your regular commute. So it's not counting towards your contractual hours or overtime compensation. If you actually track the hours and include commute, the incentive should change for the employer to minimize your commute time (because it costs them money). Of course there's a risk that they'd try to weasel out of it by a corresponding reduction in your base salary, so some additional checks would be needed for this scheme to work. I don't think people really want to trade time for money as much as they do when it comes to long commutes. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would choose shorter commute any time if given the choice, but right now the onus is on them to leave their nice home and find a more expensive (and probably tight) apartment in congested downtown if they want a shorter commute. It's all on them, and not on the employer to find a way to reduce commute.
- CalRobert 7y ago
  The employer has an incentive to reduce commute times - when I was talking to recruiters I had a hard "_MUST_ be within a 30 minute walk, on a light rail line, pay X more, or 100% wfh" requirement. X was, for the market, a pretty high number.

CalRobert 7y ago

Speaking of incentive, though, this sets up a bizarre incentive to live further from the office, rather than closer. Right now avoiding a long commute is one of the reasons people are willing to pay more to live efficiently (closer to the office). It's also why companies are more willing to spend more to be in the middle of a city - it helps them attract talent.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
It would probably balance out with companies not wanting to hire workers who have longer commutes.

mprovost 7y ago

In that case would a standard part of the interview process become asking the candidate for their home address and calculate how much their commute will cost the company? (Assuming that some companies still have offices and want staff to show up.) Would it be a valid factor in making a hire/no-hire decision? Or picking one candidate over another? What happens if you move during your employment? Would you have to ask for permission since it's going to cost the company money? Or potentially be fired because your commute becomes too expensive?

kube-system 7y ago

We'd need to make "neighborhood of residence" or "commute time" a protected class... Or that will lead to minorities being legally discriminated against for living in poor neighborhoods.

xboxnolifes 7y ago

It is treated as time when you are salaried.