Commuting for work - how far is too far?

I had a 1 hour commute recently for about 8 months (no longer - now it's 1/2 hour). I'm a pharmacist & one of our very busy stores got run into the ground due to "issues". So, me & another long term guy got booted up there to clean it up... I also work 12 hr days... So it was a long day.

Now, I only work 3 or 4 days a week due to my long hours. Plus, I knew my 1 hour commute situation was temporary...Doing it 5 days a week is going to be a GRIND. Something else important to consider is what the drive is like. My drive was like being on auto pilot. It literally took my the same amount of time down to the minute each day. It you have to deal with possible traffic headaches - that's going to be stressful.

But, it's also important to like the people you work with. While I resented the 1 hour commute, I really didn't make too much noise about it because the people I were working with were just awesome first class talented peeps. I guess if your starting a new job - who knows if you will like them?

I have no problem passing time in the car. I'm a big Stern fan & music fan.
 
Pats300zx said:
I have been commuting 30-60 mins a day for past 25 years. Once you get accustomed to it there is no real big deal. If it's your dream job I say...
GO FOR IT !!!:props::props:
Click to expand...

My hour long commute has been going on for 25 years also :laughing:
 
Don M said:
My hour long commute has been going on for 25 years also :laughing:
Click to expand...

25 years! That's good stuff.

With all the new items available for listening, it seems I can really help make the drives entertaining and/or some sort of self-improvement time. Satellite radio, audible, podcasts, etc....
 
natewood70, I took a job 4 years ago 58 miles from home. It is the best job I have ever had. I genuinely love driving to work every day. I have lots of books on tape to listen to so the time goes fast. I used to live less than a mile from my work place and I thought I would hate the commute, but I love the change.

Andy
ps My '13 BMW 650iX GC makes the drive a lot of fun as well!
 
It's always fun to see the topics that quickly blow up into multi page'rs.

I'll chime with my experience. I've been commuting about 40 miles each way for 7 years now (previously as low as a 12 min drive). I average about 25,000 miles a year. I leave my house at 6am, morning drive takes about 40 min. Coming home, it varies between 45 minutes to 2 hours+ (Minnesota winters) depending on weather/construction/traffic. I'd say homeward bound averages about an hour.

My biggest piece of advice: When asked by a friend how I deal with afternoon rush hour every day (he loses his mind in traffic): Admit Defeat. Once you give into the fact you're not going to be setting any records/really don't have any say in what the drive will be like, it really cuts down the stress. Another friend uses the Waze app to try and sneak around side streets and alternate routes to get home as fast as possible, but I've found comfort in just taking my same route every day and switching to autopilot.

Next: Podcasts. I listen to them all the time in the car. I found with music I actually pay less attention to the road as I almost zone out. Podcasts engage my brain just enough that I honestly feel I pay better attention to my surroundings (and speedometer!). Nice thing about them is you can find them for any topic you might have an interest in. I do a couple detailing ones, movie one, tech one, comic book/movie one or two, and a few others spattered in.

I use the app Overcast, because it gives the option to fine tune your playback speed beyond just 1x, 1.5x, and 2x (I've found 1.25 to be the sweet spot for getting through them faster but not sounding like the chipmunks). It also balances speaking volumes, and has a smart speed option to help trim out dead air when people are talking. Just checked, the app says that feature has saved me 34 hours (!) beyond speed adjustments alone. Sorry to sound like an advertisement, but it's made a big difference in my listening!

Family wise, I have a 2 year old daughter. A lot does fall on my wife with my days being as long as they are. She handles morning drop off for daycare, and picks up 3 days. On average, I see my daughter for about an hour each night before she goes to bed during the week. Wish I saw her more. But, I like my job and reallly like where we live.

Last thing: Be sure to budget for the extra maintenance you'll be doing on your car - Oil changes, tires, brakes. And be sure your car is comfortable to spend that much time in! As I like to say - my A6 makes for a nice place to do my driving business. Bluetooth for both music and phone are definitely nice as well. I use voice commands on the phone to minimize futzing with it.
 
Been doing 50 miles daily for 8+ years. About 250 miles weekly. About 40min. one way. At the current gas prices that's about $38 a week give or take. Xterra gas mileage is bad. 17-18 in summer, 16 in winter. Anyway, anything over a hour drive I would move. That's my take.
 
andy0902 said:
natewood70, I took a job 4 years ago 58 miles from home. It is the best job I have ever had. I genuinely love driving to work every day. I have lots of books on tape to listen to so the time goes fast. I used to live less than a mile from my work place and I thought I would hate the commute, but I love the change.

Andy
ps My '13 BMW 650iX GC makes the drive a lot of fun as well!
Click to expand...

It really seems that this job is the way to go. Room for learning, growth, and an all around awesome place to work it seems. No matter where I go, it seems some sort of issue will exist, so I just have to pick my poison. If it's the longer commute that is the issue, I will just need to find a way to spin that into "me" time. Thanks for the input!

oneheadlite said:
It's always fun to see the topics that quickly blow up into multi page'rs.

I'll chime with my experience. I've been commuting about 40 miles each way for 7 years now (previously as low as a 12 min drive). I average about 25,000 miles a year. I leave my house at 6am, morning drive takes about 40 min. Coming home, it varies between 45 minutes to 2 hours+ (Minnesota winters) depending on weather/construction/traffic. I'd say homeward bound averages about an hour.

My biggest piece of advice: When asked by a friend how I deal with afternoon rush hour every day (he loses his mind in traffic): Admit Defeat. Once you give into the fact you're not going to be setting any records/really don't have any say in what the drive will be like, it really cuts down the stress. Another friend uses the Waze app to try and sneak around side streets and alternate routes to get home as fast as possible, but I've found comfort in just taking my same route every day and switching to autopilot.

Next: Podcasts. I listen to them all the time in the car. I found with music I actually pay less attention to the road as I almost zone out. Podcasts engage my brain just enough that I honestly feel I pay better attention to my surroundings (and speedometer!). Nice thing about them is you can find them for any topic you might have an interest in. I do a couple detailing ones, movie one, tech one, comic book/movie one or two, and a few others spattered in.

I use the app Overcast, because it gives the option to fine tune your playback speed beyond just 1x, 1.5x, and 2x (I've found 1.25 to be the sweet spot for getting through them faster but not sounding like the chipmunks). It also balances speaking volumes, and has a smart speed option to help trim out dead air when people are talking. Just checked, the app says that feature has saved me 34 hours (!) beyond speed adjustments alone. Sorry to sound like an advertisement, but it's made a big difference in my listening!

Family wise, I have a 2 year old daughter. A lot does fall on my wife with my days being as long as they are. She handles morning drop off for daycare, and picks up 3 days. On average, I see my daughter for about an hour each night before she goes to bed during the week. Wish I saw her more. But, I like my job and reallly like where we live.

Last thing: Be sure to budget for the extra maintenance you'll be doing on your car - Oil changes, tires, brakes. And be sure your car is comfortable to spend that much time in! As I like to say - my A6 makes for a nice place to do my driving business. Bluetooth for both music and phone are definitely nice as well. I use voice commands on the phone to minimize futzing with it.
Click to expand...

I've heard of the overcast app before, and it sounds really cool. The job comes with a decent bump in pay to more than make up for the added gas and maintenance. I appreciate your in depth information on how you cope with the drive!
 
I used to have a 180 mile round trip drive that was mostly interstate and I didn't mind it too much. I had a VW Golf and I drove it hard. My advice is to get a car you like to drive and gets decent gas mileage. I found the drive relaxing and it actually gave me time to clear my head after work. The morning drive was the worst, just buy a coffee maker with a timer and set up a schedule where you are not rushing. Learn to enjoy your own company or check out the possibility of a ride sharing program in your area. You would be surprised at the number of people that commute.
 
I will chime in as well as my commute just went from 30 minutes one way to 1:15 one way. My wife got her dream job in Madison WisconsinI have been at mine for 20 years in Illinois near the border. If I transfer I lose my bidding seniority, which sucks, plus because of the vast territory our zones cover in Wisconsin, my drive would probably be longer. So we found the house we have always wanted in a small town smack dab between Milwaukee and Madison. In a normal neighborhood with normal neighbors. Here is the kicker... The detached 1000 sq ft garage in the back yard with heat, air, heated floors..... And a proper lift. The drive will suck in the winter, but we love the house.
 
If there is bumper to bumper traffice be careful. In frikken CA it can take me 1 hour to go 10 miles during rush hour in the Bay Area. That gets frikken old quick! I talked to my supervisors and was able to come in at 6am to cut my commute time drastically. Some employees tell me they could never get up that early. I tell them I can never be stuck in bumper to bumper wasting my life away. That time back is valuable!

Out here some days have less traffic then others-use that to your advantage and have your work from home days on the most heavy traffic days-PS I would push for two work from home days!
 
natewood70 said:
Hello my fellow geeks!

Like many of us on the forum I work in a different profession by day and let out my inner detailer at night and on the weekends.

That being said, where I am now is a place where I do not see much growth anymore. In fact, I get bored at work and spend the majority of my days browsing the Internet and studying new technologies (I'm a network engineer).

I received an offer for a new job that is absolutely my DREAM job, but it will take my commute from 30 to 60 minutes. They are flexible on work times, and will even allow me to telecommute 1 day out of the week, but I'm just nervous about the longer commute eating into time with my wife and daughter.

So... that being said, does anyone currently have a ~1 hour commute? If so, how do you pass the time so you don't go crazy? I was thinking audiobooks and podcasts would be a good start, but I'm just not sure if the commute will beat me down enough to the point that I regret my decision.

Anyway, thanks for any advice or input you all can offer!

-Nate
Click to expand...

You mention dream job, perhaps you expanded on this but what makes it your dream job? How is the stability there?

I commuted 2 to 3 hours one way to work lol. It sucks bc you lose out on half your day, you could have spent with family or doing a million other things. I used to listen to Pandora, listen to youtube videos and make work calls during the commute time.

To me an hour commute is considered "good" but I live near NYC lol.
 
392hemi said:
You mention dream job, perhaps you expanded on this but what makes it your dream job? How is the stability there?

I commuted 2 to 3 hours one way to work lol. It sucks bc you lose out on half your day, you could have spent with family or doing a million other things. I used to listen to Pandora, listen to youtube videos and make work calls during the commute time.

To me an hour commute is considered "good" but I live near NYC lol.
Click to expand...

My dream job is somewhere that will not only help grow my career, but takes an interest in ensuring my personal life's well being. In my current position (in general) I have a couple of career paths to typically go down:

1. Expand my technical expertise to become an elite network engineer
2. Move into leadership

This company has paths to both... where I'm at now, I've kinda hit a dead end. Not only do they encourage growth, but the following is provided to get there:

- Training and certification costs covered (For the certification I want which is a CCIE, the total cost for training and travel will exceed $15k)
- Internal leadership/mentoring program
- Tuition reimbursement for all class levels (I am also seeking my MBA)

Outside of the career growth, here is a small list of the benefits they offer:

- 100% paid health, vision, and dental premiums
- Unlimited 40% 401k contribution matching up to IRS limits
- 15 days PTO immediately
- 4 weeks of paid paternity leave if I have another child
- 2 volunteer days to help out in the community that doesn't eat into my PTO
- $300 contribution for each child for extracurricular activities (little league, ballet, etc...)

In addition to the benefits, they have some cool perks in the office... It's a tech company, so think of what you see at Google.

Hope that helps you understand what a dream job is for me!
 
Perhaps if you prove yourself at the new place, the telecommute option could be expanded to more than one day per week? My office is in the Bay Area, where 2+ hour commutes (each way!) are not uncommon.

I've solved the problem by telecommuting from Reno about 90% of the time, which has two bonuses:

- normal commute is about 6 seconds (distance from bedroom to office across the hall). 8 seconds if I trip over the cat.
- when I do have to appear in person, my commute is 210 miles, but one of the most beautiful in the country, over the I-80 pass :)

Good luck!
 
rlmccarty2000 said:
I used to have a 180 mile round trip drive that was mostly interstate and I didn't mind it too much. I had a VW Golf and I drove it hard. My advice is to get a car you like to drive and gets decent gas mileage. I found the drive relaxing and it actually gave me time to clear my head after work. The morning drive was the worst, just buy a coffee maker with a timer and set up a schedule where you are not rushing. Learn to enjoy your own company or check out the possibility of a ride sharing program in your area. You would be surprised at the number of people that commute.
Click to expand...

I don't have to be at work until 0800, but I leave the house ~0600 so I can stop and get coffee and have a nice relaxing drive in with minimal traffic ... my Camaro is also my daily driver and I love driving it, so all is good.
 
Billy Baldone said:
I will chime in as well as my commute just went from 30 minutes one way to 1:15 one way. My wife got her dream job in Madison WisconsinI have been at mine for 20 years in Illinois near the border. If I transfer I lose my bidding seniority, which sucks, plus because of the vast territory our zones cover in Wisconsin, my drive would probably be longer. So we found the house we have always wanted in a small town smack dab between Milwaukee and Madison. In a normal neighborhood with normal neighbors. Here is the kicker... The detached 1000 sq ft garage in the back yard with heat, air, heated floors..... And a proper lift. The drive will suck in the winter, but we love the house.
Click to expand...

Your work scenario sounds familiar...ill take a shot in the dark, do you work for UPRR?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
natewood70 said:
My dream job is somewhere that will not only help grow my career, but takes an interest in ensuring my personal life's well being. In my current position (in general) I have a couple of career paths to typically go down:

1. Expand my technical expertise to become an elite network engineer
2. Move into leadership

This company has paths to both... where I'm at now, I've kinda hit a dead end. Not only do they encourage growth, but the following is provided to get there:

- Training and certification costs covered (For the certification I want which is a CCIE, the total cost for training and travel will exceed $15k)
- Internal leadership/mentoring program
- Tuition reimbursement for all class levels (I am also seeking my MBA)

Outside of the career growth, here is a small list of the benefits they offer:

- 100% paid health, vision, and dental premiums
- Unlimited 40% 401k contribution matching up to IRS limits
- 15 days PTO immediately
- 4 weeks of paid paternity leave if I have another child
- 2 volunteer days to help out in the community that doesn't eat into my PTO
- $300 contribution for each child for extracurricular activities (little league, ballet, etc...)

In addition to the benefits, they have some cool perks in the office... It's a tech company, so think of what you see at Google.

Hope that helps you understand what a dream job is for me!
Click to expand...


Wow that sounds like a great step up!
With all those details I would take it in a heart beat! Good luck on your decision!
 
Once again, I am truthfully thankful for all the input from my fellow Geeks!

I have accepted the position with my start date on June 5th.

Thanks again for being a great sounding board to go over the pros and cons, and sharing some of the personal experiences many of you have had with your commutes/careers.
 
Congrats! Let us know how it (both the commute and the new job) goes!
 
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