Redditor rages at 3.5 hour commute due to RTO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people are heartless. What should be a 45 min or less commute has tripled. Thats awful. Maybe pay folks a proper wage and they don’t have to live far.

it’s not the wage. It’s the lack of housing and public transport.

A lot of it also falls on the personal choices of employees.

Absolutely. There are plenty of relatively affordable apartments and condos with excellent commutes and even great schools, but people choose not to live in them because they want a big SFH on 1/2 acre and way the hell out in Haymarket or wherever is the only place they can afford them. Which is fine, that's their choice, but I don't feel much sympathy because nobody forced them to choose a giant house over a decent commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:28 miles is far! That’s like Leesburg to DC. No one is doing that, especially when there’s so many jobs closer by.

Again, not all sectors have jobs in Leesburg, Reston, etc. You're acting like everyone who works in the DC area does YOUR job and has YOUR salary.

[Anonymous]

It's a free labor market. Leave if you don't like your firm's policies.

[Anonymous]

My spouse commutes that. Most jobs aren't stable and people don't stay for years so moving every few years financially doesn't make sense and its very disruptive on kids to pull them out of their school, activities, private lessons, etc. They were working at home long before covid and there were no signs of RTO. We have a high school kid a few years from graduation so it makes even less sense to move when who knows how long they will be at that job. Moving costs many thousands of dollars between all the fees, movers, transferring the cars, etc. So, just saying to move isn't that simple. Our house is also paid off in preparation for college.

[Anonymous]

These threads have grown tiresome as have the whiny, panicky people who somehow used to commute for their job but now find it somehow insurmountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse commutes that. Most jobs aren't stable and people don't stay for years so moving every few years financially doesn't make sense and its very disruptive on kids to pull them out of their school, activities, private lessons, etc. They were working at home long before covid and there were no signs of RTO. We have a high school kid a few years from graduation so it makes even less sense to move when who knows how long they will be at that job. Moving costs many thousands of dollars between all the fees, movers, transferring the cars, etc. So, just saying to move isn't that simple. Our house is also paid off in preparation for college.

Thank you! Families also can't always move close to ONE parent's job without giving through OTHER an insane commute. We compromise the best we can. Remote work was one really amazing tool in that compromise, especially for those of us hired that way with no "this is temporary due to covid" framing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My spouse commutes that. Most jobs aren't stable and people don't stay for years so moving every few years financially doesn't make sense and its very disruptive on kids to pull them out of their school, activities, private lessons, etc. They were working at home long before covid and there were no signs of RTO. We have a high school kid a few years from graduation so it makes even less sense to move when who knows how long they will be at that job. Moving costs many thousands of dollars between all the fees, movers, transferring the cars, etc. So, just saying to move isn't that simple. Our house is also paid off in preparation for college.

Thank you! Families also can't always move close to ONE parent's job without giving through OTHER an insane commute. We compromise the best we can. Remote work was one really amazing tool in that compromise, especially for those of us hired that way with no "this is temporary due to covid" framing.

Another thank you! I feel like everyone is in a vacuum with these answers. It's not single tech bro joe who decides to have a studio near the job. There's usually going to be two earners.

[Anonymous]

OP’s link is from Bay Area and emergency road work was involved.

Dude should download Waze.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My spouse commutes that. Most jobs aren't stable and people don't stay for years so moving every few years financially doesn't make sense and its very disruptive on kids to pull them out of their school, activities, private lessons, etc. They were working at home long before covid and there were no signs of RTO. We have a high school kid a few years from graduation so it makes even less sense to move when who knows how long they will be at that job. Moving costs many thousands of dollars between all the fees, movers, transferring the cars, etc. So, just saying to move isn't that simple. Our house is also paid off in preparation for college.

This. I find the suggestions to move locally for a job rather strange. It can cost hundreds of thousands to move and starting over on a mortgage. For a job you may only have for a few years.

Eventually remote work will win when office leases expire. Office space is expensive and RTO limits the ability to hire to people within a commuting distance. We are at the stage right now when people were wearing cloth masks during COVID and yelling loudly about it. Common sense will eventually prevail. Spending hours a week to move your laptop from point A to point B and doing less work because of it doesn’t make sense.

[Anonymous]

As someone who has never worked from home, I miss when you were too. My commute has become a horror show. I do see where we all benefited from you not being in the office. It was a perk for everyone. While some jobs are done better this way I do worry about how insulated we are from one another moving in smaller orbits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These threads have grown tiresome as have the whiny, panicky people who somehow used to commute for their job but now find it somehow insurmountable.

And yet you bothered to click on the thread, read it, and type up a snide little comment. Doesn’t seem like you’re very tired of the topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people are heartless. What should be a 45 min or less commute has tripled. Thats awful. Maybe pay folks a proper wage and they don’t have to live far.

it’s not the wage. It’s the lack of housing and public transport.

A lot of it also falls on the personal choices of employees.

Absolutely. There are plenty of relatively affordable apartments and condos with excellent commutes and even great schools, but people choose not to live in them because they want a big SFH on 1/2 acre and way the hell out in Haymarket or wherever is the only place they can afford them. Which is fine, that's their choice, but I don't feel much sympathy because nobody forced them to choose a giant house over a decent commute.

When people say this, they always leave out the “for YOU”… because what they mean is “excellent” commutes and “great” schools are good enough for YOU .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are they living so far from their work place? Seems self inflected.

Because in SF, it can cost $4-5k per mo or more for a garbage 1 bedroom apartment near work. Employers don't pay that much to be able to afford that. If employers want RTO, then they should be paying $200k at a minimum for every job in the office if they want people in the office in a pricy region like SF. Pay employees more so they can afford it and not have to have insane commutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A 28 mile commute is not close to the office. GMAB

It is in SF when rents are out of control and employers don't pay livable wages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My spouse commutes that. Most jobs aren't stable and people don't stay for years so moving every few years financially doesn't make sense and its very disruptive on kids to pull them out of their school, activities, private lessons, etc. They were working at home long before covid and there were no signs of RTO. We have a high school kid a few years from graduation so it makes even less sense to move when who knows how long they will be at that job. Moving costs many thousands of dollars between all the fees, movers, transferring the cars, etc. So, just saying to move isn't that simple. Our house is also paid off in preparation for college.

Thank you! Families also can't always move close to ONE parent's job without giving through OTHER an insane commute. We compromise the best we can. Remote work was one really amazing tool in that compromise, especially for those of us hired that way with no "this is temporary due to covid" framing.

In this situation, where one does not want to move, the remaining alternative is to find a new job. Or suck it up and live with the commute. Posting endlessly on dcum doesn’t actually change a thing.