Take the new job and try to get to work on the 3 days as early as possible.

I used to wake up at 4am and be in the office by 5:30am. The commute was much faster than leaving 2 hours later at 6:30am.

This requires having everything ready the night before so you can be out of the house quickly.

It also means you leave work a few hours early, so hopefully a bit shorter commute home.

I scheduled my routine meetings before lunch and marked 3pm-5pm in my calendar with "tentative" so others would usually avoid scheduling meetings then.

I worked my entire career there, so I agree it might not be easy to do this at a new job. But when you have the option, start work as early as possible.

I used my commute time to call my dad who was an early riser and I listened to NPR and BBC. If metro was an option, I would love an hour of reading twice a day.

If you consider your total commute it’s 360 minutes per week. If you were working in the office 5 days a week with a 35 minute commute that would be 360 minutes. It’s not so bad.

If you need employment I do t see how you’re even wavering on this.

Yes. These are normal commute times in the DC area.

Take it. I work in Penn Quarter and live in Silver Spring. It has typically taken me 35 minutes to get to my office. With Fed RTO it takes me closer to 55-65. I am literally 7 miles away from my office. I am only in 3 days a week. I put on a podcast and thank Bejebus I am not a fed.

Anonymous wrote:Take the job.

I assume you mean 60 min by car or 90 by metro. My DH has similar options and drives even though the traffic is horrendous. It’s worth it to get him home an hour earlier. We’re dual Feds in the office 5 days a week. One takes the early shift (out the door by 6:30am, home by 5). The other does the late shift (wakes up kids, helps them get dressed, and hands them off to nanny at 8, home just before bath/bedtime).

Get a nanny if that’s what you need so the kids aren’t in daycare too many hours a day. Our nanny makes up a huge % of our budget (HHI $320K) but she is totally worth it. She handles our older child’s preschool drop off/pick up, packs her lunch, does kid laundry, does our younger child’s occupational therapy appts and administers him medicine, and is a loving, stable presence in their lives.

This. Stagger schedules, get extra childcare help, ask relatives to help occasionally. It sucks, but this is the reality for many of us and it would honestly be impossible for my husband and I to work full time when our kids were young if we didn't spend a lot of our total HHI on a nanny and outsource other things. Yes, it totally sucks, and if you grew up middle class like me it all seems incredibly foreign to pay someone to mow your lawn and to have a nanny, but it is so helpful if both of you want to or need to stay in the workforce.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a federal contractor with a medium risk of my job ending soon. My company has laid off 20% of it's workforce due to contract terminations and said to brace for more. I work fully remote currently. I have a job offer with another company that actually pays more ($250k/year). I feel very fortunate because I know there are thousands looking for a job in the DMV including friends and former colleagues. This job is 60-90 minutes one-way from my house whether by car or metro and requires 3 days/week in the office. Spouse works in an office close to home 3 days/week and we have two young children. Normally I would not consider this but we need my income and looking at job postings, it seems like very little is fully remote, and the chances of finding a job that pays as much that is 30 minutes or less from my house seems like a needle in a haystack. Any advice?

Given the layoffs that have already happened at your company and the likelihood of that continuing due to DOGE and contract terminations I would take the new job. It's great that you do not need to be in the office 5 days a week and if there is flexibility in the days that either you or your spouse can choose to be in the office you should try to create a schedule that serves your family best (whether that is both being in the office the same days or staggering all but one day or whatever). In your position I would be nervous about joining a company with exposure to government contracts, so if this company seems stable and seems to have very little exposure you should jump at this opportunity. You will probably not find a better role closer to your home right now and you can always take the new role and keep an eye out for something closer. Something may come up in a year or two that is closer and pays just as well.

Anonymous wrote:That amount of commuting sounds like a misery to me and I would not set my life up that way in normal times, but given the economic situation here I would take it.

I currently make 200k and work fully remote. I think there is a 50 percent chance my job will not exist by September. It's a big change. The alternative is to wait and see what happens in a few months and if I get laid off look for a new job.

So, someone who has been offered a job making $250K is asking anonymous posters what he should do?

That amount of commuting sounds like a misery to me and I would not set my life up that way in normal times, but given the economic situation here I would take it.

Take it

Why is this even a question? From another Fed contractor who goes in 3 days a week, just because I love my fed colleages who MUST go in 5 days - they think I'm crazy lol.

Just make sure that contract is good for at least a few years.

If you do it, try to make it metro. That way you can at least relax, and probably involves more walking (exercise)

Take the job.

I assume you mean 60 min by car or 90 by metro. My DH has similar options and drives even though the traffic is horrendous. It’s worth it to get him home an hour earlier. We’re dual Feds in the office 5 days a week. One takes the early shift (out the door by 6:30am, home by 5). The other does the late shift (wakes up kids, helps them get dressed, and hands them off to nanny at 8, home just before bath/bedtime).

Get a nanny if that’s what you need so the kids aren’t in daycare too many hours a day. Our nanny makes up a huge % of our budget (HHI $320K) but she is totally worth it. She handles our older child’s preschool drop off/pick up, packs her lunch, does kid laundry, does our younger child’s occupational therapy appts and administers him medicine, and is a loving, stable presence in their lives.

Who says spouse?

3 days is not that bad for 250k.
When I got my first 200k job I did 8 hr commute 😂