[strken]

I hate it. I get less work done, drop out of my schedule and start waking up five minutes before standup, don't recognise half my the people I work with, and just generally don't have a fun time.

My commute is a 10 minute train ride followed by a 30 minute walk. I never realised it was actually a net positive, but it forces me to do a minimum amount of exercise every day, which significantly improves my life now we're back in the office.

[GekkePrutser]

That 10 min train ride is pretty exceptional though. I had about 20 on the metro + 20 walkwhich was amazing.

In other jobs I've had 1 hour driving commutes which could go up to 3 hours due to heavy traffic in the area. It was absolutely exhausting and depressing.

So this depends a lot of your circumstances. Also, many people love to drive. I hate it and it stresses me out especially when I'm stuck in traffic.

[strken]

It's either a 40 minute commute with a 2km walk at the end, or a 40 minute commute involving a changeover to a bus. I never realised I could just... ignore Google maps and walk.

Prior to this I've done 1hr+ public transport commutes, and I'm not willing to say they're a net positive, but they're better for me than no commute.

[GekkePrutser]

Oh yes I often ignore the whole metro and just walk. Especially since Covid.

It's actually better than it sounds for me because the metro makes a huge detour during those 20 minutes. Walking is a lot shorter than the metro route. It takes me about 1 hour. 7km or so (some uphill though :) )

Problem is where I live it gets quite hot in summer and it makes a 1-hour walk after work exhausting. In winter I do it more often.

[julianlam]

Agreed. In my situation it's an hour long train ride that I use to do email catch up and general community engagement, so by the time I'm at the office, I'm ready to work.

Whereas at home I have a toddler and a newborn climbing on me.

[sarchertech]

If you were considering 2 equal job offers, one that was 5 minutes away, and one that was an hour away, you'd take the farther offer?

>Whereas at home I have a toddler and a newborn climbing on me.

You could always find a co-working space.

[julianlam]

No, I'm not insane, all things being equal of course I would take the closer job :)

A co-working space was considered (and is still being considered), though we find our current strategy of 4 days wfh and one in-office day to be a good mix. Additional considerations involve the geographic make-up of our staff. This context, of course, wasn't in my original reply up above.

My main point in my previous reply was to provide a counterpoint to the argument that a commute is completely wasted time, in specific situations, it can be very useful, and not wasted at all.

[GekkePrutser]

Where I live in a busy city these are also ubiquitous. But many people live in small towns where people have never heard of those. Just saying :)

[sarchertech]

The small town where I grew up in has one now.

Also if you’re in a small town without a co-working space, there probably aren’t many software employers either. So you’re either working from home, commuting to an office, or commuting to a co-working space.

[Apocryphon]

I understand kids can be a big distraction during the work day, but isn’t a good thing to have more time with them after work, without the hour lost to the commute? Isn’t it desirable to be nearby during their formative years?

[julianlam]

No. On the train ride home I sleep, because without it I am a literal zombie and one could make the argument that I am a worse parent.

As is typical, another drive-by HN commenter will now say I should plan my day better, but without knowing my day, how can one judge?

[Apocryphon]

I don’t know anything about you, nor am I saying anything about you. I am simply speculating that parents would seek to maximize time with their children, having seen my share of poor WLB that keep parents at the office and away from their children.

[julianlam]

Yes, I know. I'm just being rather cynical at the moment.

Given I'm at 50% work capacity right now, I actually do spend many hours of most days of the week with my children.

I'm not saying there's a recommended maximum of time to spend (24 hours a day seems to be the ideal number recommended by mommy blogs), but after a certain point, I am out of energy to thoughtfully and meaningfully engage with my children.

It really puts into perspective the work childhood educators do on a daily basis, actually.

[Apocryphon]

That’s fair. Perhaps there’s a tendency to lionize the preindustrial era, paleo parenting, that emphasizes maximum amount of time spent.