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When I was living in London after COVID, at first, I didn't enjoy it. I still came into the office but when no-one else was there I realised "what's the point?". The office was exposed as the dull/boring/clinical place it's always been. The people I found going into the office were either those who were young and lived close by and somewhat used work as a social club, or those with nothing else better to do (also me at the time!). Anyone with a family was not there. Meanwhile, I've continuted to work remotely and I moved to the Cotswolds. I swapped a Victorian terrace for a much bigger detatched Cotswold cottage. I have a big garden, a glorious wild flower meadow and sheep grazing adjacent to the garden. There's no traffic on the roads and the nearby countryside is amazing. London is a veritable shithole in comparison. Getting a train to London is like travelling to a different - worse - country. If I still lived in London and commuted to the office, I would never see my young kids. I'd be out the door by 7:30 and back by 7ish. It would also put a lot more stress on my wife, as she would have to do everything during the day. I'd also get about 30 mins or so a day with my kids. That's terrible. Now, I can play with my kids until 9am and then start work. I finish at 5:30pm and get 2 hours with them before bed. I can also go running during the day. Switching off isn't really a problem for me because well... work is work. It pays the bills. So I'm quite happy to shut my laptop and forget about it. We had a cabin built in the garden, so my new commute is about 1 minute down the garden to the "shed" during which time I miraciously forget I even have a job in the first place when returning "home". I don't have any work apps on my phone for obvious reasons. I appreciate that's not the same for everyone though. Regarding cost of commute We've had it drilled into us over the years (gaslighted, even) that it is acceptable for us to spend hours of our day commuting to work and for us to bear the financial burden. Why should that be the case? I used to spend £10 a day on the commute. Commuting 200 days a year, that's £2,000 of my salary I need to spend on just getting to work. For others it is much more. That's absurd but it's just the monetary cost. The opportunity cost in terms of MY time is huge. It's about 2 weeks of the year sitting on a horrid underground train. I realise, you can do things on the train but I guess my point is that being on a train limits you from doing other things like playing with kids or doing some gardening. When recruiters have been getting in touch about new roles I make it clear up front that if said company wants me to routinely attend the office they must pay me for commuting time and the commute cost, otherwise it's a "no" from me. Some companies agree remote is acceptable in that case. I mean, I don't mind paying for the odd trip to the office but on a regular cadence and if it's expected (part of contract), then they must pay. Also, let's not forget the environmental impact of all this mostly pointless travel to work every day for knowledge workers. How much less carbon would we emit if we stopped doing it? Judging by the dip in CO2 emissions during COVID, quite a bit. |
This right here. I'm actually nervous talking about this for fear of jinxing the situation.