A Bit of My Life » Five Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Commute

Five Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Commute

With the recent rise in gas prices, many people are reevaluating their career choices. A couple of nights ago I had the chance to speak with an HR professional who said that she had a lot of people applying at her company because they preferred to work locally rather than commute for 10.00 an hour positions.

A lot of people are casting around for justifications to change jobs right now in order to go local. Rising gas prices are certainly a good reason, but here are five more.

1. It’s The Environment, Stupid
I commuted for a year and a few months to a company that was 50 kilometres away from my house. Each day I was contributing 100K worth of diesel fumes to the environment. That wasn’t cool, and it was one of the main reasons that I left. My somewhat hippie mindset just couldn’t deal with the fact that I was crapping all over the earth just with the simple act of going to and from work every day. Even if you don’t see yourself as a hippie, global warming hopefully concerns you at least a little bit - very good reason to not commute.

2. Family Time
For me family time involves scratching my navel and petting my cat. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t need that time to stay mentally healthy (or at least keep from sliding into total insanity - that’s a little closer to the mark). For most others, family time is a little more serious and involves spending time with their children and teaching them how to live life and grow. If you sacrifice 2 extra hours of your life a day, you may want to think twice about the repercussions that this is having on your mate and children. Not that you should feel guilty, we all have to make a living, but it is definitely a good reason to quit the commute.

3. Health
If you are commuting, you generally don’t have time to hit the gym. I was smart about this and went right after work to a gym where I worked out for about an hour each day until traffic let up, then I zoomed home. However, most people with families need every second they can squeeze out of a day and don’t have time to do this. The stress alone of commuting every day and the lack of Vitamin D, which has been proven to be a major factor in getting cancer, should be enough reason to reconsider.

4. Local Salaries Don’t Suck
As more companies try to attract skilled employees, local salaries are rising. Clerical and administrative jobs are always going to be low-end on the pay scale, but if you have any skills at all over and above the usual Microsoft Office and Accpac, you may find that your pay cut will not be so deep to stay local. Before I made the decision to work from home, I was going for interviews locally that were only fractionally less than what I was making an hour away. Get your resume polished up by a more word-savvy friend and start shooting them out before you leave your current job - you never know what will happen.

5. Me Time
By the end of the day, most people just fall into bed without doing little things for themselves like reading a book, taking a nice bath, or just having some down time watching the TV. Whatever you enjoy doing, if you don’t put aside the time to do it, you won’t recharge your batteries. You have to put aside time to enjoy life, and that is almost impossible to do if you are working 6 to 6.

Posted: May 11th, 2008 under Work & Career.
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Five Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Commute

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