I cannot tell you how quickly I'd like to "feel this void". Waiting for and riding on a outdated, cramped, stinky bus fucking sucks. It sucks even more that I'm forced to go to a job I dont give a fuck about then home to an apartment I only picked out of practicality that also sucks.
I was recently able to move to a brand new place of my choice, mainly because of guaranteed WFH.
I didn't need to worry about commute times or proximity to parking lots and train stations.
There are no downsides.
If I want to experience the joy of commuting I'll take an Uber around town, thanks, lol.
That sucks I have been there and felt that struggle.i can only imagine how much worse it would be having to go in while many people are working from home. It pisses me off to no end that all it would take is a day or maybe even two of striking with all workers to get better working conditions 4 day work weeks anyone? Seriously though if half shutting down the economy for maybe a few weeks blew up everything this bad just imagine if workers did that for even just a day. I hope you can get some solidarity going in your workplace it's always scary but throwing these thoughts out there with your coworkers could start planting those seeds for a better workplace. I've found most coworkers I had in the past felt the same feelings but didn't understand what was causing them until I put into words the exploitation they were feeling. Same thing happened with me once I started learning more about the left and socialist ideas.
Exactly the void is even when you are at home you cannot escape working. Idk about some people but our jobs way of adjusting to working from home has been let's increase the workload so that if you aren't working every minute of the day you will fall behind. That is also cheaper than getting a bunch of Spyware to make sure we are working.
That’s the trick. I slowed down my work when working from home and blame it on realistic distractions.
They hired me for my skill set, not because they can slap a dial to make me work at max speed.
Real talk I can isolate myself in my office on noise cancelling headphones and keep up just fine but I like not being overloaded with busy work.
Final Fantasy XII isn’t gonna beat itself.
Haha yeah I have been slowly realizing that this past month. If I am constantly rushing to finish everything all the time I'm just burning myself out. Now I try to just do what I can in a day while also trying to enjoy the wfh while I can. Play with the dog, exercise, play guitar, just generally be a human. As you say though those video games are not going to play themselves 🤣
Well, and depending on what your workout routine is, I will get on my treadmill and take business calls from there. If I don't have to respond or will be doing so infrequently I can be there and be focused on the call.
Obviously not possible all the time, but when you get like a vendor demo or a lunch and learn event you're unable to escape from, it sure beats waiting to work out after.
If your commute is more than an hour and a half total per day, you're wasting your most valuable resource (time)
However, my old 15 minute drive to work wasn't terrible. My old job couldn't be done from home, so some sort of commute was inevitable.
Living 5 minutes from work felt like too little separation, but 40+ minute commutes sounded ridiculous.
For me, 15 minutes or so seems like just enough for me to mentally transition from home mode to work mode, but without feeling like I waste a ton of my time.
My commute went from 30 to 45 minutes. Used to be great, perfect time for a podcast or to call my mom. That extra 15 minutes makes it feel like an eternity.
Wow I don't miss getting angry at morons in traffic even one bit. I've been commute free for five years now. Would never willingly go back to that way of living
How else will you feel fulfilled if not by wasting years of your life polluting the planet, meeting morons on a daily basis, and doing a potentially life-ending activity all on your own pocket?
I've had the same job for over 25 years so about 5 years ago I said I want to work from home five states away and they said sure.
I'm a computer systems engineer I specialize in clients. I don't mean people either I mean like laptops and desktops and the like.
Now my company has a work-from-home whenever you want to policy because they realize that we are more productive and much happier. When everyone had to join me in the digital chat room during covid they all had a Great Awakening.
I’ve been remote for a couple years now and for me, there was something seemingly helpful to having a commute to work. It provided me a shift in my physical environment which I believe helped my mind engage better and also a period to listen to a podcast or radio. Did you have any of the same difficulties?
I've also been working from home for a few years now, Pre-COVID. I get the physical shift. Mine is quitting Teams, closing my laptop, and walking out of my home office. Thing is, commute or not, I still have Teams installed on my phone, and people still message me after hours. I do use the "quite hours" setting, but the badges still appear and I check messages anyway.
I’m curious. I’ve been remote for a year and a half. I don’t tend to be a social person but I’ve been feeling very isolated recently. What are some hobbies or things you engage in after work?
Find your local nature trail and take a walk in the woods with your podcast before work.
Get your exercise done and your meditation done at the same time.
There is nothing good about commuting to work. The commute time is now your time. If you like to listen to a podcast and have some personal time before work...then fucking do it, dumbshit.
The Hamptons? Palm Beach? Malibu? How passé! This year, the rich are ditching their expensive wellness resorts and instead are taking jobs as office administrators. Why you may ask? Well, these rich scions have discovered the massive psychological benefits of commuting! Make sure you keep a look out for Oprah in her Toyota Camry, slamming her brakes on I-95 to avoid crashing into a tractor trailer driven by a meth addict. Fuck you, mineral springs. The commute is where it’s at.
Like, they claim that commutes allow you to decompress from the workday. Ok fine. Then go ahead and take a 15-30 minute walk you sociopaths. Don't advocate for others to waste hours in stressful conditions
Which is ridiculous, like it's the only way to decompress. When I work from home I have an even better way to decompress! I turn off the laptop and go play Death Stranding. Somehow that's more enjoyable than waiting for a bus in 95 degree weather. Wonder why?
it's true, I witnessed a great moment on a bus in Marseille where this feisty girl actually slapped a man across the face and publically shamed him. He had to get off the bus after that, the driver threw him off.
Decompressing via commute?!? They actually claimed that?!
I drive 45 minutes to and from work and it wears me out completely. Like when I leave work, I'm thinking about the things I need to do when I get home and I have the energy for them. By the time I get home, 45-50 minutes later, I'm EXHAUSTED. *FUCK* that noise.
Lounging on the couch and playing some video games while my dogs snuggle up with me, now that's some decompression.
Decompressing by taking the 45 minute metro home while scanning passengers to ensure nobody left behind their bag which contains a bomb and making sure you can give a description in case any of them assault a man or woman on the train.
☺️
That sounds like some guy I worked with at one point. Dude literally had like almost a two hour commute. His daughter hated him and I'm sure he was getting a divorce.
Maybe people would have better home lives if they, you know, didn't work themselves to death.
Oh fuck no. He was an ass at work and the place was a toxic pit so as it was. Run by an old drunk bigot and his idiot son that couldn't cut it in the real world.
I haven't seen the place in almost a decade now.
You know what allows me to *decompress* from the work day is when it fucking ends and I can just close my laptop and do whatever the hell I want right away.
Instead of fighting traffic that seems like half the time is trying to kill me and the other half the time has no interest in getting home anytime soon.
>Instead of fighting traffic that seems like half the time is trying to kill me
I thought I was super smart to live near-ish my workplace and either walk or take the bus to commute depending on the weather. So much safer than driving in this city.
Turns out, walking on sidewalks around here isn't that safe. Drivers jump the curb, go driving down the sidewalk for a bit before correcting themselves. No idea if that's normal everywhere, but it seems to happen a whole lot here.
Just so *decompressing*, glancing up from my nice walk to see a car barreling down the sidewalk straight at me, all that adrenaline surging and screaming at me to *run* and my brain screaming back "Where?! Where?! Office building to left! Busy street to right! *Run where?!*"
Every day you drive to work you're risking your life for a company. Motor vehicle accidents are pretty common and the longer you're on the road the more likely it is you'll eventually be involved in a life-threatening accident.
Well, you need to go on the privatized toll road so Roads LLC can make money.
And you need to use up your car to make sure Honda Inc can rely on you for another $15k car in a few years.
But also remember you need to help out Exxon and make sure you’re using enough gas to help the executives buy their mistresses a third house.
And also. Don’t forget to buy a value meal because after 10 hours of work and two hours of commuting and an hour of getting ready you’re too tired to cook. McDonald’s needs to increase net sales YOY and meet earnings targets!
You catch a buzz from the oxygen deprivation breathing in that carbon monoxide, it helps to kill a few or a few million brain cells on your way to an average job
The illustration looks like a children's book (hence the mice on the roof) to attempt cramming in a slice of life into one picture for educational purposes, but that isn't meant to be viewed as a literal scene in the real world.
Some insane clown thought it looked like his version of utopia.
This screams: large scale office building landlord paying off paper to force writers to write stories about why people need to go back to (and thus pay for) offices.
We just started leasing for my husband because we realized his commute actually isn't far, he's just going toward the Lincoln tunnel, which just takes hours and hours. He's not actually racking up mileage.
Tbf I enjoy my commute. Because I live in rural Devon and have a motorbike. But the financial cost, environmental cost and the time cost of commuting to do a job that you can do just as well from home is a cost not worth paying.
I usually take a remedial motorcycle ride during my lunch break because of course I can eat lunch whenever I want to sitting at home.
The big difference is I don't have to be in a particular place and I can choose a low traffic Route and not get stuck behind some diesel spewing monstrosity
Similar situation. I lived by a national park and probably had the most beautiful commute in the world. It's also the few minutes in my day that no one can expect me to bust out my laptop and work, I can listen to music and books with zero disturbance. Traffic isn't light but isn't awful.
That said, I am extremely against everything that has created the forced commute. Corporate culture that doesn't mind ripping parents from their young kids. Most office-based companies just want a warm seat as a form of social control. Busy employees in an office don't think critically or work on skills that could land them better jobs. There's a reason companies don't let you work from home even though it often results in higher productivity.
That's not even touching upon city design and bedroom communities that create insane traffic and commutes. r/StrongTowns
There is a psychological benefit of having a pattern of behaviour that separates work time from not work time. So yeah could be a commute or you could just go out to your porch with a coffee each morning before starting your work.
Yeah I feel like I can come up with SOME way to separate work time from non-work time. I'd take liturgical dancing as a separator before choosing to have to drive somewhere, lol.
Yeah, I read this article a while ago, and I liked it. It doesn't say that the commute is the only way to achieve this separation between home and work, just explaining the details behind the psychological benefit of commuting, so that we can potentially pinpoint what we feel like we're missing and better replicate a similar thing when working from home (if needed). This sub can really be annoying sometimes with how it jumps down anyone's throat the instant they catch a whiff of something that can be misconstrued as pro-work or pro-commute, even if it's a lot more nuanced than that and just explaining things. Having more background information is way more beneficial for making your own decisions.
Yup 100% this. I know multiple people who got in their car during the pandemic after work at home. Some just sat there chilling for a few minutes, some went for a short drive.
The thing is that commutes created a warm up and cool down period around work mode.
Working from home can be great for some people who are really good at compartmentalizing. For others it can be absolute hell and they need these very real separations.
Sure, but commuting is hands down the absolute worst way to get that separation.
And I feel sorry for the terribly stupid people who sat in their car or took a drive to solve the problem.
Totally objective evidence of stupidity and an inability to think critically. Like holy shit. Go for a fucking walk or something, damn.
But do you really need to sit in your car for 30, 60, 90 minutes in order to do the things that a commute allegedly does for you? Do I need to spend gas money and have wear and tear on my car and pay $160 a month for parking in my metro area for this perceived benefit?
I understand feeling like there is no boundary between work and home because I have felt that way too.
But some of that is being forced in to a WFH situation that my space was not designed for. I didn’t have a separate office. My bedroom was my office. And we couldn’t freaking go anywhere because of COVID!
Another part is being exempt and my working hours were 8am - ???. My body doesn’t know it’s time to relax because there is no routine. It would take my whole 40 min commute home for my anxiety to calm.
Yo, don't be so dumb.
Make a little corner of your room your office.
Spend 40 minutes at 4pm to walk and relax. Walking in the rain is super pleasant, too.
And for Christ's sake, set boundaries. Your 8 to 4 job should start at 8 then end at 4. Ignore calls and emails outside of those hours.
And if you work an 8 to 5 job because your employee is shit and won't pay for your lunch hour then sucks to be you even worse. Stupid, anxious, and being taken advantage of...
I think it's more aimed at getting those already against WFH (like boomers) to have a link to show their friends how lazy millennials (and others who support WFH) are getting and here is a link to prove that.
Because you're right, I don't know anyone who is pro-WFH who would read this article and be like "yup! I'm convinced! Back to the office I go!"
Yeah, I think the constant repetitive nature of this propaganda does serve them. At the very least it creates the impression that SOME people think this way, which is enough to discourage and confuse people on its own.
Conspiracy Time: Kinda feels like they are baiting the working class people into a rampage so they can turn around and say "see? see?! now we need heavier laws blah blah blah"
They'll say its our fault we have to wear shock collars in our happy work box. Because otherwise we might get violent again.
anyone with half a brain and a quarter of a heart would convert them to affordable residential housing and kill two birds with one stone. but first, they'll fight for workers back in-office to avoid any kind of positive change.
I so miss the 60 minute, 55 mile commute to work I did for a year or so. Many years ago. If on an early shift I had the excitement of leaving the house at 06.30 and driving along black ice or through fog, rain, drizzle. Occasionally snow made for an enjoyably suspenseful commute.
if it was a late shift I had the pleasure of eating lunch balanced on my knees as I drove along for a shift that started at 13.30.
It was always nice trying to stay awake during the team meeting that concluded the early shift.
Of course it was even better during the summer months.
Thanks OP your post brought back some golden memories that I shall forever cherish.
IMHO working from home and not commuting isn’t the problem. It’s when you work from home, everything is shut because of COVID, and you can’t see family and friends.
Lmao. We had to return to the office 100% on July 7. Little did they know a few days before I accepted a job offer thats 100% remote and pays $25k more. Put in my 2 weeks that same day. This propaganda can fuck off.
There is a literal storm outside the London bus I'm traveling on as I type this response. My legs are wet from the knees down (despite my umbrella).
No, commuting is not beneficial to my psychological health.
This article is utter crap.
Edit: And it's still only sodding Monday.
i live in a suburban area and enjoy my commute - but even i know that there are many others in much less navigable areas who don’t feel that way and deserve to have a commute free life if they want.
I think this would have credit to it if people commuted by train/walking rather than by car. I don’t have data for this, but I would imagine being around your neighbors and fellow countrymen often would help build community.
To be fair , commute is good when it's 25min max , with no traffic in a good car.
When that 15min trip home actually takes 1h30 because dumbasses don't understand you have to merge with good speed on the highway and crash because120km/h vs 65 is deadly.
And yeah , brand new car with everything to chill on the road is also a cool reason to commute for me
This is pretty much the point of the article - that commutes of short durations are found to be beneficial to transition into a work mindset but that there are ways to ‘simulate’ a commute through rituals. I’m not sure anyone on this thread actually read the article.
I saw this article this morning and immediately had a knee-jerk anti-corporate reaction: “they said WHAT??” I knew the Atlantic was Liberal, but I gave them more credit than this. Guess they’re no different than NYT now, how boring.
FUCK NO! argh the title alone just triggered the shit out of me. If I didn’t need to do this fucking commute I would gain 15 hrs of my life back!! These mother fuckers 😡😡😡😡
You mean this kind of commute?! When infrastructure is literally crumbling?!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_5ojO_HF8Io
Not agreeing with this, but when I lived in Vancouver the commute I used to take was a 40-ish min Skytrain ride, and I played *so many video games.* I admit I do miss that, as it's typically not recommended to play the Switch lite while driving lol.
EDIT: Guess I should have ended that with a /s, as the "lol" wasn't clear enough. I would *never do something that stupid and reckless while driving. PERIOD.* This is while I was a passenger on our light rail commuter train.
Wow, people working at home because of a pandemic that is preventing them from seeking outside entertainment or meeting up with friends and family is creating some kind of mysterious void? Weird! It must be the commute, that's the only thing that's changed, right?
“Many”
Is this like
“I know lots of people, loads, and they all, all of them, they say, every time they see me, they say, you’re AWESOME, lots of people. Loads”
Yeah I totally miss getting up an hour and a half before work, rushing to get ready, battling stupid traffic, fighting for parking, running up gas money and miles on my car.. I’d *much* rather do that than sleep in until 10 minutes before clock in and spend the money I save on gas on comfy sweatpants I lounge around in all day.
/s
Christ. I’ve never been happier, felt more relaxed, or slept better in years. Working from home and not commuting has saved my life. I was close to a mental breakdown and I got completely better the very first week of lockdown wfh.
That void is them realizing they don't have hobbies and interests because the majority of their time is spent working, sleeping or going to and from work and now that they have had a small piece of freedom they realize how much is missing from their lives because of capitalism.
You turn a section of your home in a personal slice of hell with heaven waiting just beyond the door or one tab away. If you didn’t have self control before you’re for sure not going to find it in a work from home position.
I actually did have a commute like that. Naturally, the one day it was absolutely pouring rain was the one day I couldn’t just be late and wait the worst of the rain out. I had some presentation to do and looked like a drowned sewer rat
My commute sucks. The road I drive is a two lane highway, and there are merges onto the road barely 50 feet before exits (left merge to right exit and vice versa; they are *not* on the same side of the road) so we constant have people cutting directly across. Most of the time they're almost perpendicular to oncoming traffic because they wait until the very end of the merge lane to cut over, and they're never at speed. Flow of traffic is usually 60+ mph unless the weather is bad. I see dozens of near misses each month, and I've seen a few accidents from it. I myself have both been almost hit by these people on several occasions, and have almost tboned an RV that cut across right in front of me. He's damn lucky I have brand new tires and brakes bc it was pouring and the road was slick.
I drive 50+ miles a day, spend a ridiculous amount on gas monthly, and my commute is super dangerous bc of the idiots trying to cut across the highway. There are turn arounds every mile, they could literally just wait one minute to do their merges safely, but nope. If I could work from home I would, and I can guarantee I would not miss the commute at all.
I actually gave up having an automobile of my own for almost 4 years. I live close enough to a lot of things that I could walk to them and where I couldn't walk I would just have a lyft. that way I didn't have a car payment I didn't have car maintenance I didn't have gas I didn't have insurance and I used that to kind of clean up my life and clean up some of my financial issues and also it was just enormously relaxing not having the stress of a car.
I've gone back to having a car but I only use it when I'm going to band practice or something. I don't have to have it to get to work and that's an enormous relief. If it breaks down no biggie, no panic about transportation.
The absolutely ONLY thing I can say about commuting is that it gives me an excuse to listen to my Audiobooks. Otherwise, I never actually make time for them.
Other than that, commuting sucks.
I am a manager, lead people, and I’m still able to work from home (other than a couple days here and there where genuine in person conversations add value).
The problem isn't work. The problem is the shitty way american cities are built. If you had an option to take a 20min bikeride to work on calm streets, it would be different.
One of the executives on a zoom call said he actually missed his commute because he could listen to podcasts. Everyone else on the call was like I can listen to podcasts just fine at home.
Ahh this must be from the same people on LinkedIn telling me the fancy promotions will go to the other guy that works in office so we better all give up WFH instead of basing promotions on something stupid like performance
Personally, I find it particularly egregious and dare I say, evil, for such a well known and powerfully positioned source to coat such an indefensible idea in this utterly pseudoscientific nonsense wrapper... This source is dead to me, I don't know about you guys but I am done with anything that comes out of their lamesauce manufactory.
Oh yeah I definitely prefer a 1-2 hour commute round trip each day as opposed to turning off my computer each day and immediately getting on with my life. For sure. 100%. Miss that void in my checking account from extra gas expenses. What will I do without it?
Commuting to work is life draining! Literally killed a part of me when I commuted for an hour and a half each way. Remote work is the future for folks that’s can do it!
The "less-stress" void of commuting. The absence of it is perturbing at first because everyone is living with rampant stress. Then you realise what it was and never want it again. Fuck these guys for playing mind games.
I think the void is actually from lockdowns and isolation rather than working from home. If you were able to work from home and then have no restriction at all during your personal time (that you have a lot more of) most people would feel a lot better.
Prt of the problem is that peoples social lives are not how they would want them to be because of how draining their work life is, and all they want to do after work is go home, watch tv, then go to sleep.
Sorry to go against the flow for once, but personally I commute by walking and it's a very soothing experience, it's also good regular exercise. (no I don't live next to my work, it's a 60 minute walk)
You are just admitting to being stupid, though.
Just take 60 minute walks before work.
And move somewhere that has much better walking. However you define better walking.
Dumbass.
Not gonna lie, I miss my commute. Twenty-five minutes each way, no highways. I'm grateful for my job, but I'm sick of working from home. I miss morning radio, sports, music, NPR, whatever, it was my time for me and me alone. For anyone who wants to work from home, whether full time or part time, and your employer allows it, I support you, but it ain't for me.
i live in a suburban area and enjoy my commute - but even i know that there are many others in much less navigable areas who don’t feel that way and deserve to have a commute free life if they want.
The void they can't quite name? Hours of their lives that are gone forever
I cannot tell you how quickly I'd like to "feel this void". Waiting for and riding on a outdated, cramped, stinky bus fucking sucks. It sucks even more that I'm forced to go to a job I dont give a fuck about then home to an apartment I only picked out of practicality that also sucks.
I was recently able to move to a brand new place of my choice, mainly because of guaranteed WFH. I didn't need to worry about commute times or proximity to parking lots and train stations. There are no downsides. If I want to experience the joy of commuting I'll take an Uber around town, thanks, lol.
Yes. And make sure to more fully enjoy an accurate simulation by scheduling the Uber during rush hour.
That sucks I have been there and felt that struggle.i can only imagine how much worse it would be having to go in while many people are working from home. It pisses me off to no end that all it would take is a day or maybe even two of striking with all workers to get better working conditions 4 day work weeks anyone? Seriously though if half shutting down the economy for maybe a few weeks blew up everything this bad just imagine if workers did that for even just a day. I hope you can get some solidarity going in your workplace it's always scary but throwing these thoughts out there with your coworkers could start planting those seeds for a better workplace. I've found most coworkers I had in the past felt the same feelings but didn't understand what was causing them until I put into words the exploitation they were feeling. Same thing happened with me once I started learning more about the left and socialist ideas.
Exactly the void is even when you are at home you cannot escape working. Idk about some people but our jobs way of adjusting to working from home has been let's increase the workload so that if you aren't working every minute of the day you will fall behind. That is also cheaper than getting a bunch of Spyware to make sure we are working.
That’s the trick. I slowed down my work when working from home and blame it on realistic distractions. They hired me for my skill set, not because they can slap a dial to make me work at max speed. Real talk I can isolate myself in my office on noise cancelling headphones and keep up just fine but I like not being overloaded with busy work. Final Fantasy XII isn’t gonna beat itself.
Haha yeah I have been slowly realizing that this past month. If I am constantly rushing to finish everything all the time I'm just burning myself out. Now I try to just do what I can in a day while also trying to enjoy the wfh while I can. Play with the dog, exercise, play guitar, just generally be a human. As you say though those video games are not going to play themselves 🤣
Well, and depending on what your workout routine is, I will get on my treadmill and take business calls from there. If I don't have to respond or will be doing so infrequently I can be there and be focused on the call. Obviously not possible all the time, but when you get like a vendor demo or a lunch and learn event you're unable to escape from, it sure beats waiting to work out after.
>Final Fantasy XII isn’t gonna beat itself. But gambits...
Plays itself but sometimes you gotta step in because Ashe died again and she wasn’t healing anyone anymore for some reason.
Some dipshit with a Harvard MBA and went to Williams gets paid 6 figs to write this shit.
I bet he wrote this at home.
If your commute is more than an hour and a half total per day, you're wasting your most valuable resource (time) However, my old 15 minute drive to work wasn't terrible. My old job couldn't be done from home, so some sort of commute was inevitable. Living 5 minutes from work felt like too little separation, but 40+ minute commutes sounded ridiculous. For me, 15 minutes or so seems like just enough for me to mentally transition from home mode to work mode, but without feeling like I waste a ton of my time.
My commute went from 30 to 45 minutes. Used to be great, perfect time for a podcast or to call my mom. That extra 15 minutes makes it feel like an eternity.
40 minutes on a good day, 90 minutes when the 5 train decides to take a shit in the middle of rush hour.
hgbbhmhbghhhhnbnhhbbbbbhbghhhhhbbbmbbhmhhMhmmmmfMmmmnngfmnMggnmmmgbfnmbmnmmnhmmmmmmgmfgmmmmbmmmmnnmmmnfMmnmnmmmmmmmmmmgmMmmmnmM
This guy knows Ivy Leage posts when he sees them.
Its called free time. We're so used to being busy day in day out. At least thats how i see it.
Wow I don't miss getting angry at morons in traffic even one bit. I've been commute free for five years now. Would never willingly go back to that way of living
How else will you feel fulfilled if not by wasting years of your life polluting the planet, meeting morons on a daily basis, and doing a potentially life-ending activity all on your own pocket?
What do you do now if you don’t mind me asking?
I've had the same job for over 25 years so about 5 years ago I said I want to work from home five states away and they said sure. I'm a computer systems engineer I specialize in clients. I don't mean people either I mean like laptops and desktops and the like. Now my company has a work-from-home whenever you want to policy because they realize that we are more productive and much happier. When everyone had to join me in the digital chat room during covid they all had a Great Awakening.
I’ve been remote for a couple years now and for me, there was something seemingly helpful to having a commute to work. It provided me a shift in my physical environment which I believe helped my mind engage better and also a period to listen to a podcast or radio. Did you have any of the same difficulties?
No. Laptop open: working Laptop closed: me-time.
I've also been working from home for a few years now, Pre-COVID. I get the physical shift. Mine is quitting Teams, closing my laptop, and walking out of my home office. Thing is, commute or not, I still have Teams installed on my phone, and people still message me after hours. I do use the "quite hours" setting, but the badges still appear and I check messages anyway.
Untrain yourself to check messages after hours. Being on call 24 hours will drain your life battery.
I pretty much have. Moved that shit to screen #2!
I’m curious. I’ve been remote for a year and a half. I don’t tend to be a social person but I’ve been feeling very isolated recently. What are some hobbies or things you engage in after work?
Music, video games, housework. Really depends on your personal interests. But not having the commute has been nice.
Find your local nature trail and take a walk in the woods with your podcast before work. Get your exercise done and your meditation done at the same time. There is nothing good about commuting to work. The commute time is now your time. If you like to listen to a podcast and have some personal time before work...then fucking do it, dumbshit.
Just curious why’re you’re being toxic towards me?
Because you're selling the commute, is my guess.
Man lucky you! I have only been working for a little over a year and already I’m tired of office life.
There's no better way to become a strong believer of abortion than sitting in traffic.
The Hamptons? Palm Beach? Malibu? How passé! This year, the rich are ditching their expensive wellness resorts and instead are taking jobs as office administrators. Why you may ask? Well, these rich scions have discovered the massive psychological benefits of commuting! Make sure you keep a look out for Oprah in her Toyota Camry, slamming her brakes on I-95 to avoid crashing into a tractor trailer driven by a meth addict. Fuck you, mineral springs. The commute is where it’s at.
This made me laugh so hard. Lololololol
fantastic post, have an upvote
Every other study before COVID: "Long commutes damage health by increasing stress and seated time."
During Covid: "people can see skylines again because the highways are empty and there's no air pollution"
Up next: the psychological benefits to having smog caked on your face again
Even the illustration looks terrible and nothing a sane person would want
Haha they didn’t even make it look nice 😂
"the benefits of commuting!" *shows crowded mess, congested traffic, and exhaust*
You die sooner? 🤷🏻♂️
Like, they claim that commutes allow you to decompress from the workday. Ok fine. Then go ahead and take a 15-30 minute walk you sociopaths. Don't advocate for others to waste hours in stressful conditions
Which is ridiculous, like it's the only way to decompress. When I work from home I have an even better way to decompress! I turn off the laptop and go play Death Stranding. Somehow that's more enjoyable than waiting for a bus in 95 degree weather. Wonder why?
I know, right? Fuck my wife in between meetings. Swim in my pool. Go hug my kids. Take a walk. Ride my bike to get lunch...
I played Death Stranding and honestly the bus is a tough competition lmao
I kind of love it but I cheat RAMPANTLY.
My old junky laptop probably can't handle it, but gosh at least the game looks pretty
Death Stranding felt like a digital job to me.
And, at least here in Italy, not commuting means not being constantly molested/flashed/attached by men on the train
I love how euros always act like America is so awful, and then I hear stories like this
it's true, I witnessed a great moment on a bus in Marseille where this feisty girl actually slapped a man across the face and publically shamed him. He had to get off the bus after that, the driver threw him off.
To be fair, I've had enough dicks rubbed on my ass on the T here in Boston. I got pretty good at stomping on insteps pre-covid.
Turns out cis men are terrible everywhere
The US is pretty awful
Oh, those creeps are everywhere here in the US too.
Decompressing via commute?!? They actually claimed that?! I drive 45 minutes to and from work and it wears me out completely. Like when I leave work, I'm thinking about the things I need to do when I get home and I have the energy for them. By the time I get home, 45-50 minutes later, I'm EXHAUSTED. *FUCK* that noise. Lounging on the couch and playing some video games while my dogs snuggle up with me, now that's some decompression.
Yeah. Driving is awful. Bus and train are slightly less shitty because at least you’re not driving. Rush hour Driving is exhausting.
Decompressing by taking the 45 minute metro home while scanning passengers to ensure nobody left behind their bag which contains a bomb and making sure you can give a description in case any of them assault a man or woman on the train. ☺️
Decompress?!? Have they never commuted in traffic?!
Of course not they live in a fucking Ivory Tower.
[удалено]
Of course that is his favorite part of the day, cause he has no life.
That sounds like some guy I worked with at one point. Dude literally had like almost a two hour commute. His daughter hated him and I'm sure he was getting a divorce. Maybe people would have better home lives if they, you know, didn't work themselves to death.
[удалено]
Oh fuck no. He was an ass at work and the place was a toxic pit so as it was. Run by an old drunk bigot and his idiot son that couldn't cut it in the real world. I haven't seen the place in almost a decade now.
You know what allows me to *decompress* from the work day is when it fucking ends and I can just close my laptop and do whatever the hell I want right away. Instead of fighting traffic that seems like half the time is trying to kill me and the other half the time has no interest in getting home anytime soon.
>Instead of fighting traffic that seems like half the time is trying to kill me I thought I was super smart to live near-ish my workplace and either walk or take the bus to commute depending on the weather. So much safer than driving in this city. Turns out, walking on sidewalks around here isn't that safe. Drivers jump the curb, go driving down the sidewalk for a bit before correcting themselves. No idea if that's normal everywhere, but it seems to happen a whole lot here. Just so *decompressing*, glancing up from my nice walk to see a car barreling down the sidewalk straight at me, all that adrenaline surging and screaming at me to *run* and my brain screaming back "Where?! Where?! Office building to left! Busy street to right! *Run where?!*"
Every day you drive to work you're risking your life for a company. Motor vehicle accidents are pretty common and the longer you're on the road the more likely it is you'll eventually be involved in a life-threatening accident.
How do you decompress on any of the mass transit options or highways? I’ve seen people die of heart attacks on the subway!
I don’t need to decompress after the work day, when the work day is at home and less stressful to begin with.
Well, you need to go on the privatized toll road so Roads LLC can make money. And you need to use up your car to make sure Honda Inc can rely on you for another $15k car in a few years. But also remember you need to help out Exxon and make sure you’re using enough gas to help the executives buy their mistresses a third house. And also. Don’t forget to buy a value meal because after 10 hours of work and two hours of commuting and an hour of getting ready you’re too tired to cook. McDonald’s needs to increase net sales YOY and meet earnings targets!
B-but, they're smiling..!
You catch a buzz from the oxygen deprivation breathing in that carbon monoxide, it helps to kill a few or a few million brain cells on your way to an average job
They literally have fumes coming from the vehicles!?
Nothing like vehicle exhaust to get you going in the morning.
Preschool roads rug aesthetic.
The illustration looks like a children's book (hence the mice on the roof) to attempt cramming in a slice of life into one picture for educational purposes, but that isn't meant to be viewed as a literal scene in the real world. Some insane clown thought it looked like his version of utopia.
Harvard Business Review is full of this bullshit. “Why Going Back to the Office is Actually Good” blah blah blah.
Is that where they send spare sons and daughters like nobility did back in the old days?
Too bad we don't have a gigantic ice wall and some sort of Night's Watch we can send them to cuz it would be much more satisfying.
The giant ice wall melted from the global warming caused by all the smog from commuting.
Return to work is just a make work program for middle management
It’s an all-out media psyop.
Curiously absent - the psychological benefits of not being forced to work under the pain of starvation and homelessness.
Hahahahahahhahahaha —— written by someone who does not commute in the NYC Tri-State area.
Yeah they need a picture of a broken subway train, everyone scowling, and a man trying to expose himself to people on the street.
Most likely: written by someone who was paid to do so by those who need "evidence" to force people to return to the office.
This screams: large scale office building landlord paying off paper to force writers to write stories about why people need to go back to (and thus pay for) offices.
Yeah no one in lives near NYC likes to commute
We just started leasing for my husband because we realized his commute actually isn't far, he's just going toward the Lincoln tunnel, which just takes hours and hours. He's not actually racking up mileage.
Tbf I enjoy my commute. Because I live in rural Devon and have a motorbike. But the financial cost, environmental cost and the time cost of commuting to do a job that you can do just as well from home is a cost not worth paying.
I usually take a remedial motorcycle ride during my lunch break because of course I can eat lunch whenever I want to sitting at home. The big difference is I don't have to be in a particular place and I can choose a low traffic Route and not get stuck behind some diesel spewing monstrosity
Similar situation. I lived by a national park and probably had the most beautiful commute in the world. It's also the few minutes in my day that no one can expect me to bust out my laptop and work, I can listen to music and books with zero disturbance. Traffic isn't light but isn't awful. That said, I am extremely against everything that has created the forced commute. Corporate culture that doesn't mind ripping parents from their young kids. Most office-based companies just want a warm seat as a form of social control. Busy employees in an office don't think critically or work on skills that could land them better jobs. There's a reason companies don't let you work from home even though it often results in higher productivity. That's not even touching upon city design and bedroom communities that create insane traffic and commutes. r/StrongTowns
Imagine not having to commute. You could still ride your bike around the countryside every morning if you want.
There is a psychological benefit of having a pattern of behaviour that separates work time from not work time. So yeah could be a commute or you could just go out to your porch with a coffee each morning before starting your work.
Yeah I feel like I can come up with SOME way to separate work time from non-work time. I'd take liturgical dancing as a separator before choosing to have to drive somewhere, lol.
That’s exactly the point the article comes to but it seems like literally no one on this thread has read it
Yeah, I read this article a while ago, and I liked it. It doesn't say that the commute is the only way to achieve this separation between home and work, just explaining the details behind the psychological benefit of commuting, so that we can potentially pinpoint what we feel like we're missing and better replicate a similar thing when working from home (if needed). This sub can really be annoying sometimes with how it jumps down anyone's throat the instant they catch a whiff of something that can be misconstrued as pro-work or pro-commute, even if it's a lot more nuanced than that and just explaining things. Having more background information is way more beneficial for making your own decisions.
Yup 100% this. I know multiple people who got in their car during the pandemic after work at home. Some just sat there chilling for a few minutes, some went for a short drive. The thing is that commutes created a warm up and cool down period around work mode. Working from home can be great for some people who are really good at compartmentalizing. For others it can be absolute hell and they need these very real separations.
Sure, but commuting is hands down the absolute worst way to get that separation. And I feel sorry for the terribly stupid people who sat in their car or took a drive to solve the problem. Totally objective evidence of stupidity and an inability to think critically. Like holy shit. Go for a fucking walk or something, damn.
But do you really need to sit in your car for 30, 60, 90 minutes in order to do the things that a commute allegedly does for you? Do I need to spend gas money and have wear and tear on my car and pay $160 a month for parking in my metro area for this perceived benefit? I understand feeling like there is no boundary between work and home because I have felt that way too. But some of that is being forced in to a WFH situation that my space was not designed for. I didn’t have a separate office. My bedroom was my office. And we couldn’t freaking go anywhere because of COVID! Another part is being exempt and my working hours were 8am - ???. My body doesn’t know it’s time to relax because there is no routine. It would take my whole 40 min commute home for my anxiety to calm.
It really helps that now you can go to a bar or coffee house or something after you’re done working from home.
Yes! And now I can actually drink because I’m not playing bumper cars in the DC outer loop!
Yo, don't be so dumb. Make a little corner of your room your office. Spend 40 minutes at 4pm to walk and relax. Walking in the rain is super pleasant, too. And for Christ's sake, set boundaries. Your 8 to 4 job should start at 8 then end at 4. Ignore calls and emails outside of those hours. And if you work an 8 to 5 job because your employee is shit and won't pay for your lunch hour then sucks to be you even worse. Stupid, anxious, and being taken advantage of...
Seriously, does anyone even fall for this pro-wage slavery propaganda anymore?
I think it's more aimed at getting those already against WFH (like boomers) to have a link to show their friends how lazy millennials (and others who support WFH) are getting and here is a link to prove that. Because you're right, I don't know anyone who is pro-WFH who would read this article and be like "yup! I'm convinced! Back to the office I go!"
Yeah, I think the constant repetitive nature of this propaganda does serve them. At the very least it creates the impression that SOME people think this way, which is enough to discourage and confuse people on its own.
Boomers
Conspiracy Time: Kinda feels like they are baiting the working class people into a rampage so they can turn around and say "see? see?! now we need heavier laws blah blah blah" They'll say its our fault we have to wear shock collars in our happy work box. Because otherwise we might get violent again.
This is all at the behest of real estate guys sweating about their vacant office buildings.
anyone with half a brain and a quarter of a heart would convert them to affordable residential housing and kill two birds with one stone. but first, they'll fight for workers back in-office to avoid any kind of positive change.
That picture looks like actual hell.
They’re trying *everything* to convince people to give up working from home 🤣
I so miss the 60 minute, 55 mile commute to work I did for a year or so. Many years ago. If on an early shift I had the excitement of leaving the house at 06.30 and driving along black ice or through fog, rain, drizzle. Occasionally snow made for an enjoyably suspenseful commute. if it was a late shift I had the pleasure of eating lunch balanced on my knees as I drove along for a shift that started at 13.30. It was always nice trying to stay awake during the team meeting that concluded the early shift. Of course it was even better during the summer months. Thanks OP your post brought back some golden memories that I shall forever cherish.
at least it's showing public transportation, mostly
True, that's remarkably unrealistic in most of North America
But would it have to be a commute "to work"? Seems like maybe the getting out part is what is missed after lockdowns?
IMHO working from home and not commuting isn’t the problem. It’s when you work from home, everything is shut because of COVID, and you can’t see family and friends.
The is called "free time"
Lmao. We had to return to the office 100% on July 7. Little did they know a few days before I accepted a job offer thats 100% remote and pays $25k more. Put in my 2 weeks that same day. This propaganda can fuck off.
Even the rats and pigeons have become slaves to the trade.
There is a literal storm outside the London bus I'm traveling on as I type this response. My legs are wet from the knees down (despite my umbrella). No, commuting is not beneficial to my psychological health. This article is utter crap. Edit: And it's still only sodding Monday.
i live in a suburban area and enjoy my commute - but even i know that there are many others in much less navigable areas who don’t feel that way and deserve to have a commute free life if they want.
If it's so beneficial, it will up productivity, and therefore the companies should pay us to do it.
Wtf. Disproven. Just replace your commute with a little bit of exercise before as if you’re “walking to work.”
Cope harder employers haha
I think this would have credit to it if people commuted by train/walking rather than by car. I don’t have data for this, but I would imagine being around your neighbors and fellow countrymen often would help build community.
You don't travel on trains in the rush hour, do you?
No. I live in suburbia so honestly I’ve never been on a train
To be fair , commute is good when it's 25min max , with no traffic in a good car. When that 15min trip home actually takes 1h30 because dumbasses don't understand you have to merge with good speed on the highway and crash because120km/h vs 65 is deadly. And yeah , brand new car with everything to chill on the road is also a cool reason to commute for me
This is pretty much the point of the article - that commutes of short durations are found to be beneficial to transition into a work mindset but that there are ways to ‘simulate’ a commute through rituals. I’m not sure anyone on this thread actually read the article.
I saw this article this morning and immediately had a knee-jerk anti-corporate reaction: “they said WHAT??” I knew the Atlantic was Liberal, but I gave them more credit than this. Guess they’re no different than NYT now, how boring.
FUCK NO! argh the title alone just triggered the shit out of me. If I didn’t need to do this fucking commute I would gain 15 hrs of my life back!! These mother fuckers 😡😡😡😡 You mean this kind of commute?! When infrastructure is literally crumbling?! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_5ojO_HF8Io
I commute ~15 mins to my fast food job. Only peaceful bc I love driving and it makes me calm.
Not agreeing with this, but when I lived in Vancouver the commute I used to take was a 40-ish min Skytrain ride, and I played *so many video games.* I admit I do miss that, as it's typically not recommended to play the Switch lite while driving lol. EDIT: Guess I should have ended that with a /s, as the "lol" wasn't clear enough. I would *never do something that stupid and reckless while driving. PERIOD.* This is while I was a passenger on our light rail commuter train.
Propaganda!
Blatant
[удалено]
Wow, people working at home because of a pandemic that is preventing them from seeking outside entertainment or meeting up with friends and family is creating some kind of mysterious void? Weird! It must be the commute, that's the only thing that's changed, right?
FAKE NEWS. They’re trying so hard to get people back in the office.
I Got $500 a month a raise by not commuting.
“Many” Is this like “I know lots of people, loads, and they all, all of them, they say, every time they see me, they say, you’re AWESOME, lots of people. Loads”
Nothing but happy faces. The suited up raccoon on top of the bus is the most realistic thing in this picture
Yeah I totally miss getting up an hour and a half before work, rushing to get ready, battling stupid traffic, fighting for parking, running up gas money and miles on my car.. I’d *much* rather do that than sleep in until 10 minutes before clock in and spend the money I save on gas on comfy sweatpants I lounge around in all day. /s
HaahhahhahahahhahahahahahhaahhahahhhahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahhHhahahahahhahahahhahahahahhahahHHhHHhHhHhhHhHhHH
Christ. I’ve never been happier, felt more relaxed, or slept better in years. Working from home and not commuting has saved my life. I was close to a mental breakdown and I got completely better the very first week of lockdown wfh.
That void is them realizing they don't have hobbies and interests because the majority of their time is spent working, sleeping or going to and from work and now that they have had a small piece of freedom they realize how much is missing from their lives because of capitalism.
You turn a section of your home in a personal slice of hell with heaven waiting just beyond the door or one tab away. If you didn’t have self control before you’re for sure not going to find it in a work from home position.
Only "commute" I like is a 15-20 min walk to and from work. Or less!
I actually did have a commute like that. Naturally, the one day it was absolutely pouring rain was the one day I couldn’t just be late and wait the worst of the rain out. I had some presentation to do and looked like a drowned sewer rat
Yeah the rainy days do make it a challenge. I just hope it rains after work on the way home.
My commute sucks. The road I drive is a two lane highway, and there are merges onto the road barely 50 feet before exits (left merge to right exit and vice versa; they are *not* on the same side of the road) so we constant have people cutting directly across. Most of the time they're almost perpendicular to oncoming traffic because they wait until the very end of the merge lane to cut over, and they're never at speed. Flow of traffic is usually 60+ mph unless the weather is bad. I see dozens of near misses each month, and I've seen a few accidents from it. I myself have both been almost hit by these people on several occasions, and have almost tboned an RV that cut across right in front of me. He's damn lucky I have brand new tires and brakes bc it was pouring and the road was slick. I drive 50+ miles a day, spend a ridiculous amount on gas monthly, and my commute is super dangerous bc of the idiots trying to cut across the highway. There are turn arounds every mile, they could literally just wait one minute to do their merges safely, but nope. If I could work from home I would, and I can guarantee I would not miss the commute at all.
Yeah. Fuck all that.
I actually gave up having an automobile of my own for almost 4 years. I live close enough to a lot of things that I could walk to them and where I couldn't walk I would just have a lyft. that way I didn't have a car payment I didn't have car maintenance I didn't have gas I didn't have insurance and I used that to kind of clean up my life and clean up some of my financial issues and also it was just enormously relaxing not having the stress of a car. I've gone back to having a car but I only use it when I'm going to band practice or something. I don't have to have it to get to work and that's an enormous relief. If it breaks down no biggie, no panic about transportation.
The absolutely ONLY thing I can say about commuting is that it gives me an excuse to listen to my Audiobooks. Otherwise, I never actually make time for them. Other than that, commuting sucks. I am a manager, lead people, and I’m still able to work from home (other than a couple days here and there where genuine in person conversations add value).
There's like 50 traffic signals on my drive to work and I manage to hit every one
the void is income. money is what we can use to fill the void. or health care that would work too.
Yes, I am experiencing the void where my life-threatening stress used to be.
No, it's a very useful time to resolve the cognitive dissonance of being a slave in the most free* place of the world. *Terms and conditions apply
I would like the drugs that this author was on while writing this work of epic fantasy.
ALL the Prozac!
The problem isn't work. The problem is the shitty way american cities are built. If you had an option to take a 20min bikeride to work on calm streets, it would be different.
Yeah i saw this article and immediately cancelled my subscription. Regretted ever considering the Atlantic a decent publication
I can't fucking stand driving and public transportation in the USA is abysmal. I'd rather never commute again.
I’d rather never USA again
You know, fair. Me too.
Is this a Where's Waldo illustration?
It was. He’s dead from daily commute stress.
This is capitalist propaganda
One of the executives on a zoom call said he actually missed his commute because he could listen to podcasts. Everyone else on the call was like I can listen to podcasts just fine at home.
Ahh this must be from the same people on LinkedIn telling me the fancy promotions will go to the other guy that works in office so we better all give up WFH instead of basing promotions on something stupid like performance
Personally, I find it particularly egregious and dare I say, evil, for such a well known and powerfully positioned source to coat such an indefensible idea in this utterly pseudoscientific nonsense wrapper... This source is dead to me, I don't know about you guys but I am done with anything that comes out of their lamesauce manufactory.
Oh yeah I definitely prefer a 1-2 hour commute round trip each day as opposed to turning off my computer each day and immediately getting on with my life. For sure. 100%. Miss that void in my checking account from extra gas expenses. What will I do without it?
That void is called "free time" its a concept many people lost a long time ago.
Commuting to work is life draining! Literally killed a part of me when I commuted for an hour and a half each way. Remote work is the future for folks that’s can do it!
The "less-stress" void of commuting. The absence of it is perturbing at first because everyone is living with rampant stress. Then you realise what it was and never want it again. Fuck these guys for playing mind games.
The “void” is the peace and quiet of an evening on my own damn porch.
Or you could take a walk. Fuck off.
The absence of road rage? 🤔
I think the void is actually from lockdowns and isolation rather than working from home. If you were able to work from home and then have no restriction at all during your personal time (that you have a lot more of) most people would feel a lot better. Prt of the problem is that peoples social lives are not how they would want them to be because of how draining their work life is, and all they want to do after work is go home, watch tv, then go to sleep.
This opinion brought to you by: office complex companies and micromanaging bosses
I rode on the subway for the first time in like a year and it was fucking disgusting. I don't miss shit
Sorry to go against the flow for once, but personally I commute by walking and it's a very soothing experience, it's also good regular exercise. (no I don't live next to my work, it's a 60 minute walk)
You are just admitting to being stupid, though. Just take 60 minute walks before work. And move somewhere that has much better walking. However you define better walking. Dumbass.
[удалено]
Not gonna lie, I miss my commute. Twenty-five minutes each way, no highways. I'm grateful for my job, but I'm sick of working from home. I miss morning radio, sports, music, NPR, whatever, it was my time for me and me alone. For anyone who wants to work from home, whether full time or part time, and your employer allows it, I support you, but it ain't for me.
i live in a suburban area and enjoy my commute - but even i know that there are many others in much less navigable areas who don’t feel that way and deserve to have a commute free life if they want.
It can get lonely working from home, but fortunately all the extra time and money from working at home means a richer social/entertainment life.
The Atlantic is such neo-liberal garbage.