One more point of discussion on careers

[duckriver]

We have been discussing at work how to attract people willing to drive to Nashville everyday to work. In my instance it’s 125 miles round trip a day. Which takes anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day travel time. 2.5x5= 12.5 hours a week, 650 hours a year. So I give 650 hours a year just to get to work and back. That’s like working an extra 4 months a year at a 40 hour a week job. The average working hours in a year is 2,000 so that 650 hours in travel time is 32.5% of a normal working year. That’s a tough pill to swallow especially with little kids at home. What’s your breaking point of it’s worth making more to travel that far vs making less and being closer to home? Did travel time play into the job you chose?

 

[UCStandSitter]

I live in Cookeville. Worked for places in Brentwood and Nashville for years. Bwood years was 174 miles daily. Did it for 11 yrs. Later ended up at a Nashville company, roughly 148 miles round trip. Eventually got to the point of work from home other than a day per week or hit and miss. After all those miles, gas, wear and tear, and traffic jerks for years, I am fed up. I couldn’t go back to doing it daily unless I was forced to. I’ve grown older and softer I guess. On the days I drive down now I leave at 4:30AM to be in the office before traffic and leave around 2. I hate traffic with a passion. If i were looking for a new gig that would be a BIG factor. I missed so many after school things with my kids when they were small

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I drive 106 miles per day. The selling point for me was that I work 3 10 hr days there and 1 10 hr day at home. Of course the pay has to be way better than what I could get locally as well. My profession is very niche also, can only be done in just a few places in the US.

 

[duckriver]

I live in Cookeville. Worked for places in Brentwood and Nashville for years. Bwood years was 174 miles daily. Did it for 11 yrs. Later ended up at a Nashville company, roughly 148 miles round trip. Eventually got to the point of work from home other than a day per week or hit and miss. After all those miles, gas, wear and tear, and traffic jerks for years, I am fed up. I couldn’t go back to doing it daily unless I was forced to. I’ve grown older and softer I guess. On the days I drive down now I leave at 4:30AM to be in the office before traffic and leave around 2. I hate traffic with a passion. If i were looking for a new gif that would be a BIG factor. I missed so many after school things with my kids when they were small

I feel your pain 😔

 

[jameseboy]

When I was young I lived about 45 minutes from work. I did the math on how much of my life would be wasted driving back and forth and when I moved made that a priority. I never lived more than ten minutes from work again. 30 years at 300 plus days a year that’s a lot of time

 

[Snake]

We have been discussing at work how to attract people willing to drive to Nashville everyday to work. In my instance it’s 125 miles round trip a day. Which takes anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day travel time. 2.5x5= 12.5 hours a week, 650 hours a year. So I give 650 hours a year just to get to work and back. That’s like working an extra 4 months a year at a 40 hour a week job. The average working hours in a year is 2,000 so that 650 hours in travel time is 32.5% of a normal working year. That’s a tough pill to swallow especially with little kids at home. What’s your breaking point of it’s worth making more to travel that far vs making less and being closer to home? Did travel time play into the job you chose?

Being picky I guess but a 40 hour week x 52 weeks in 2080 . But dang brother your pay must be outstanding. I was feeling sorry for my son before he got on Volkswagen he drove one way 1 hour 20 to 25 minutes one way . Can't you find something somewhat comparable closer ? I understand if the pay is worth it but as you get older the time at home becomes more valuable.

 

[Snake]

I only drove about 20 miles one-way but drove it for over 47 years

 

[duckriver]

Being picky I guess but a 40 hour week x 52 weeks in 2080 . But dang brother your pay must be outstanding. I was feeling sorry for my son before he got on Volkswagen he drove one way 1 hour 20 to 25 minutes one way . Can't you find something somewhat comparable closer ? I understand if the pay is worth it but as you get older the time at home becomes more valuable.

Your maths right. We just mange the business off of 2,000 because the average employee misses 2 weeks worth of work a year.

And yes the closer to home thing is what I’m chewing on

 

[UCStandSitter]

Your maths right. We just mange the business off of 2,000 because the average employee misses 2 weeks worth of work a year.

And yes the closer to home thing is what I’m chewing on

I will say the hours I did it when I was younger has paid dividends now and I have a lot more freedom to be at everything for my kids so there is that. However, I’ll never get that time back. Time is the one thing you can’t buy more of no matter how much you make but, there will always be the trade off of being a provider vs being away. You arent trading your labor for money, you are trading time. Before I drove so far daily, I caught a plan every Monday morning and flew home on Fridays all over the country. Quit that when my oldest turned 6 months. Not worth it. The driving trade off was worth it for awhile but eventually that got to me as well.

 

[sgtwebb1]

I got to start working from home this past May, AND got a raise.
what I do, I can do from anywhere with a high speed internet connection & a cell phone.
Very few people can do what I do, so it's kind of a 'niche', and when I got headhunted by a major player in April, I had already accepted the job, turned in my notice. Had ZERO clue my company would counter the offer I got, especially the work remotely part-the most important part to me.
But they did.
Very blessed.
Highly recommend remote work for those that can make it happen.

 

[Snake]

I will say the hours I did it when I was younger has paid dividends now and I have a lot more freedom to be at everything for my kids so there is that. However, I’ll never get that time back. Time is the one thing you can’t buy more of no matter how much you make but, there will always be the trade off of being a provider vs being away. You arent trading your labor for money, you are trading time. Before I drove so far daily, I caught a plan every Monday morning and flew home on Fridays all over the country. Quit that when my oldest turned 6 months. Not worth it. The driving trade off was worth it for awhile but eventually that got to me as well.

When I first got hired my supervisor which was a great guy told me that he was going to start training me for two weeks on a operator job that was going to come open and that I would get it. It was a top level job and I was at the lowest pay just above in hire which was several dollars less than the job an hour he wanted me in but in all reality I probably made as much if not more than the top operators because I worked a lot of overtime . My position was straight days and the position that he wanted me in was shift work . I respectfully declined his offer and told him my children were young and I'd like to stay on days for my wife and them , he understood but said that's a lot of money difference. Well any way I managed to select the jobs I wanted to stay on days and did so for 40 years and only topped out probably the last 10 because most day jobs where a lower scale except maintenance but for almost 30 years I held the position just under top pay . The last 8 I made top pay on shift which is aleast $ 10 , 000 more at the same scale for days because of the built in overtime . In a nutshell I gave up tremendous amounts of money to try and stay on days and in doing so I didn't miss any of my kids functions. Money is not everything as long as you can survive and we did ok by me staying on days , our company paid pretty good wages it's just I could have made much more . It effected my pension and my SS quite a bit . One guy that worked almost identical to my tenure in years . He was hired 2 months before me and retired three months before I did but he chose the money route by going on shift about a year or so after he was hired . His pension in monthly installments was about 3 to 400 hundred dollars more than mine and his SS was about 300 dollars more so I even lost out there but if I had it to do over I wouldn't change a thing. I would have even stayed on days the rest of career but I had no choice as my job along with others was done away with when they converted to the other process . We was offered a good severance if you call it that if we wanted to retire early and it would have been great had I been about 3 to 4 years older . It really worked out good for some that was close to retirement any way. The money they were giving equaled one and a half years pay but the kicker was you couldn't draw unemployment or take another position anywhere until that time was up . All in all like I said thinking back I would have still chose my path taking the less money but being home every night and weekends except for rare instances of being called in . Money you have to have to survive but I can sincerely say I don't have the "love of money sin" 😂

 

[slabhead]

I've been driving about 70miles round trip for 32 years. I don't like it and look forward to the day I don't have to make that drive, but it's not nearly as bad as some of you.

 

[Talome13]

In the words of Mark Cuban, “I would rather work 80hrs a week to make $50k than make $75k-$100k working for someone else.”


I drove to Nashville for 11 years when I was younger and in school. I would mow yards with a push mower in 100* Tennessee humidity before I ever drove to Nashville again to work for the man.

 

[spoonie]

995 miles one way from the house to the office in West TX, thank goodness for airplanes

 

[MrJim43]

I traveled most of my work career covering most of SE US. Then I took on a job going over seas. Middle East and then South America. When I got back to the states after 2 years I started covering the I40 thing. On a average for almost 5 years 1200 miles a week. Some weeks a little more and some a little less. Covering North of I40 in Ark and Ok. and northern parts of Ms. I gave the company 40 years 3 month and 3 days. Retired in Dec 2008. I wish I could count up all the miles I spent traveling. I would be a lot.

 

[Gravey]

I used to drive to Donelson just across I-40 from the airport and it was about 30 minutes. Later I drove to Franklin twice a week and took about 45 minutes and the other 3 days was a 5 minute drive to a different office. I now work from home but cover 4 states. Am currently sitting in a hotel in Tupelo, MS about to head back. If I had to go to an office everyday 30 minutes is about the max I would want to do.

 

[ImThere]

I used to drive to Donelson just across I-40 from the airport and it was about 30 minutes. Later I drove to Franklin twice a week and took about 45 minutes and the other 3 days was a 5 minute drive to a different office. I now work from home but cover 4 states. Am currently sitting in a hotel in Tupelo, MS about to head back. If I had to go to an office everyday 30 minutes is about the max I would want to do.

Right around the corner for my house in Bear creek, Al. Lol.
I’m currently sitting in a motel in Rochester, NY

I’m a southern boy. This 30 deg rain with 30 mph wind SUCKS!! They can have it. I’m just glad it’s not snowed over yet!!

 

[TX300mag]

Shift work is awesome. Two days on, four days off. We have guys that live all over Texas up to 250 miles away.

 

[Antler Daddy]

My current position has our team in office every Monday 8-5 and another team in office on Fridays. Then we work 8-5 remotely rest of week with some Teams meetings. Commute to downtown Atlanta is about 1 hour each way without the express toll peach pass. Paying about $5 each way, makes for a 40 minute commute and much safer.

So, I pay the fee. The other 8 hours saved from driving is equal to 10 weeks of work, so I don't mind working a long day every now and then if needed when work load increases. I make $10k less but the freedom outside the office shuttling kids to dentist, etc. vs. taking PTO is fine with me. Not to mention, I save 70 miles a day x 4 = 280 miles x 50=14000 miles saved / 20 miles to gallon = 400 gallons of petro at $3 gallon is $2100 saved plus other wear and tear and my sanity. Dry cleaning bill and the shower time is also saved. I just roll out of bed and log onto the computer most days, or drop kids off at school vs. bus and enjoy that extra time.

If office ever decided to go back to the pre-covid business dress and daily office hours, a bunch of folks would be actively searching for new jobs.