Why doesn’t my boss agree that commuting is a waste of time?

I’ve been following the debate about working from home closely, and notice it has recently turned to the cost and inconvenience of commuting. I actually quit my previous job after we were told to return to the office five days a week. I told my boss the long and costly train ride into the office was a difficulty for me, and his response was “suck it up”.

My new manager understands that when you live in the outer suburbs like I do, a commute can be two hours a day and cost thousands of dollars a year. I know colleagues who drive and say it’s even worse than public transport – and even more expensive when you factor in parking. Isn’t it just good policy to consider how difficult some commutes are and help employees work around them?

For too long, the wasted time and cost associated with lengthy commutes has been waved away as a necessary evil, part and parcel of the modern work world.Credit: John Shakespeare

The question of working remotely and its merits has come up a few times in Work Therapy, and I always think it’s worth acknowledging that, for some jobs, working away from a central site is either impractical or impossible. But your job (which you’ve asked us not to mention) and many others lend themselves to some or all work being done outside the office.

For these jobs, the simple answer to your question is, yes, it is good policy to think about the possible problems and frustrations posed by commuting. In fact, I think it’s good policy to consider all the benefits of working remotely, as opposed to just dismissing the idea as a pandemic fad.

As you’ve pointed out, if you live some distance from work – or even just need to pass through a CBD to get to an office and back – commuting can range from challenging to nightmarish. It is often, as you told us, expensive and time-sapping, but it can also be intolerably boring.

I remember the drive to a job many years ago, which almost always involved crawling in traffic for kilometres on end. It was so tedious that it became maddening. Although that may sound flippant, I really do think there’s a mental-health aspect to onerous commutes.

Until only relatively recently, remote work on a mass scale was the stuff of science fiction.

Today, many workplaces take mental health much more seriously than ever before. And yet, many of those same workplaces think nothing of their people paying for the “privilege” of spending a dozen or more hours every week in a car or carriage to get into the office each day – and back home again.

That could be time and money spent on things that make people happier and healthier: being with family, working on a hobby or playing a sport, cooking for friends, exercising, relaxing or catching up on sleep … the list is endless.

I’ve heard proponents of a full return to the office counter such concerns by suggesting that a commute need not be mind-numbing. On the contrary, they say, it’s the ideal time for work preparation, including knocking off easy tasks.

But this assumes you either have a seat on public transport and can comfortably put a laptop on your knee, or that the tasks in question can be done while concentrating on driving or standing shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow commuters on a train, tram or bus. It’s not a convincing argument to me.

For those five-days-in-the-office champions who are arguing in good faith (as opposed to simply loathing the idea of the average employee having some autonomy in their work life), I understand the propensity to fall back on old assumptions.

Until relatively recently, remote work on a mass scale was the stuff of science fiction. But now the technology that facilitates fast, easy digital communication between co-workers (or between vendors and clients) is mature, reliable and widely available.

Many of the old barriers have collapsed, and with them, the old fears about lack of productivity or being cut off from the rest of the world have become obsolete.

Like you, I’m glad this problem has received media attention. For too long, the wasted time and significant costs associated with lengthy commutes have been waved away as a necessary evil, part and parcel of the modern work world. Finally, it’s being taken seriously.

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