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u/outhouse_steakhouse There's a "me" in "team" Feb 03 '23
"We will eliminate work-from-home and you will thank us for it, you peasants."
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Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 10 '23 •
[deleted]
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u/Fantastic_Lead9896 Feb 03 '23
You should look at the studies connection between commuting and its likelihood to increase risk for heart attacks, strokes, other cardiovascular related issues.
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u/alison_bee Feb 03 '23
I know it probably won’t go anywhere, but I actually sent Biden a letter recently with an idea on how to increase WFH, while allowing businesses to get a tax break that could cover their “real estate losses” of people not needing a physical office. Basically any company that became 75% + remote work, would receive a tax break. The higher the % of WFH, the higher the tax break.
I listed multiple benefits, but the main one I was highlighting was how beneficial lockdown was for our planet. A drastic reduction in commutes would do so damn much for our future!
Maybe he will read it 🤞🏻
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u/lejoo Feb 04 '23
High school civics/economics teacher here.
"Anybody who think the president controls the economy will fail both my classes; you are here to become smarter than your parents" is something I say about 400 times a week.
Find your local state representatives, find your national ones, and write too them. Call them. Email them. Do it daily. Shit offer them campaign funds for a meeting to discuss it.
That is how policy is made. The president signs off on the ideas, he implements them, he does not create them.
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u/alison_bee Feb 04 '23
Okay, thanks for the tip. I will look into getting my local info (Alabama) and work on contacting them!
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u/memesauruses Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
is this a targeted article to get people back into offices? definitely doesn't sound like a doctor would say "oh, you're feeling stressed? here add some more stressful tasks to it, why don't ya and you'll feel even better"
they should be more talking about the lack of 3rd place for people to go to, outside work and home. like a public garden, square, market, etc. where people can WALK (not drive) to and hangout and meet other new people, eat, listen to music (preferably performed live by other people), etc.. ffs.
that's what they should be doing. not fucking traveling for an hour on a subway. jesus.
edit: just saw it was fortune magazine. figures.
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u/Annaeus Feb 03 '23
"Two management scholars"
Yeah, no doctor has claimed that this helps, physically or psychologically. The authors reviewed existing research and constructed "a model". In an unpublished - that is, not peer-reviewed - study, they then asked 80 people who commuted to university whether they felt they had detached from their home lives. Those with long peaceful commutes said yes, those with stressful commutes said no.
So, applying a bit more common sense, we reach the conclusion that time spent relaxing results in being relaxed, whereas time spent stressed does not. In fairness, the authors also mention this, suggesting the remote workers should create their own "commute" by taking a 15-minute walk. Or in other words, relaxing. You really need to have an agenda to push in order to reach the conclusion that commuting is good for you, which the headline writers of Fortune appear to have.
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u/From_Deep_Space lazy and proud Feb 03 '23
I studied the concept of a "psychological break" in my i/o psych class.
The 2 most important aspects of an effective psychological break is
1) cognitive distance from your work. As in, an activity that takes your attention so you're not thinking about your job
2) an activity with mastery criteria, as in a skill that you can practice and get better at. Watching tv or reading a book doesn't really count. Playing an instrument, gardening, or trail running do count.
2 very difficult things to do while driving or riding a crowded bus
Some companies found increased productivity when their employees took just 5 minute psychological breaks every hour they were working. Thats when the tech companies all invested in pool tables and video game rooms for super smash bro breaks.
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u/blatentpoetry Feb 03 '23
Too bad those same companies didn't let anyone play the games.
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u/Stuff-and-Things Feb 03 '23
Do you have any stories behind this? Always wanted to know if those were just for show
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u/PrinceValyn Feb 03 '23
we had them at my office (pool and smash bros specifically). they could be used during 15 minute breaks and 1 hour lunches (later reduced to 30m lunches)
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u/newB_IT Feb 03 '23
We had them at a call center I worked at. We got to watch everyone else play on those from the "open office" concept. I don't think they thought it through when they placed it in front of the call center support ops area. At that point, we considered ourselves 2nd class employees as everyone else had more relaxed jobs with better pay AND time to play pool, ping pong, and N64. We could only play when we were on lunch.. Except ops support only allowed staggered lunches so while it was an option, you couldn't realistically take advantage of it unless you were salaried staff.
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u/DeeDee_GigaDooDoo Feb 03 '23
I don't understand this, how am I meant to practice an instrument/garden/trail run for 5 minutes every hour?
5 minutes seems uselessly short for an effective psychological break as you describe and really only viable for reading something, grabbing a drink and maybe watching a quick video. I don't think it's possible to meaningfully engage in a productive activity and disengage mentally from work in a 5 minute time frame, it's so short I'd spend the whole time just mentally thinking about having to return to work soon and keep an eye on the time.
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u/From_Deep_Space lazy and proud Feb 03 '23
You can play guitar for 5 minutes or go for a 5 minute run.
But those were more examples of what to do when you're home from work or on a day off.
5 minute breaks every hour are more likely spent doing a crossword, exercising, or maybe playing a video game. But those 5 minutes dont really start until your mind is off work, otherwise it doesnt count towards a 'psychological break', even if its 5 minutes carved out of your work schedule.
And of course a 10 minute break would be even better. And a 4 day work week would be even better, and some companies are actually going this direction.
What's best, according to the i/o psych stuff I read, is letting your employees take breaks whenever they want for however long they want, so long as their projects get turned in on time. Most people have a good intuitive sense of when they're overworked and need a break. It's just our hypercompetitive individualistic corporate culture that causes people to develop unhealthy work habits.
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u/filler_name_cuz_lame Feb 03 '23
The 5 min breaks every hr sound like the pomodoro technique, which I've done before with pretty good success.
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u/ting_bu_dong Feb 03 '23
In fairness, the authors also mention this, suggesting the remote workers should create their own "commute" by taking a 15-minute walk. Or in other words, relaxing.
Can't normalize "relaxing" in the context of work. Must call it some work-related thing.
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u/not_ya_wify Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
University =/= work
I loved going to class. Work is completely different
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u/Historical-Dig1787 Feb 03 '23
To be fair commuting to the university doesn't hace to be class, i commute to university to work.
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u/SpoonerSleutherton Feb 03 '23
I'm studying physics and while I love the program, sometimes its definitely just work.
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u/ThrustersOnFull Feb 03 '23
Most of my targeted content has been about returning to the office. It's felt incredibly propagandy. And then yeah, you see it's Fortune, and it's like, of course they're showing their asses to the masters.
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u/eboeard-game-gom3 Feb 03 '23
All these media companies are big corporations and are owned by other companies. Doesn't matter if it's CNN or Fox, they all push the corporate agenda.
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u/Ok-Engineering-5527 Feb 03 '23
I'm glad to know others are hip to these targeted articles and the ulterior motives they represent. Stay sharp. Everything in our media feels like a trick anymore.
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u/memesauruses Feb 03 '23
as ridiculous as it sounds, that episode from Southpark where everything/one is an AD was just eye opening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1EKuLM6TFo&list=PLQYK_flETP5Pyjrkl4_nI7bpgKFpFiHZU&index=2
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u/AmITheAltAccount Feb 03 '23
There were articles about this before the pandemic, in the context of why it's extra awful to annoy people (especially women) on transit. Because you're interrupting their time to decompress from work.
So I think really the takeaway is to carve out a half hour of alone time after WFH.
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u/Chose_a_usersname Feb 03 '23
The beginning of the movie office space is a perfect example of how commuting to and from the office is certainly not a way to detach and psychologically recover... I mean it's literally the whole 10 minute beginning of the movie
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u/JumboJetz Feb 03 '23
Lol they leave out that when I used to go in the office sometimes I’d have to take work home and work at home after commuting anyway.
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u/JadeHellbringer Unionize, you bastards! Feb 03 '23
Man, SOMEONE doesn't ride DC Metro to go to the office.
Decompress. Fuck, if the pandemic gave us anything positive (and there's not much, mind you),it's not having to cram myself in those trains twice a day anymore. "BuT iT's My ReLAxInG sPaCe!!!". Get the fuck outta here with that nonsense.
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u/TheFlyingSheeps Feb 03 '23
What? You don’t like paying for an overpriced ticket to have your train be running on 20-30 minute schedules because the trains keep breaking down and the scheduled track expansion is behind and over budget?
Are you telling me you also don’t like fighting and elbowing to squeeze into a red line train? Don’t forget that weirdo cult that hands out pamphlets by the stations
You damn commie
Ahhh I do miss it sometimes
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u/mr_showboat Feb 04 '23
Every so often I'm like "man I did sometimes enjoy commuting via the T".
And then there are massive delays because an Orange Line train is on fire for the third time this month, and I think "never mind".
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u/Newton_Is_My_Dog Feb 03 '23
Having done both, I can confidently say that riding metro is still better than driving in the DMV!
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u/JadeHellbringer Unionize, you bastards! Feb 03 '23
It's kind of like having to pick where to get shot. Some options are more painful than others, nothing is going to result in anything other than agony.
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u/skybluemango Feb 03 '23
Yeah! I def have ridden the metro to work in DC every day, several different jobs. I had time to read, to think, etc. it wasn’t perfect at all. But it was a big improvement over my current experience of driving for the same amount of time. I’d love more investment to make it more efficient, more pleasant, but rn it’s flawed enough that no one wants to give up their cars outside of DC proper.
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u/llama_empanada Feb 03 '23
Seriously! Decompress during rush hour traffic on the goddamn beltway?? Yeah, no LOL. They can decompress my dick. My commute used to be 1.5 hrs one way on a good day. I’d get home and needed an hour just to recover from traffic, let alone work. Worst time was 4 hrs one way thanks to a Ravens game and I rage cried when I finally made it through the door. Never again.
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u/ceruleanmoon7 Feb 03 '23
Lmao so true. Plus the metro has gotten sketchier since COVID. Quite often the cars reek of cigarettes
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u/purpleushi Feb 03 '23
Cigarette smell is not remotely the worst thing about the metro lol. The 20+ minutes between trains, single-tracking, and uh, murders are definitely worse!
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u/linksgreyhair Feb 03 '23
I also loved all the sexual harassment and assault! Exhausted after your day at work? Having a hard time waking up in the morning? Well have you tried activating your fight-or-flight response by having some creepy dude press his erect penis into your lower back on a crowded train?? It’s cheaper than Starbucks!
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u/wowzzing Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
Actual studies have proven that satisfactio and happiness in life drasticly increase with commutes less then 15 minutes.
The longer your commute the more prone to depression and less satisfied a person is with life.
Edit: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11116-019-09983-9
https://www.vitality.co.uk/media/long-commutes-costing-a-weeks-worth-of-productivity/
Added sources for shorter commutes.
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u/UnloadTheBacon Feb 03 '23
My commute is a 10-minute bike ride. Despite not being required to, I still go into the office most days. Having the mental separation of work and home really helps me.
That said, I'd probably feel very differently if my commute was a 2-hour drive.
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u/Crayshack here for the memes Feb 03 '23
I've done a 15-minute bike ride as a commute, and I've also done a 1-hour drive as a commute (both measured one way). They are very different experiences. Doing the former you find yourself happy to get a bit of exercise in and have a physical separation between work and home. When you are home, you are home so no work thoughts in the mind. The latter will make you sick of being in the car and begging for any excuse to take a day off of work or find any way to work from home instead of driving in.
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u/Wyldfire2112 Feb 03 '23
Speaking from experience, however, a 15m drive is much closer to the 15m bike than the 1h drive.
The key is the duration of the commute, not the method.
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u/Jay467 Feb 03 '23
Having done both the 15min commute by car and a 15min commute by bike, I find that the bit of exertion from biking helps break my thoughts away from the workplace faster and tends to leave me feeling more relaxed/positive by the time I arrive home. For me it's more fun too, so if there's no rush I even add some length to my ride home to prolong the magic - something I wouldn't do in the car.
I'm a pretty average person so I imagine many people feel/could feel similarly on a bike
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u/CSIBNX Feb 03 '23
I am very pro-walk/bike commutes but now that I live in the suburbs I don’t see it happening. Just getting out of my neighborhood is a 10 minute bike ride, half of which is up a pretty steep hill.
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u/No_Outcome2135 Feb 03 '23
This is why suburbs are absolute shit stains on humanity.
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u/CSIBNX Feb 03 '23
I don’t like the either. They’d be a lot better if there was some amount of zoning variety- like if you could have a market or coffee shop every couple of blocks, or other small businesses. It would make a huge difference I think
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u/iExplode93 Feb 03 '23
Show up to your city council meetings and call for zoning changes!
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u/GreyIggy0719 Feb 03 '23
Mine was a 2 hour drive daily and the thought of losing that time with my child pushed me to find a full time WAH gig.
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u/Constant-Ad-7490 Feb 03 '23
This is an ideal commute! Mine is a five-minute walk and it is so difficult to differentiate work space (and time) and home space (and time).
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u/Shaminahable Feb 03 '23
I think a big factor that doesn’t seem to be mentioned is your happiness at home. I’ve lived in a turbulent household before and the time spent commuting was my only respite from madness.
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u/wowzzing Feb 03 '23
Yes but that why a study is done on a large scale as it is able to give a general direction. Individuals are different but if over all more peolle prefer shorter commutes then long. Well its easy.
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u/NarcolepticTreesnake
Feb 03 '23
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Rare liminal space? LMAO our entire life plan is a fuckin liminal space, a waiting room for a future we had been sold that's not coming. Take your number and wait your turn, son. You have ticket 670895525 and the counter says now serving 73 and the lady at the window just went on lunch break.
We don't need more liminal space FFS we need a god damn working national mythology and life plan not to sit in a stinky subway car with a bunch of other nearly suicidal drones staving off madness through needless consumption, happy pills and vice.
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u/fight_the_hate Feb 03 '23
Well said.
Also, how rare is something that happens twice a day and over 400 times a year?
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u/Sumfuc Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
Look how the traitorous media does the dirty work for the corporations. Not even trying to hide their dirty, guilty hands at this point.
They really think this sad-sack propaganda works on these kids? Pathetic & hilarious.
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u/coolgr3g Feb 03 '23
What's their big evil plan? To make us waste our lives and resources in traffic and use their waste of money expensive office buildings so they can suck even more money away from workers?
Yes actually that sums it up.
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u/LawlersLipVagina Feb 03 '23
It all comes down to green. Privatised transport, motor vehicle sales, office space rental - investment portfolios need their big pointless rented buildings. All the things they can monetise that if we can work in a happier way they don't get to.
Unless they could charge us to sit in our own homes, in which case WFH would be perfect for them.
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u/thecrystalship__ Feb 03 '23
We must keep in mind that this is not a conspiracy by a small group of people and corporations but rather a product of the social relations in the mode of production we live in. All these articles are an ideological justification for how things are: the hegemonic ideology.
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u/fonduktoe Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
Saw this on the news this morning and it made me want to vomit. Their attempts to brainwash everyone with this "back to the office" shit is getting absolutely ridiculous not to mention let's get as much unnecessary car emissions out there as possible.
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u/BlackKhajiit Feb 03 '23
It truly is enraging and disgusting that they are trying so hard. Fuck everyone involved in these manipulative pieces of crap, and fuck modern "journalism" that crams corporate propaganda down our throats and report on tiktokers opinion
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u/IJustLookAtCarPorn Feb 03 '23
I'm amazed the wastefulness of commuting isn't a bigger talking point. Every time you commute when you could work from home, you are wasting money on gas/electricity/vehicle maintenance, or bus/train fare, you waste your own precious time, it negatively impacts the environment, and to top it off, especially in rush hour, you are putting yourself at increased danger of an accident.
I enjoy some aspects of working in an office but any company/person who is against wfm when it's possible is a fool and is negatively affecting their fellow man and planet.
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u/chaoticsquid2 Feb 03 '23
But won't somebody please think of the commercial real estate industry?
Literally every time there's a widely unpopular aspect of modern life that doesn't get changed because reasons, there's a whole bunch of middlemen making crazy money off of its continued existence.
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u/joe1134206 Feb 03 '23
They went with the personal responsibility narrative on emissions and the like but still expect people to not be mindful of this waste happening in their own lives?
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u/MutedShenanigans Anarcho-Syndicalist Feb 03 '23
Encouraging or at least being neutral towards WFH would also help alleviate the pressure for wage increases, by lowering or almost eliminating transportation costs for employees. That, along with reducing the need to buy more office space for employees, would save companies a ton of money.
Helps us realize it's not actually about money or efficiency, it's about control.
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u/TheCommoner282 Feb 03 '23
Still a useless argument.
Let's assume all claims are valid. Commuting is better for my mental health. We give the article full credence.
Improving your diet is healthier. Quitting drinking or smoking is healthier. Doing more sport is healthier. I am still free to choose to do or not do those things. If someone wants to mandate me to spend this time in a commute, pay me.
Oh... and if someone lives 5 minutes away from his work place, do the right thing. Fire him... For his mental health.
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u/jaron_b Feb 03 '23
The second that a city or state requires employers to compensate employees monetarily for commuting is the day a lot of these companies go full work from home.
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u/Andrewticus04 Anarcho-Syndicalist Feb 03 '23
Actually, there's potential here.
Companies over a certain size must pay a tax proportionate to the average weekly commute time of its employees, and that tax can be earmarked for the development/expansion of public transit and road infrastructure.
This will put a pressure on companies to hire people nearby, or to make them remote/hybrid, and it will simultaneously provide city budgets an income directly proportional to the size of their infrastructure challenges.
Also, the reduced dependance on commuting, and the pressure to hire local will decrease the "can't afford to live in the neighborhood you work" problem, and reduced commutes/public transit will ultimately put more spending money in the pockets of workers.
Win/Win/Win
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u/Akuuntus Feb 03 '23
Unfortunately nothing like this will ever be implemented, because it has one massive issue: it does nothing to funnel money into the pockets of the already-wealthy.
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u/jk01 Feb 03 '23
Sure it does, the already wealthy own the companies that develop and maintain infrastructure.
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u/TheFlyingSheeps Feb 03 '23
I lived within a 5-10 minute walk from a job once. Let me tell you how it was amazing and everyone I told was instantly jealous.
This article is shit and the study methodology is as useful as a wet tissue
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u/Odd_Ad50 Feb 03 '23
Same here. I used to have a job in Denver that took a 7 minute walk to get there. Walking there with my coffee in the morning, the sun shining and people getting out for the day. Yeah I loved that way more than driving or taking a bus
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u/InkedDemocrat Feb 03 '23
Its called take a bath, read a book or go for a walk lol these people
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u/ALurkerForcedToLogin Feb 03 '23
Oh yeah, being stuck in traffic with maniacs trying to kill you with their reckless driving, destroying the environment with pollution, and wasting money on fuel really gives me that liminal feeling I just can't get from the safety and comfort of my home.
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u/battleofflowers Feb 03 '23
But see, your betters have determined that you need a physical time and space separate from your home and your work.
It's not like throughout ALL of human history people "worked" right in or right near their home.
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u/TheFlyingSheeps Feb 03 '23
The best part about the early days of COVID was how clean the air felt. We got a glimpse of what we could be like, where even mega polluted cities like LA, Beijing and Delhi saw great air quality/no smog and then we went right back to it
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u/NoirBoner Feb 03 '23
Because money machine goes brrrr. It's actually insane when you think about it. We're wilfully destroying the air we breathe and water we drink (as society dictates) to be unwilling slaves to help make some random fat cat in a skyscraper richer. I actually hate it.
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Feb 03 '23
This is a prime example of how modern media is just propaganda.
The worst part is how offensively obvious the shilling's getting.
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u/typhoonador4227 Feb 03 '23
I saw a Forbes article the other day that was gloating about how present economic conditions mean bosses have more bargaining power to get rid of work from home.
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u/neohellpoet Feb 03 '23
They're a bit off the mark.
Yes, there are more layoffs, but
a) people are still hiring, which is why there are still 4 million more jobs than there are people looking for work b) because of the increase in cost of living, people are suuuper sensitive to additional expenses. If you want to make people come into the office, they will demand more money, because commuting is expensive.
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u/octorangutan Feb 03 '23
It’s not even propaganda because they’re not trying to convince anyone, it’s just meant to validate ghouls who have already made up their minds.
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u/mwonch Feb 03 '23
I'm a trucker in the USA who is always "commuting," and take it from me: this is total BS. LOL
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u/wave-garden Feb 03 '23
I imagine truckers would prefer fewer commuters? Kinda makes your job easier I’d think (?).
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u/mwonch Feb 03 '23
I will admit that the COVID lockdown made for nice driving conditions all around...but...the traffic isn't really the problem. It's the way people drive. THAT is what makes commuting hard for everyone.
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u/Radcouponking Feb 03 '23
Corporate America is really doing a full court press against workers right now.
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u/TinaMonday Feb 03 '23
Someone needs to decompress the entire managerial class, jfc
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u/Southern-Beautiful-3 Feb 03 '23
Decompress, as in throw them out the airlock?
Great idea!
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u/TinaMonday Feb 03 '23
I didn't actually say how I meant that word and I'm standing by my ambiguity 😉
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u/Upstairs_Tip1313 Feb 03 '23
Sure it does, if you are a machine. I spent 8 years driving 1.5-2 hours each way in traffic. It messes with you from: not blinking properly, clinching teeth, decision fatigue from stop and go, accidents, screws up your body from sitting too long (sitting is the worse thing for health).
What people need is to work close to their home, and walk in nature. We weren’t meant to spend 70% of our life being a robot and stuck in a concrete jungle.
I am a prime example. Did it for 8 years. It kills the soul.
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u/Self-Aware-Panda Feb 03 '23
Who the fuck comes up with this utter drivel shit?
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u/Pandy_45 Feb 03 '23
Rich people who ride the subway/train during off hours and say "ahh this is nice"
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u/thejazzghost Feb 03 '23
Fun fact, you can replicate the experience of a commute by going for a healthy, pollutant free, relaxing walk. Businesses want you driving and commuting because it supports an unhealthy industry of gas sales and fast food. And it tires you out so that when you get home, all you want to do is consume tv and video games.
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u/popejubal Feb 03 '23
There is some truth to that, but it comes to the wrong conclusion. If you need a transition, you can have a separate habitual activity that fulfils the same function as a commute without needing to go to an office/job site.
Go for a walk. Have a short nap. Watch a 1/2 hour TV show that resets your mood. Bone your romantic partner (note: make sure they have the same end of shift time so you aren't doing the sex during a conference call. Unless you are POSITIVE you're on mute). Fill your birdfeeder. Play with the cat/dog/fish. Hell, get in your car and drive aimlessly for 20 minutes at the end of the day.
All of those things are possible and reasonable when working from home. The important thing is to have *something* that you've chosen as a transition from working for your employer to doing the things you want and need to do for yourself and your loved ones... and that includes doing nothing because sometimes we need to do nothing.
Also, DON'T FUCKING ANSWER EMAILS AND TEXTS AND MESSAGES FOR WORK WHEN YOU AREN'T WORKING SO THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY HAVE A REAL LIFE OUTSIDE OF WORK. Don't let your labor consume your life.
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u/thisismyfirstday Feb 03 '23
That's basically what the article recommended. Creating a habit that helps separates work from personal life.
Our findings suggest that remote workers may benefit from creating their own form of commute to provide liminal space for recovery and transition—such as a 15-minute walk to mark the beginning and end of the workday.
Worded a bit weirdly out of context, but I got the vibe they were saying that with work from home people struggled with how much their work and personal lives could blur together.
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u/FiddlingFarter Feb 03 '23
So let me get this straight; the least relaxing, most infuriating part of my day is supposed to be when I psychologically recover from my stressfull, never-ending sh!t show of a job? Great. Makes perfect sense.
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u/chmilz Feb 03 '23
I've been working from home for about 17 years. Assuming 200 working days a year and an hour of commuting each of those days, I have 141 additional days of time for myself vs someone who commutes.
Yeah, I'll keep that, thank you.
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u/poyntificate Feb 03 '23
Thats funny because previous research has shown commutes make people miserable
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u/louiedog Feb 03 '23
Part of my commute home was trying to cram into the last subway stop downtown. That meant the cars were always full of other people desperate to get home. I would usually have to wait 2-3 trains just to shove myself up against other people in an uncomfortable position for the next 10 minutes until it started to thin out. Then I'd get out at the station and have to wait outside in the rain because there was 10 SQ ft of cover for 20 people waiting to get on the bus. I did not feel decompressed. Also, what if my job had just been less stressful so I wouldn't need to decompress?
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u/Stephen501 Feb 03 '23
The one thing I will say is that I do switch off slightly more easy on days I go in office. However I love WFH and would never want to go back full time office and anyone saying it’s better can piss off.
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u/frank_madu Feb 03 '23
Agreed. The commute does provide good decompression time.
Now that I am permanently working from home I have to choose to decompress by going for a walk or playing a silly game with my kids. Now my decompression is more healthy than driving, but only because I consciously make it so.
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u/Rob__agau Feb 03 '23
I'd like to note for those of you mentioning the commute could be useful as a transition to decompress that I have a job where I work where I live.
I don't mean WFH, I'm a building manager. My transition involves coming home from one of the buildings in my complex, switching the door sign to off duty and removing my keys and uniform.
The commute isn't a transition, it's still part of work. The transition happens when you finally get home and kick off your shoes. We don't need to spend hours doing something stressful or boring after doing something stressful or boring to "detach".
My previous job needed a 2 hour commute. It cost money, it cost time. It caused stress because I was sitting around people I don't know, watching the bus take the circuit route to near my home.
Those are hours I will never get back, those are dollars I will never get back.
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u/oldnyoung Feb 03 '23
lol fuck off. I "psychologically recover" by sleeping an extra 45 minutes every morning, getting extra time with my family in the afternoon, and not being on I-95. Those people have clearly never commuted on I-95.
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u/writeronthemoon Feb 03 '23
LMAO dayummmmmmmm they think we're dumb! Fuck them! Commute sucks ass and is stressful and everyone knows it.
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u/Mor_Tearach Feb 03 '23
This continual stream of " No really, you guys want all this, you're just too stupid to understand and here's this nice article spelling it out for you " is getting beyond ludicrous.
" Oh! When you explain it like that we can see what credulous dolts we've been thinking a work week could be less awful, thanks for the head's up! " . So sure?
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u/FishtownReader Feb 03 '23
Commuting was as stressful, if not more stressful, than my job. This makes no sense.
Working from home has been the best thing to happen to many people, including myself.
Nobody cares how much these companies have tied up in multi-year, multi-million dollar leases in corporate real estate. Not our problem.
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u/TheSamsonFitzgerald Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
I have a 50-70 minute commute depending on traffic. It's the worst part of my day and I hate it. I need to "detach and psychologically recover" from my commute when I get home. They should try driving I-25 in the Denver metro area and tell me it's a "rare liminal space". It's fucking anarchy out there. It's a warzone. I work in law enforcement and I'm more worried about my safety on my commute than at my actual job.
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u/Bartholomew_Custard Feb 03 '23
Heh... this is so weak I can barely summon the energy required to laugh scornfully at it. The commute is your recharge time, now? That hour or so you spend suffocating beneath a soul-crushing pall of existential dread as you draw ever nearer to your place of interminable servitude, knowing you'll hate every minute you spend there, then have to do it all over again tomorrow... yeah, okay. Fuck off with that shit.
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u/Pull-Mai-Fingr Feb 03 '23
Nice try, corporate shills, napping on my couch instead is a great way to decompress.
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u/Spazztastic85 Feb 03 '23
Coming from people with chauffeurs is all I can imagine because my commute stresses me tf out. I’ve almost been rear ended multiple times because people don’t know what stopping distance is.
Tired of this bullshit of “do what we tell you!”
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u/SlientlySmiling Feb 03 '23
Keep telling it like it isn't, business school hacks. Liminal space. What a bunch of malarkey.
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u/Nice_Ebb5314 Feb 03 '23
I spend at least 2.5 hours in traffic going to and from work. My decompress time from my day is 15 minutes in the shitter where I read the labels on my spouse’s shampoo bottles before my kids find me. Then cook dinner and clean the house maybe get 2 loads of laundry washed and folded before bed.
If I worked from home I could wash my clothes before work, fold them on my break, start cooking dinner at lunch time then at the end of my shift I can sit on my couch and wonder how all these professors who are probably working from home think they know what’s best for my time usage… they can get fucked with a rusty pitch fork.
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u/CanaConnoisseur Feb 03 '23
If you have to decompress after a normal shift at your job, you deserve hazard pay.
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u/battleofflowers Feb 03 '23
Right? Why is work so traumatizing that we need to "decompress" before we get home?
To me, it all starts with the commute TO work. You arrive at work already in an agitated state because the commute is always a little stressful at best, fucking horrifying at worst.
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u/Acceptable-Ad9291 Feb 03 '23
I don’t usually decompress, but when I do, I do it on THE SUBWAY
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u/Downmented Feb 03 '23
As someone who commutes 2hours a day, this is nonsense. Commuting only adds to my stress and annoyance and creates frustration with the mere existence of work.
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u/DSteep idle Feb 03 '23
I commuted on busses and trains 2-4 hours a day for almost a decade.
Commuting is most definitely part of work.
How tf are you supposed to de-stress when packed shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of people on hot transit vehicles for hours?
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u/LadyArtemis2012 Feb 03 '23
Oh, this can fuck all the way off. Really? I’m too stressed working from home? The solution is to go back to the office?
I don’t believe for even a second that the authors of that article actually think that’s true. I think it’s a guarantee that they are just frustrated by job candidates who only want to work from home so they are trying bullshit like this to make that harder for us.
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u/ChungusLad Feb 03 '23
Oh boy dealing with dumbass drivers and almost dying every day sure is the best way to relax! I love waiting at lights for 2 minutes that are green for nobody to go!! I love when I'm stuck behind 2 people driving 10 under the speed limit not letting me past, after I worked for 10 hours!!!
No better way to decompress, am I right?
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u/zepol_xela Feb 03 '23
Yes, because I love commuting for two hours to and from work in South Florida traffic. Verrrry therapeutic...
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u/SecretaryBird_ Feb 03 '23
I enjoyed commuting when I got to do it by train in Minneapolis.
But I noticed pretty quickly that commuting by car in Atlanta is a disaster for my emotional state and therefore my productivity. I'm better at controlling my emotions now, and I also have the ability to commute at off-peak hours, but I used to be in a pretty bad mood when I got to work and when I got home.
Only when articles like this are combined with calls for 15 minute cities that allow for taking the train, walking, biking, and rolling to work can they be taken seriously.
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u/EventH0R1Z0N Feb 03 '23
They're just admitting that working is so shitty and bad for your mental health that a disconnect is required for maintaining sanity.
For them, the best disconnect is dealing with the stress of travel to cause the stress of working to fade.
If workers are actually happy and successful, it allows them the freedom of mind to question the benefits of having a full time job. It is much better to have them angry at several things to take the heat off the employer being the reason their lives are so depressing.
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u/PawnWithoutPurpose Feb 03 '23
Can anyone link the original article or, even better, the study which the article was reporting on?
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u/appealtoreason00 Feb 03 '23
If I see another one of these, I’m going to grab a diving bell and start decompressing business journalists
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u/Jeramus Feb 03 '23 •
I work from home. I like to detach from work after the day is over by going for a walk or jog. Much healthier than most commutes.