Commute length

[betterthanrevenge]

What's the max commute you'd do (by train) twice a week? Young primary school kids but partner will be around for drop offs and pick ups those days.

Would you take a pay cut / fixed term contract for a more local or remote role?

I wouldn’t commute more than 45 minutes door to door via train or car, that makes it an 8-6 day already.

When mine were young (from just going back from maternity leave leave both times), my commute was 3 hours door to door 2-3 days a week. I’d leave at 6am, walk in the office at 9am, left office at 4pm, home at 7pm to do bathtime and bedtime. I worked on the train so I worked compressed hours - 4 days in 3 or 5 days in 4, depending.

I wouldn’t do more than 3 hours for practical reasons, but it worked really well. The stipulation was always that I had flexibility to wfh and I have been hybrid working for at least 15 years now before it was a ‘thing’.

My kids are older now and they need you more when they’re older than they do at nursery/preschool age, so I wouldn’t want to do it as much now. But it worked great then. Sure, I’d be open to a local/remote role if it was the right one and if the savings on commuting costs worked in my favour. I have absolutely no regrets about those years though as I had a lot of career progression and was very happy with the role I was in. It also meant Dh got a lot of quality time like I had on mat leave, so beneficial all around.

My commute is 1h 10 minutes door to door (10 minutes by car, 5 minutes walk to station, 35 minutes by train, 20 minutes walk to office) and I do it 2-3 times per week. I find it absolutely fine and tbh enjoy the solitude. I find it useful getting life admin done on the train. I wouldn’t like to drive it as I would find it tiring and frustrating to lose that time when I could be doing jobs.
Kids were 11 and 7 when I started doing this.

I've always said about 1 hour. I've done two before DC and swore never again. By the end, I'd begged my boss to let me wfh one day a week and the other 4 days I came in after rush hour, worked late, slept in the office, started early and left before rush hour. I still don't know if my boss knew! A colleague who had her own office did, as I slept in there.

I'm actually at 1 hour and 10 minutes door to door at the moment, which is fine as it's 5 mins walk, 15 bus, 3-5 min wait for the train and the other end the buses are every 5 minutes. Plus I only need to go into the office 2-3 times a week, the rest I can wfh.

I wouldn't want to drive. My commute is fine as I don't have to wait for long at any stage and the majority is almost 40 mins on one train. I can read or sort the school emails etc. If the connections don't work though and you have to change a lot or hang around waiting then it's completely different.