to think a great job may not be worth a 50 min commute?

[Ondasp]

I started a new job in London a couple of months ago. The job is great, fantastic company, great office, awesome team, really good money (+60% compared to my last position), nice benefits. A dream job.

The only downside is that it takes me 50 mins to get there from where I live

The commute is: 5 mins walk - 30 mins on tube with one change - 15 mins walk (the office is faaaar from the closest tube station).

I work ft Mon to Fri 9-6, regular hours. I am in my late 20s, own my place with DH (so I can't move) and I don't have DC yet.

I really dislike this commute. I love the job but I am starting to think it may not be worth it.

AIBU to doubt whether a great job is worth a 50 mins commute?

applesets my house is 5 mins away from Canary Wharf and I really wish I worked there but there are no jobs in my field in Canary Wharf (creative industry).

Oh no! That's terrible! You need to swap flats with a banker-barrister perhaps?

Pp are banging on about the lack of 'resilience' in younger pp after the referendum. After this OP I'm afraid I'm starting to agree with them. No wonder employers would rather employ immigrants...

Mine is 101 minutes.

HTH.

I think you might just need to try and make the most of it - with 40 minutes brisk walking every day you won't have to do much other exercise to keep healthy unless you want to. Then you need to find something to do on the Tube which is a good use of time. Obviously if it's crowded it's limited, but listen to Podcasts? Meal plan in a small notebook? Practice mindfulness by seeing how much you can block out?

You need to start finding ways to make the commute work for you. I have had jobs with significantly longer commutes than that. Two hours each way was the worst. For me audio books are the best. It gave me something to look forward to.

op I think you're getting a bit of a hard time here haha! Obviously in London it seems that's a small commute but I will be honest .. I wouldn't do that either! I was 7 mins to work and anything near an hour just seems long for such a long working day too! So perhaps Yabu for considering it long but NBU for hating it

I hate the tube, but would welcome the time to mess around on my phone. Especially now they have wifi in stations. My London commute used to be similar to yours and I won't deny that it's much easier now I'm a short cycle ride away from work. The downside is that my current job isn't hugely challenging or well paid, I'd have to go into London for that.

Where are you going from/to? You said you live nr Canary Wharf - could you "commute" by boat?

My last job was a 60-90 minute drive each way, longer in bad weather because on rural roads.

I'm guessing that it's the combination of incredibly steep rent and the 50 minute commute that is at the heart of the matter here. OP lives 5 minutes from Canary Wharf which is not cheap.

i can second audio books - tube time flies last when I'm plugged in listening to my audio book.

Although apparently people who use the commute to plan ahead and think about work so far better in the long run than people who try and make the commute 'fun' by playing games or reading novels etc.

I am in the fun camp :-(

My DH has been offered a job today which is just under a three hour ( door to door ) commute ( from the Midlands to London every day bar midweek when he will work one day from home. )

He is going to take it because its a lot more money and it will really sort us out financially. He will only be home for about 1.5 hours in the evening before he has to go to bed ... 50 mins is a really reasonable commute for London.

OP lives 5 minutes from Canary Wharf which is not cheap

Poplar is cheap. West ferry is cheap.

50 mins is not a commute - that's getting to work.

I live in the south west, takes me at least an hour every morning say in traffic.

*sat in

I live in central Scotland commute into Edinburgh 15 walk, 30 train, 15 walk, this is. I don't like it but there's no alternative.

I'm late twenties, two kids, I don't do the school/childcare run, my partner does.

50 mins is great for London.

This makes me feel a lot better about my ds's first choice of KCL for university while living at home - he would have a 65-75 minute commute which sounded a lot but is more in context now.

Really nice how lots of people are absolutely ripping the OP to shreds over this. For fucks sake, people are different, for some people it's acceptable to do a long commute, for others it is very stressful and tiring.

And 50 mins is not long in my book, but for some people i know it would be.

YANBU to think it's too long for you. 40 minutes each way is about the most I'd be comfortable with for a perfect job, ideally less. Just because it wouldn't be an issue for others doesn't mean you can't be unhappy with it.

Having said that, it's not a long commute by London standards.

What's your end destination, OP? Perhaps some of us can help you get a better journey going? I'm surprised it would take that long to get anywhere from Canary Wharf.

I agree that on a crowded train that's pretty unpleasant.

Jeez, you want to try a 2 hr, 10 min commute (each way) then you'd realise 50 mins is nothing!!

for others it is very stressful and tiring

And maybe putting it into context and being given some tips to make it more pleasant might put the stress into context against the 'standard normality' benchmark.

50 minutes is not a long commute at all - would consider this average or less than average for a professional role

I'm sorry you've had such a hard time OP, but unfortunately that length of commute is not only 'good' for London, it's fairly normal elsewhere too. It's the price you pay for having the freedom to choose from all sorts of jobs all over the place. And of course, you can't move for each job, and it's nice to have an area you call 'home', even if you moved rented flats in the same area.

I think you can learn to build things into the commute to make it more bearable. When I was your age, I had to move out to outer London at one point, for a job in inner London as I couldn't afford to pay the poll tax. My commute was over an hour which was OK in the morning but horrible at night when I often had evening meetings. It was a fab job, really interesting, but not well paid. I moved further into the centre and discovered the horror of No Seats On The Tube, but still a 20 min commute. I'd read loads of books on my long commute from the suburbs, but that was impossible on this journey. Then I started taking the bus. It took a bit longer but it was one seat all the way, and if I sat upstairs, I wasn't hassled by the people getting on and off.

Several people have suggested looking at different ways of travelling, so get creative. Where can you walk in a walk or a cycle? Where can you get the bus? Is there a different route? It may take slightly longer but it might be less stressful.

I do agree headphones are your friend.

And it's fair to say that two months in is not long enough to get used to it. I had three years of long journeys and three of shorter and in the end we left London because we realised it wasn't the length of the commute, it was the sheer, over-powering number of people you are crammed with at peak hours. And I chose to reduce my career options and move way out. Since then, we've both had to do a lot of early mornings/late nights for day trips to London but we prefer that twice a week to the daily crush.

But while you're young, take advantage of all London has to offer!