Not to take job as it's 1 hour commute ?

[pollyputaket]

Basically I've been looking for a job for a while now and the only job I've been offered is 1 hour commute.
It's a 5 min walk from my house to train station
Then 50 min train journey
Plus 5 min walk from train station to office.
£11 train per day travel
So that is £55 on fares per week
Aibu not to take it for this reason ?
What would you do?

I'd take it, nothing to stop you looking for something else after 6 months. Use that 50 minutes to relax.

If you want the job I'd take it, its really not a long commute and in that 50 min train journey you could catch up on sleep, read, eat a nice porridge breakfast. Enjoy it!

@Cheeseandlobster

That is not a long commute. And surely you can buy a season ticket. Use the 50 mins to read, catch up on paperwork, sleep or just look out of the window

As long as it's not 50 minutes guaranteed standing all the way... welcome to the London commuter belt.

Crikey, I would snap it up!
I had a 90 minute drive each way for my last job and zero option of using public transport.

Is it the likes of Hartlepool or Darlington your travelling from to Newcastle/Sunderland or Durham?
Re 50 min train journey and a train every 11 mins and the mention of Newcastle.
It sounds pretty straightforward. A hell of a lot of people commute to Newcastle everyday from there.
Tbh it sounds as though you can't be bothered and rather stay in benefits till a job lands in your lap.
I don't mean to be blunt but that's the vibe I'm getting from your comments. After 6 months you may be able to work from home and you can continue to look for other jobs while you are working.

If you were weighing up commuting time and costs against something that would make you MORE money, in a ‘time is money’ equation, it would be a reasonable concern

People who progress and ‘get ahead’ invest in themselves. By going the extra to make a bit more, building their CV and pension.

Unless you have real prospects from WFH or in your small town, you gain nothing from sitting at home unemployed.

Good luck with the interview tomorrow. If you don’t get that, snap up this job!

And use the commuting time productively. There were studies that showed that people who listened to language learning or other mentally stimulating material in their commute did better in their work and MH than those who didn’t.

I'd take it, worst case scenario you quit if you get the other job. But at least you'd be earning. When I'm in the office I have about the same commute except it's 2 busses and a longer walk, but i found I used the time to read and it just became a routine.

@pollyputaket

After tax and insurance it's £1252 My rent is £300 month Council tax £100 (approx ) Bills including phone and d/d £170 Food £200 Travel £100 (if I walk a little of the way ) Total £870 Disposable income £382 or £282 if I don't walk some of the way

How are you paying for this just now?

As long as it's not 50 minutes guaranteed standing all the way... welcome to the London commuter belt

Well round here, the trains are every 30 minutes in rush hour and if you don't get on one of the first few stations on the route, the trains won't even let anyone else on, because there simply isn't any more standing room. Welcome to the inequality in transport investment.

If you have a job just now but you've been offered one with more money ,why are you swithering, unless you have time constraints with caring issues, surely having to travel a bit longer than now wouldn't stop you?

@Ifailed

Interesting attitudes towards commuting to work on this thread. The average in England is 59 mins news.sky.com/story/average-commute-to-work-now-takes-59-minutes-tuc-study-11861773, yet there seems to be an aversion to doing this from some posters. Do they expect to land a job on their doorstep?

The average commute might be 59 minutes but that doesn't mean it's something to aspire to!

I wouldn't take it. That was my husband's exact commute for 10 years and it was soul destroying. Trains cancelled, late, having to sort out alternative transport when they decided to abandon the service halfway just to meet their lateness targets (can't be late if you're not trying to get there!).

Trains in the UK are horribly inefficient and run so badly. Half the time he wouldn't get a seat for the whole journey and there is currently zero distancing on our local service for covid. They're still packing them in like sardines. When his contract changed to home working it was the best thing that ever happened to us. 2 hours of your day back is worth so much, he now sees the children at breakfast and doesn't have to get up at 5am to fit in with train times so he sleeps longer.

As I said earlier something becoming "the norm" doesn't automatically equal a positive development to be encouraged. Lots of people are depressed, drink too much, addicted, exhausted etc and a lot of that is surely down to crap lifestyles.

That’s a super easy commute. There are plenty of people who’d kill for that.

That doesn’t sound like a bad commute at all. Before all of this, in my last job I had a 40 minute drive plus diversions for childcare drop-out, so it easily took an hour. DH meanwhile, like most people in our village, had a 15 minute walk to the station, a 1hr10 train journey and a a ten minutes walk at the other end. Ironically, we moved here to shorten his commute (which also continued to cost well over £400/month for his season ticket).

If trains run every 11 minutes and you can get off a few stops early and walk 20 minutes then it sounds like light rail? Most trains you couldn't walk between stops.

I don't like commuting (I'm wfh due to covid and not missing my bus commute which takes more than an hour door to door!) and of course anyone would prefer a 15 minute commute but if it's the only job on offer then I would absolutely take it and see how it goes. No changes and a short walk on each end - with an option for a longer walk if you like! - is about as as good as a commute gets.

It's a difficult decision though if you have another possibility that's nearer and pays better. Can you wait and see what happens in the second interview before you answer?

Is there potential for progression & future pay increase?

My last job involved a bus ride to and from the train station in my town, a 40 minute train ride, then a 10 minute walk to and from the station to the office. £70 a week travel.

I absolutely hated doing it but it was the only job option I had so I did it.

It's not a bad commute if the trains are reliable, the working hours are reliable, if the OP can get a seat and if the hours she is out of the house don't leave her with no free time in the week.

However, if she can never sit down, the trains often miss, her working hours end up being longer than the 8-4 that she says, it's not going to be a nice 2 hours to sit down and read or learn a language every day, she's going to be exhausted and feel like she doesn't have a life outside work, so it's not unreasonable to have doubts.

The plan to get off the train earlier to walk part of the way is a good one though. Save money and get your daily steps in each day too.

@pollyputaket

It's gonna mean leaving the house at 6.30 (just to be sure ) to start at 8. Finish at 4 so won't be home till 5.30 pm 11 hours a day 55 hours a week for £400 It's a lot to think about

For £400...

And for pension, for national insurance contributions, career experience, training, furthering yourself, and the rest!

Plus you will have a mini pay rise after six months when you can begin working from home and saving on the travel fares.

Depends if you need the job. If someone offered me that and I needed it of course I'd take it. However as I have a job 5 mins drive from work there's no way I'd take it if I didn't need it.

I'd take it and as PP said you could get a season ticket which will reduce the daily ticket cost. As long as it's only one direct train, it's a nice chance to email/read/listen to music...

It’s the cost of the commute relative to the pay that’s the issue.

Spending £220 every 4 weeks to get to a minimum wage job isn’t ideal.

Lots of posters saying they’ve had an hour’s commute or these kind of costs before but that were you earning?

It’s not sustainable long term but better than being unemployed. You’ll probably want to jump ship when something more suitable comes along. You have to think of how that looks in your job history. The other job sounds better, if you are offered it, and more realistic.

The