To not want to walk for an hour?

[Summering23]

This is a question regarding travel to work during public transport strikes. One of my in office days fell on a tube strike day but my boss insisted that I still go in via bus.
As expected I couldn’t get on a bus for ages due to overcrowding and then the actual bus itself took three times longer than it should have. This meant I was over an hour late in.

I wasn’t in trouble but a comment was made that I should’ve just walked. The walk would have been around an hour according to Google and I don’t know the route at all. Plus to be perfectly honest I’m not up for an hour long walk after getting kids up and fed, walking to the station and a train commute.

AIBU?

no, I walked 3 miles to school and back through snow "back in my day"

When there was no snow, I had a lifet half way and walked 1 and a half miles there, and 3 miles back, every day for 7 years.

When I was at primary school I walked 2 miles to school and 2 miles back every day

During lock down I walked 6 miles to school and 6 miles back every day.

You are trying to mock me by exaggerating and pretending I am extreme

I am not

what has actually happened to some people, is that a completely normal, healthy, natural amount of physical exercise has become culturally and physically unacceptable. Not to all people, I teach in a school, and many students walk 2-3 miles in every day, with their school bags.

Walking to and from school is social and physically healthy. We chatted with friends all the way, and we exercised.

It makes no sense at all to rush around by car, polluting the environment, to hurry home to do social activities and go to an exercise class!

But yes, since you ask, during a rail strike a few years ago, when I was teaching at a different school, I walked 11 miles in and 11 miles back again, as a one off- it took me 3 hours each way( I ran part of it) I did go prepared though, trainers, and left my bag at work for that day, with a change of clothes in it. There were hundreds of people walking and it was a sociable experience

I think your boss was being a twat. Particularly given your update that he's wfh himself now due to the strikes!
I wouldn't fancy walking either and it's not always possible to leave earlier if you have childcare to sort.

As for cycling, unless a person is already a cyclist, that's not a viable suggestion.

Your boss is shit. On a selfish power trip.

I love walking but agree there is a big difference between an hour from your house to work and an hour once you've already spent ages on public transport.

It is also different when you can work from home. I've been having car troubles (it needs a part and there's a two week delay so not for lack of trying). To get to work via public transport means leaving at 6.20 to get there for 9. I work from home most of the time. It is ridiculous to add 5.5 hours to my day for this. I'd happily work longer and be useful for that time.

Of course you could have done it but I can also see why it was a pain. The people who see themselves as more useful for going into the office arrive late, spend half an hour telling colleagues how long it took them, go and get a coffee then leave early to make sure they can get on a train (but somehow that is better)

I would not be walking an hour to work, what nonsense 😂

Honestly. All commuting threads are full of posters declaring anything over 30 mins is impossible. Here, OP is being lambasted for being cross at being forced into the office on a strike day, turning her usual 1 hr or so commute (walk, train, tube) into over 2 hrs each way. OP, im with you - why you could WFH is beyond me.

this worries me hugely.

When did it become considered "nonsense" and laughable to walk 3 miles? We are built for walking and running it is what our bodies do. It isn't at all healthy not to

Even as a one off?

As a one off/occasional thing its fine. Different if you had to do it every day (for instance DS's nursery run is over an hour walk, hour and a half at his pace, each way and I do not want to do that every day so only do it when can't get someone to drive him. Especially as it'd be double for me doing back home inbetween)

I personally walk 7 hours to work and lick the shoes of my boss when I get there! In high heels! (YANBU OP, if you're not prepared for it then fuck that. The comments on here like I RegULarLy waLk to WoRk are deliberately missing the point that walking when you're not expecting a long walk and thus not dressed for it or carrying laptop etc. is completely different to planning it into your commute every day).

I walk an hour a day before work, i do this to keep fit and lose weight, would i want to walk an hour to work? Would i fuck, i would be sweating my tits off and knackered. Especially after commuting and carrying laptops and wearing work clothes.

I agree with you OP. An hour's walk is fine. An hour's walk on top of a commute, in work clothes and shoes, carrying a laptop is not.

I regularly walk (door to door) 45 minutes to work but I change clothes and shoes to do it.

Well, I personally enjoy walking and running and regularly walk/run for an hour+ so this wouldn’t bother me at all. I think I’d actually prefer to walk for an hour than get on a massively overcrowded bus.

Laptop could be carried in a backpack easily, I do this every work day and you can also change shoes at work (many women I work with do this too). If you’re hugely sweaty after walking for an hour on a winter’s day you need to work out more!

I missed that you didn't realise you would have to walk when you left home and weren't wearing walking shoes. YANBU in that case.

I've walked an hour to work with a laptop no issue, but you need to know that's what you're going to be doing and have proper shoes and a backpack etc.

I wouldn't be doing it with heels and my laptop in a handbag.

@Sartre I work out five times a week, my squat max is 1.5 time my body weight and I can bench press my 15 year old.

As I said in my OP, I do change my clothes for my walking commute but luckily I have a locker at work to keep stuff in. it's not fun to lug a heavy bag around for an hour.

I guess if work want to pay me an extra hour then sure. But no, I have much more I want to do with my life than walk to work. Which is different to choosing to go for an hours walk at your leisure in the area you want to, for the many 'That's not long at all!' Perfect people.

Work is a means to an end and they don't deserve every inch or hour of our lives.

No way would I want to walk an hour in the cold after getting the kids ready but I hate walking anyway! Can nobody give you a lift?

@Nimbostratus100

You can worry away all you like. You've no idea what I do for a job, what my hour's walk to work would look like, how able bodied I am or what I do at the weekends.

To clarify, no. I would not walk an hour to work, having already commuted to get to the point where I needed to walk (as the OP said), do a day at work and then walk home, commute the rest of the way and then crack on with all the child and house related things in the evening.

Not wanting or choosing to do a 6+ mile round trip on foot every day in all weathers is not "hugely worrying".

We often walked to work when we lived in London. It was much nicer than the tube.

Uphill each way too, I'm sure.

The thought of all these central London dwelling high flyers striding along Cheapside, doubtless belting out 'valderee valderaa' as they go, with rucksacks on their backs, is making me smile. It sounds like the most fucked up duke of Edinburgh challenge ever.

😂😂😂😂

🤣

I'd walk op.
But I'd be late and leave early.

I feel like a few posters are kind of missing the point when people say they don't want to walk for miles to and from work. For most it's not a physical inability to walk that distance, it's that they don't want their limited free time consumed by their commute. I consider my commute time as part of my working hours - the pay has to be worth it to spend my free time journeying about, especially when a job can be done from home.

Add a one or two hour walk each way to your daily working hours and divide that by your daily earning -- your actual wage has now dropped massively. And to the poster above that's a teacher - don't teachers spend a great deal of time doing grading and lesson planning at home? So you spend most of your waking hours devoted to work? That must come out to only just above minimum wage when it's all said and done.

I have no problem walking in the countryside or taking the dog for a walk, but I don't particularly enjoy walking through an urban area breathing in car fumes in work clothes (or having to change into work clothes) and then arriving at work feeling disheveled. Especially on a rainy day, or in the half of the year when it's dark both ways. I find that deeply unpleasant and it's not how I want to spend my limited time outside work! And obviously those with kids don't have the option to set off at the crack off dawn to walk when they need to get the kids ready and at school for a set time.