Office Relocation - new commute is impossible

[RotundCheese]

I started a new job at the beginning of the year. In February it was announced that the office would be moving in March; the new office is a two hour drive away for me.

It is a well paying job and I would prefer to continue working for the organisation, but the commute is horrible (I have been doing it since the beginning of March). My flexible working request (hybrid working or condensed hours) has been denied. I need to be in the office 5 days a week.

I think my only option now is to hand in my notice - is this correct? Does anyone have any other ideas?

Also, I have a three month notice period, but there's nothing to stop me leaving with less notice, is there? I don't care about getting a reference.

Why can't you take the one weeks redundancy notice and then you won't need to work your notice period?

If they don't let you work a shorter notice period is it possible that the situation could make you so stressed your GP needs to write a fit note for you to wfh instead

Op- I used to do a 6 hour round trip 5 days a week- for 5 years.

There was no tangible objective benefit. I was out of pocket and exhausted all the time. I left the house before 6 am and could barely function.

I'd never do anything close to that again- 2 hours driving one way is mad.

Hope you find something soon.

It doesn't really matter though as OP would have no come back this anyway.

@christmascalypso

OP has about 2 months service so no right to unfair dismissal

I live near a similar city. It’s less than 30 minutes by train (and that’s the slow train) or a minimum of an hour and a half by car to the city centre during rush hour.

If my office moved 10 miles from the city centre to somewhere the other side of the city and I had to drive, I’d be looking at a similar change in commute time.

@DinnaeFashYersel ah ok thanks . Forgot it is a new job.

@RotundCheese Are you still under a probation period? Might not be 3 months notice if still under probation period ?

I would honestly take a bike in the boot and park/cycle the rest of the way on in a good day.

Sitting in traffic is the worst feeling, its so claustrophobic and makes me question my life. I love driving as long as I’m actually moving!

Tou do realise that the 20mph limit is only on (some) roads that were previously 30. And most main roads that were previously 30 still are.

Mostly the change has affected residential streets that you were unlikely to be going 30 on anyway. It's made very little difference to most journeys.

If you genuinely don’t care about the reference, give notice and call in sick so you can focus on job hunting and interviews without that unpleasant commute.

Feel no guilt. They feel none about your predicament!

Where do you live?
In London many boroughs are fully 20mph now- even on the larger roads. Adds 20 mins minimum each way to one journey I make (at 4 am with no traffic at all)

I'm in Wales, where the previous poster was talking about.

I'd imagine the situation here is probably a bit different to London. Even in the cities here most commutes tend to be - get out of local residential area that has recently been changed to 20mph, onto A roads that have stayed at 30 or 40, maybe back into a 20mph for the last little bit. We're spending maybe 10 minutes on the bits of road that have been reclassified, so maybe an extra minute or two since the speed limit has been reduced.

Whereas a London commute is more likely to be entirely carried out on residential streets that have been blanket reduced, thereby increasing the total commute time considerably.

I'm not going to say that the Welsh policy is perfect, I can think of 3 roads off the top of my head that are blatantly now too slow a speed limit. But that's on the local council not doing the sensible thing and keeping the 30mph limit on those roads, rather than the Welsh Government policy as a whole being bad.