Consider Your Commute!
Whether it's your first job or you're looking for something new, it's important to consider your commute. Now that many companies have decided what their policy is with respect to in office or remote working, it's important for you to understand how commuting requirements can affect your life. Today, I'm going to show you how having a commute can impact your working hours and why it's important to consider the commute when looking at new positions.
While working and commuting are very different things, they have one thing in common: they both take time! Even if the time you spend commuting isn't considered part of your normal working hours (typically 40 to 45 hours a week), it's still time you spend not doing whatever you want. If you're looking at a job offer that requires you to commute you should consider that time committed along with the required working hours on site. For some of you, this might not be very important because you have a short commute due to where you live relative to where you want to work. However if you are like me and live in a place like the DC Metro area where traffic and congested highways can turn 10 miles into half an hour, then commuting requirements and office location can matter a lot for your free time. Think of it this way:
Having a consistent half hour commute to and from work will add 1 hour of time everyday. This is an additional 5 hours per week if you're working in the office everyday, or an additional 3 hours per week if you're going in 3 days a week.
Having a consistent one hour commute to and from work will add 2 hours of time every day. This is an additional 10 hours per week if you're working in the office every day or an additional 6 hours per week if you're going in 3 days a week.
Having a commute where the trip to and from work could take anywhere from a half an hour to an hour and a half, depending on traffic will add 1 to 3 hours of time per day, depending on traffic. For those working in the office 5 days a week, this creates a range of 5 to 15 extra hours spent commuting. For those working in the office 3 days a week, this creates a range of 3 to 9 extra hours spent commuting.
In my opinion, dealing with traffic is the worst part of commuting because it makes it difficult to plan your personal time. For me, this difficulty can manifest itself in whether or not I am able to go to the gym on my way home from work to make it out in time for a family dinner. Like many accountants, I prefer to plan my day and schedule out my activities. Having a variable commute like this is double trouble for me because not only am I losing time commuting, I am also unsure of how much time the commute will take on any given day which makes it hard to plan the time.
It's also important to understand how diminishing returns can affect your decision making. When you have no money and no job, it's a relatively easy decision to commit some of your valuable time in exchange for money. However, as you begin to make more money and as your job takes up more of your time, each additional dollar becomes less valuable and each hour of time becomes more valuable. Everyone will have a different threshold for what they think is the right balance between compensation and hours encumbered by their job, but this pattern is true for most people. Simply put, when you start to make more money and have your basic needs covered, personal time becomes more valuable, and one of the easiest ways to gain back that personal time for many people is to work with a short or no commute. While this might not be a huge consideration for your first job out of college it will likely be much more important when you decide to switch jobs. So the next time that you're considering a switch, be sure to consider your commute hours!