There are a thousand factors, but one of the biggest and simplest is getting commute time back. Gaining even one hour a day is life-changing. Imagine gaining two hours.

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e_i_pi_2 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I know of a company where they want anyone within 90m to commute, so that's up to three hours lost in a day, making an 8 hour workday actually 11+ hours

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DiggyJohnson 5 hours ago | parent [-]

I’m always confused why the default commute time in these discussions is always 60 or 90 minutes one way. 60+ minute commutes are outliers and I don’t understand why a person would take a job that far away without being aware of the commute or moving closer to the work. Does that make sense? Most American commute 10-30 minutes. That’s the middle of the bell curve.

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Aurornis 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We’re in a weird period where a lot of jobs went fully remote around COVID, many weren’t prepared for it, and now they’re doing the opposite over-reaction and forcing everyone back.

A lot of the people I know who went remote after COVID took remote jobs at new companies (remember “the great resignation”?) or moved to a new house because they thought they were done with commuting. Then their companies said they wanted everyone back.

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closeparen 35 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Most of the 60 minute travel time radius around a San Francisco or Silicon Valley tech HQ is water and nature preserve.

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forestrywat 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do you have a citation for that?

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bluefirebrand 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> 60+ minute commutes are outliers and I don’t understand why a person would take a job that far away without being aware of the commute or moving closer to the work

60+ minute commute times are very common where I live. If you are anywhere outside of the downtown area you either pay for parking (expensive) and have a shorter commute, or you use public transit (cheap) and have a long commute.

When I used to commute to an office it was easily an hour to an hour and a half each way every day. I hated it

	▲	ghaff 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		When I commuted semi-regularly into a downtown office, it was a good 90 minutes. Latterly, going into a newer company's customer briefing center was more like 2 hours each way. I had access to commuter rail which was more pleasant than driving so long as I didn't have an evening dinner/event. but it took about the same length of time. One answer to the parent's question is that I owned/own a house which was a pretty manageable 25 minute suburban commute which I wasn't going to sell just because I got a new job. (Which didn't last that long anyway.)
	▲	cosmic_cheese 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yes, I get the sense that this varies a lot depending on area and economic strata. In the poor rural area my hometown is located, 1-3h+ commutes aren't unusual, partially out of necessity (there aren't enough jobs nearby to sustain the population).

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tikhonj 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean, in a lot of these cases people take those jobs because they're able to work remotely initially... and then get hit with an inflexible, top-down RTO mandate once they've settled into the role.

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mikert89 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Its not just the time, its the energy expended.

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MaxHoppersGhost 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And money spent on a more expensive house closer to the office vs the same home in an affordable place. It's the main reason I can't go back to San Francisco, once you get used to a less than one million four bedroom house in a pleasant neighborhood you can't go back to living in a shoebox for twice the price, even if it's the most beautiful city in the world.

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sublinear 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, definitely. Time management is a lot easier when it's all on your own terms apart from the required meetings.

You get to skip the commute and reap the benefits all day long. Even your diet improves. You can cook fresh or have delivered whatever you want. Your hygiene improves since nothing is preventing you from taking another shower or committing to more involved skincare. You clean your home more often. You're more likely to exercise throughout the day for natural stress relief. If you have any minor medical issues that need upkeep, you're already in the privacy of your own home.

This is not just a list of annoyances or frivolous luxuries for highly sensitive people. These are the basic building blocks for a better quality of life. These used to be the forever-deferred items at the bottom of my todo list stressing me out. Now they are integrated with my life and effortless. I'm no longer trapped in a cube and put on display. I can live like a human being and do whatever whenever wherever I want. My life is no longer oriented around running errands or physical presence.

	▲	mikert89 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The biggest for me is diet by far, I cook every meal. If I have a stretch of going into the office, I end up eating slop, which kills my energy levels

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jjice 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I go into my company's Boston office with an hour and a half commute each way by train about once a month. Even doing that once a month sucks. I couldn't imagine doing that even three times a week. I regularly get LinkedIn messages from recruiters with hybrid offerings in Boston that pay less and will then suck an additional 9 hours a week out of my life. Biggest nope I can think of.

I'd have to get paid a lot more to sacrifice an additional 10 hours a week commuting. You can't just tack an additional ten hours worth of pay on, and even if the pay was excellent, I can't imagine this is something I can do long term. Losing three hours a day for a commute eats into so much social and sleep time.

	▲	ghaff 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't have to do it every day and it wasn't for that long a period but I had sort of come to the conclusion that it wasn't sustainable, especially after the novelty of working in the city wore off. I live fairly far out but, even that aside, there's just a lot of traffic. Even coming in for something after work these days still takes me 90 minutes to get in and commuter rail is useless for an evening event. Last sometimes commute (I traveled a lot) to a suburban office was much more manageable but the office shutdown at some point during COVID because of low use.

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georgemcbay 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not having to plan my life around traffic patterns is the biggest advantage for me.

I enjoy working in the office at my current place of employment... nice office space, small company, everyone who works there is great and the office is only 15 minutes away if there is no traffic.

But I live in Southern California, so when there is traffic that 15 minute commute balloons to 45-60 minutes.

So I work from home most of the time. I still go in a couple of times a week (voluntarily, not required) but there are no expectations of a set schedule so it is very easy for me to avoid heavy traffic commute times.

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KludgeShySir 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Wait, are you saying that human contact has no bearing on one's psychological well-being? Or are you saying that I'm being deliberately obtuse?

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panny 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>one of the biggest and simplest is getting commute time back

Zoom out. Being full remote means I don't even need a car. I can live in a walkable city with passenger rail in a low cost of living location. I can reduce my living expense to just food and utilities with a paid off house and no automobiles.

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jasondigitized 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Commuting to work for people who don't absolutely need to commute to work may be the biggest cargo cult of them all.