Job With Longer Commute

Has anyone here switched jobs and taken a new job with a longer commute than the previous one? I'm asking for someone who might be going down this road..

Gross. 

I just did. Swapped a five day a week 22 mile per day gig for a job where I’ve been averaging 300 a 500 miles per week. Thankfully, the vast majority of that is reimbursed, and I’ll typically have a day or two working from home each week.

I’d prefer less driving, but the new job has much more potential than the old one. I’ve done long commutes for the majority of my working life, so it hasn’t been a huge adjustment so far.

I’m actually considering this myself.  Going from a 35 mile round trip commute to a 200 mile round trip commute.  I’m hoping we can work out a split in-office/remote model so I am not doing 1000 miles a week.  

I am seriously considering it because it would allow me to take my career to the place I’ve always wanted to go since I decided to leave my meteorology background to do high performance computing.  It’s been 13 years that I have been looking for this type of opportunity in the region of the country I am in.  But a lot of stars have to align.  The time might be right now.  It would be at a world renowned research center, with an awesome campus.  If I could work in-office 2 days a week, my weekly commuter time and distance would be about the same.  

A 200 mile daily commute...I'd rather shoot myself in the face.

Twice.

No regrets, but it was not a lateral move

I have, and then lived with it for 15 years - an hour or more in; over 1:15 home.  The seat-time really started to wear me down as I got older (49 this year).  Right now, it's a bit of a mix - I'm currently some 350 to 400 miles from home (depending on the route), but my daily commute from the hotel is 2-4 miles.  When this NH project is finally over, my commute will go down to a more typical 35-45 min each way, which to me is more tolerable.

In reply to dxman92 :

Both my children did, after all their dad spent his working life" on the road" 

I did this and hated it. 1.5 hour one way. 2 hours with bad traffic in peak time.  Wife hated it. Kids hated it. I took the job with the understanding I'd come in at 7 and be out by 4:30. Yeah. That lasted less than a week. I made it 1.5 years and moved on to the green grass. 

What does this role gi e you that your current is not? 

In reply to dxman92 :

only once. Since then I only consider jobs with the opposite. A long commute is like a slow death sentence. 
 

In reply to Wxdude10 - Mike :

if the job is good, I would think MOVING might make a lot more sense than giving that job 3-4 hours of you life every day.

My job moved to a different facility a year ago and my commute dropped from 22 miles to 13.  I wouldnt want to go the other way.  Goal is to either work from home/remote or biking/walking distance if I ever change jobs.  

I am set up to work remote as needed but I rarely take advantage of it.  My desktop PC is too nice to clunk around on a laptop for most of my work and I would miss my coworkers.  

I currently live in South Jersey with the office in Manhattan.  Only reason I still do it is the flexibility to work from home 3-4 days a week.  If I had to do that every day I would definitely move on to something closer.

I've done long commutes for a large part of my working life - an hour each way was pretty normal, I've had commutes in the UK that were 3h round trip. For me it's a balance between finding a job I like that pays well enough and one that I can walk to, and other considerations that affect my quality of life.

These days I can have 7-10h "commutes" (but only twice a week) which isn't great, but it's often balanced with working from home for a substantial amount of time. That said, I did do a bit of work earlier this year that required me to be in DC every day. That was a bit of an extreme commute at 2.5h+ each way.

43 miles each way for me right now. Was like 10 before that. I doubled my income and got into the industry I was training for when I did it though. I planned on moving to the town the job was in or finding another job after a year or so. 

I have an 80mile round trip commute but it is only 35 mins in the morning and 45-50 in the afternoons. Also it is also cheaper than living closer to work by almost 60%.

I do over an hour each way. I hate it. Especially since I really don't need to be there. I travel quite a bit and it is a reprieve from the commute at times.

If it opportunity gets you where you need to be then do it. For a marginal gain, consider the effect on your life carefully.

I went form 7 miles to 15, not by choice.  (Yes I realize you should not feel sorry for me )

I am not sure the distance is the prime issue though, it’s what traffic you have to deal with.  A trafficless 45 min drive will likely be less stressful than a 20 min one filled with stop and go.  It pretty easy to zone out I light traffic. You still do burn the time though.

That being said, it does seem like people can get used to almost anything. Not that they love it, but it’s not as horrible to someone who is not used to it.

I drove an extra 30 min each way because it made my life better for 2 ish years

It depends on how much better it makes your life in all. If it will substantially change your life it's probably worth it but it depends on how much time too.

In the end Its basically sitting in one place listening to the radio in a climate controlled environment

Went from 2 miles to 55 each way and it sucked.  Always. Only did it because I got a company car.  And then the economy tanked in 2009.  Best thing I did then was buy a new car that got good mileage.  Did that for 130k miles in 6 years and said f it.. my family is worth more.  Other good thing though- the  experience of that hell allowed me to get a job paying almost twice what I made in 08.

I really don't understand why we just accept such a FUBAR transportation system.

I just went from Work at Home to an office job with a commute downtown.  It's only about 20 miles, but the average time in the car last week was close to 2 hours/day.  Stop and go for miles in 1st gear - my clutch is crying for mercy.  Need to figure out if I can skew my hours or work the first hour at home or some other alternative to sitting in traffic.  A fair number of people seem to start between 7 and 7:30, but I'm not a huge fan of early mornings.  Still might be the best alternative.

On the positive side, I've got the first two Spanish language CDs almost memorized.

When I was married my commute was almost an hour to drive 34 miles.  Post divorce I moved closer to the job and conveniences, my commute is 4 miles.   
 

The 4 mile commute is glorious.   My life is so much freer.  Going back to a long commute would make me sad.

My commute is 60 miles each way in Atlanta. I do get to work from home to or three days a week, so that makes it much better. You can find ways around the worst part of it. For example, I leave for work at 5:30 a.m. and leave my office at 3:30 p.m. so I avoid the worst of Atlanta traffic. I've been doing commute like this a long time, and it really does not bother me. Frankly, I consider it good "me time" because the rest of my life is so crazy.

I would love to live closer to the office, but housing costs near the office are 3 to 4 times higher than where I live. Taxes at least double.  I make decent money, but not that kind of money.  And my house is paid off. 

The potential job I interviewed for is more in line with what I've done in the past (home improvement products), growth opportunity, no holidays, decent pay jump among other things. I drive about 45 minutes to work one way now and it would be about an hour one way for this position so its not much longer. Also, they would be okay with flexible hours to avoid traffic and chance to work from home if weather is too dicey in winter.