What would you do?

shortcrust

shortcrust wrote: »

A 10k pay rise wouldn't persuade me to do a 4 hour daily commute. I don't think any amount would. How many hours do you get to yourself of an evening?! I'm not the most energetic type and I don't think I'd have a proper life outside of work during the week.

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

£50k extra? so prob earning £65k+

Nope. Easy for me though. Few commitments, no dependants, happy with a fairly quiet and simple life. I love my job and work hard, but one of the things I love best is that it's a 10 minute drive away.

theoretica

Another way of looking at it is per hour/day - your figure of a £6600 pay cut divided by 232 working days gives about £28 a day - would you pay that to have more time at home and be more rested for that time?

t0rt0ise

I just gave up a full-time job for a part-time one with pay loss of £7,500. And not from a very high salary to start with. I felt that it was worth it for having more time for myself. So if you feel the same then do it, but if you live for work and really enjoy it, then don't.

PuzzledDave

I would speak to the current employer - bring your concerns that whilst you love the job the commute is causing you health issues. Suggest some of the following:

1) Work from home some of the time, duties permitting.
2) Drop one working day a week (perhaps mean the same as a £10k salary diff).
3) Offer to work 4 days of 10 hour days (or whatever makes your contracted hours).

All of which would cut your commute without changing out of the job you like.

dawyldthing

A few years ago when temping I worked sometimes 50 and 60 hour weeks then did a month working full time temping in one while also working full time on the census to help save as much for the deposit for the mortgage.

But now a bit older I wouldn't do any job more than an hour away. Why? As ultimately I would spend most of the time going to and from work whereas that time could be better spent doing something else. I work 20 minutes walk away from my house. I had a similar conversation with my team leader over shifts this week and there has to be a jolly good reason to do a lot of travelling as you don't get paid to travel either. It might knock a bit off the mortgage, but I think quality of life is better in all honesty. Like you said you spend a lot of the extra on travel (it's a bit like my team leader, she gets 50p an hour more I believe, but can be on shifts or dealing with something in a 25 mile or so radius so even with the mileage she won't be on much more than I am).

Money isn't the be all and end all is my opinion, life and life chances are

ali-t

The commute is essentially dead time and unless you have a bus/train journey that pretty much goes door to door and you can do something useful like watch a film or read a book it is time that you are losing every week.


Moving to a new post closer to home will give you 15 extra hours a week to do something useful - maybe even get another job very local to you to up your wages so the deficit is not as noticeable. I have taken a significant pay cut in exchange for happiness and a better work life balance and there are always ways to make the books balance.


You are unlikely to end up on your deathbed saying you wished you had spent more of your life commuting.

goodwithsaving

You've all made some very good points. I can't thank you enough for your advice. Ali-t, you're right. PuzzledDave I think I'll also see about that. Thank you. You're all giving me that light at the end of the tunnel, I appreciate it so much.