When increased commuting costs to get to work = financial hardship

HampshireH

Anythingbutbeige said:

So what would you do now? I can’t really afford to go both days. I [think I] live an incredibly sparse frugal life as I’m paying off debt and even I dont think I’d be able to live on such little per month. Do I resign now, or wait for a new job and go in - probably on credit for half the month?

I don’t have 3 months living expenses set aside for example as I throw it all at debt.

If you cannot afford to do both days you cannot afford to leave without a job 

If your boss cannot be more flexible & you can't make it work get job hunting fast. Maybe taking something closer to home but not your ideal to tide you over whilst you find the job you want.

theoretica

Wouldn't resigning without a job lined up be worse for your finances than commuting?  Sounds to me as though you job hunt. 

Anythingbutbeige

Bobbobbobingalong said:

Before you do anything rash, why not talk to your boss? The worst that can happen is nothing and you will be asking yourself the same question needing to answer it, but then, they may well show some sympathy to your circumstances and find a mutually agreeable solution.

Thanks for this. Regrettably, the mention above ‘ I just got confirmation that they want me in 6 days of the 8 required. The other 2 days can be in London.  I thought I might at least have been able to go to London 1 out of the 2 days.’ Was from my boss.  Talking to her put me in a worse position than what I thought when I initially wrote the post! 😂 

jj_43

Your in a leadership role you say, yet don’t want to be in the office? Your style of working obviously doesn’t suit where that organisation wants to go. I’d be looking for a new job or moving closer to the office. 

prettyandfluffy

Anythingbutbeige said:

So what would you do now? I can’t really afford to go both days. I [think I] live an incredibly sparse frugal life as I’m paying off debt and even I dont think I’d be able to live on such little per month. Do I resign now, or wait for a new job and go in - probably on credit for half the month?

I don’t have 3 months living expenses set aside for example as I throw it all at debt.

Do not resign until you have something else to go to.  You will be making yourself voluntarily unemployed, it will be massively stressful and MOST IMPORTANTLY it is far easier to find another job when you are in work.

Contractually, you have to do as your employer requires.  Look at the cheapest possible travel options - weekly/monthly season tickets, coach vs train - and also for cheap overnight accommodation if that lets you travel outside peak hours.  Find another job with more suitable travel requirements.

TBagpuss

I wouldn't resign until you have a new job to go to.

You mention your have caring responsibilities' for your sister - it maybe worth checking your employee handbook ./ policies to see whether there are any policies which might help -does the company claim to be family friendly?

You can make a formal flexible working request once you have been employed for 6 months - you could look at doing this - before you do, read up on the statutory reasons the company can have for declining the request an in your application make sure that you consider the potential problems and how you propose they would be resolved.

Until you are able to find a new job or come to a agreement with them, look at options to keep the costs down. Train tickets are much more expensive if you are travelling at peak time, so it might be worth looking and what time of day the prices change for the specific routes you are using, and whether you can split the journey so some of it is at off-peak prices. My guess is that this isn't likely to be possible in the journey in the morning as I think peak prices usually continue until about 10.30, so you would not be getting to the office until mid day, but you might be able to get later trains home and reduce costs that way, and possibly might be able to come to an agreement for a bot of flexibility (e.g. if you were doing 6 days in the office, if your were staying until 6 on 5 of those, you might be able to come to an agreement to be in for half a day on the 6th 

Also looks at whether, as others have suggested, you could do the in-office days back to back and stay somewhere local to the office - a B'n'B, or even something like a Travelodge if booked well in advance is likely to be cheaper than the rail travel, and you might well find it works our cheaper to have an arrangement where you pay a carer to come in to assist your sister, an a dog walker to feed / exercise the dog , that to be paying the cost of the peak time travel twice a week . Does your sister get PIP or any other disability benefits that would enable her to pay for someone to come in, if needed? 

It may be worth looking into whether travelling up the night before you are due to be in the office and staying over is cheaper than travelling up in the morning - and if you did, you might be able to explore with your employer whether you could do whether you could then do an 8-4 or 8-3.30 day in the office which might enable you to also travel the first leg of the journey home at off-peak prices.

Long term, though, if your employer isn't willing to budge then you are going to need to either change jobs or move house.

(If you move, you might be able to port the mortgage to keep the current deal, although of course that doesn't help if you want to live in East Anglia not in the Midlands)