A new guy started at work yesterday, and he’s got one gnarly commute just to get to campus. He lives in the East Bay so he takes a ferry to downtown San Francisco. Then he gets on the light rail, which thankfully takes him right in front of campus. I’m low-key not sure why he applied for this position given this arduous commute. What sucks even worse is leaving work at 6:00 PM and having to do the reverse. In the pitch dark.
Of course I not-so-meekly bragged to the guy: “Yeah, I live right across the street.”
Sorry about it! I will never be shy about my wonderful commute: a 10 minute walk. Moving this close to work is honestly the best thing to come out of the pandemic. The reclaimed hour lost to my old commute adds back to the work-life balance I deeply cherish. The fact the neighborhood near my work is also far quieter further decreases stress. I know this situation won’t last forever, so I’m going to enjoy it as much as possible while it’s there.
And I’m going to tell everyone about it, including new coworkers who’s got the opposite of what I have. Probably not the best for first impressions, however.
Work-life balance: it seems everybody around me want it. My one lawyer friend is looking to get back into government work after finding out even the slightly less hectic mid-size law firm life is still too hectic. My other friend who is a manager level position at a tech firm is overworked to the point of being hospitalized twice this year. Another friend who works at the same company but at a lower level have decided that management is not for her. The extra pay for the substantially increased stress is simply not worth it.
I completely agree. I too have zero desire to get to management level at my work. I’ve seen the hours my supervisor puts in. I very much like to take vacations, thank you very much.
Snack time.