Two hours at every time of the day? Unusual shift times could help.
The problem is firms (managers) are not great at adapting to these new problems, instead they pump a lot more money into hiring (spending a lot on headhunters, recruiters, "technical sourcers" and so on), and then put a lot of money into the employee's hands and then they with the same smooth move put it into the landlords' pockets, which then goes to fuel the asset bubble.
Yes, we could switch to a remote-work model, but that would make logistics significantly harder (some of the stuff we work with is proprietary and confidential) and destroy our terrific team spirit.
Well, some of our largest clients are at MIT and Brandeis Universities, so no, it couldn't. Network effects regarding availability of customers, expertise, and capital are a thing.
Market forces at work.
Two hours by car away from work? And that's with me living in a dense part of the country where it's easier to make a long commute like that?
I mean, come on, bother to admit that economic trade-offs exist. If demand for labor is greater than the supply of housing, you're going to have a difficult housing market, and that's before you account for bubble shenanigans like "ghost apartments" used as investments.