That “Dreaded” Commute Is Good for Your Health

Re:That “Dreaded” Commute Is Good for Your Health by 121789 on Thursday March 30, 2023 @11:32AM (#35374311)

I don’t think he’s completely full of shit, just mostly. I personally find a whole bunch of good behaviors naturally occur and I feel mentally more healthy if I’m forced to go to the office. I get up earlier, go to bed earlier, feel a stronger sense of work/life disconnection, and have a better sense of the passage of time. I’ve worked remote for years and have tried to replicate this, but it’s never the same. But I’m not a parent, so that changes the trade off quite a bit

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Re:That “Dreaded” Commute Is Good for Your Health by bearmode on Thursday March 30, 2023 @11:45AM (#35374567)

During covid, I got laid off from my job as a graphic designer. I spent the next year on a web dev course, fully remote, but with regular virtual meetings with 'classmates' and tutors (once a week), and Discord groups for chatting via text/asking for help.

I then got a web dev job, which turned out to be full-time in-office. I adjusted, but I resented, and still resent, being in the office. It's not for me. I don't have my kitchen, I don't have my expensive office chair, I don't have my good keyboard and mouse, I don't have my comfortable living room for when I'm on my lunch breaks, I find I get significantly worse sleep, and the commute stresses me out a ton (as well as costing an absolute fortune).

It's definitely a problem that divides people, with some firmly on the in-office side and others wanting to be at home. Businesses really should be catering for both.

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Re:That “Dreaded” Commute Is Good for Your Health by mooxie on Thursday March 30, 2023 @12:47PM (#35375590)

Agreed - the issue is the false dichotomy implied by suggesting that commuting itself is the answer. I think that it would be much more honest to opine that DESPITE the tolls on our health and time, in-office work provided a social and personal structure that had its benefits, and that many people struggle to replicate those structures in their newly-isolated personal lives.

It's not like commuting is hard-coded into our DNA. Over the past 60ish years commuting slowly changed a lot of things about modern life, and taking it away suddenly revealed a lot of those. But that doesn't mean that commuting is, itself, the answer to our social or motivational desires.

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