Long distance commuting - thoughts

[mancity68]

So, chance to do a great job, only trouble is it's in Manchester and I'd need to be there for majority of the week. I'm from Manchester so know it week, but my life (house, cat, other half) are all down here, and they won't move.

Has anyone done a long distance commute job later in life and what are the pros and cons. What made it work/not work? Was there a pattern that worked well e.g. Max two/three nights away from home?

Reflections welcome!

[Jules-and-Boo]

Manchester's not actually that far. We have people in the office who commute to London every day from further afield - and then people who live nearer that stay locally Mon-Thurs.

We even have one person who flies in from Milan every week and stays a few days in an hotel....

If you want the job, take it - try different options in terms of how you manage it and see what works for you.

You're just in a comfort zone.

Shake it up a little bit!

[JohnL]

Our far distance commuters work from home a lot - so it's not then every day.

[diable rouge]

mancity68 Wrote:

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> ...but my life (house, cat, other half)

That reminded me of this, must be a Mcr thing... :)

[Hemingway]

Did this a while (work away, abroad, not Manchester)

- work at home one day a week (minimum) and make it the same day always rather than flexible (Friday's best)

- work hard whilst your away, put some later hours in for eg, so you can be a bit more relaxed on the day at home - do school runs for eg.

- I used to start my journey really early Monday so was in my office at 9am and commuted back Thursday evening, don't start using your weekend

- Financially do a flexi-deal with a hotel maybe so you only pay for nights there rather than trying to get flat etc

- did this for over 2 years and felt OK but when I stopped I thought how the fuck did i do that.

[exdulwicher]

A friend of mine does it but the other way round - lives in Manchester, does 2 or 3 days a week in London. Travel paid for and it's reasonably flexible with trains too so he's not always rushing around on a stupid early or late train.

He's married but no kids or pets! He doesn't mind it - actually gets a fair bit of work done on the train. Most people don't stick it for more than a couple of years though just due to time away from friends, family, potentially hobbies as well and having to turn down invitations to events because you're travelling.

The key to it is working out the actual arrangements; you don't want to be in a situation where you're being paid ?30k/yr but then spending ?5k/yr of that on train travel, hotels and eating out. Probably less of an issue if it's ?100k a year in which case ?5k on trains is merely a drop in the ocean... ;-0