Commuting

[CasterTroy]

I know a few of you drive more than 40 miles to work every day...and I know Paul takes a car, 2 trains, a ferry then a hover-round to get to HIS work....but why do you do it?

Is the pay THAT much better?

To live in a better place?

[Archren]

I used to commute from Leander to east Austin (30 min. assuming there was no traffic and I was going about 75+, don't remember the exact mileage). That really wasn't all that worth it to me, and that's not even close to what some people commute in larger metropolitan areas.

As it is I do 40 mile round trip three times a week to school.. gas plus toll fees = a lot of money I plan to write off at the end of the year.

[tommymac]

For me its where the work is. The side job I have pays well and I do nothing, an dI like hte people I work with. its a 5 yr project and were going to be done in 2 yrs after that we will likley go to manhattan at the WTC site.

paul lives further east on LI and does the train thing into manhattan. Out here for a lot of folks thats where the work is for their fields. The towns around the city are going to shit now and a lot of brooklyn and queens arent wrth living in either so you gotta move further east. I was considering moving out towards where paul was but still need to commute to brooklyn for work so I didnt go as far.

if nothing else it helps me keep up with you on mileage on the bike LOL

[CasterTroy]

Originally Posted by tommymac

I like the people I work with.

See....that's where I struggle!

I'm a social person......I like to talk (DUH...you didn't know that) and I pretty much can't stand anyone I work with.

I live a few minutes outside of a decent city.....and one of my best friends, and a former coworker of 8 years lives 55 miles north of here...in a po-dunk little town where land is cheap and jobs are rare...but there's an engineering firm up there that hired him away from us that's now THRIVING and desperate for more people.

Since he left, this place sucks!

I've got a Russian, an Italian, a quiet black musician that MIGHT say 3 words in a week, a know-it-all, and a bumpkin working here now. Along with my boss. Who's hardly here.

Social settings in the office is non-existant. We never talk to one another (can't understand the russian and Italian) black guy won't talk, no desire to EVER be in the same room with know-it-all, and afraid to be left alone with bumkin.

When my buddy was here, there was talk, lunch, BS sessions....it was FUN to come to work. Now.....it's very much so like going into an isolation shell and sitting for 9 hrs a day.


He calls a few minutes ago and said they're swamped and wanted to know if I was interested.

55 mile commute...Salary would make up for it....but HE did it for 8 years and left because the firm he's at was 7 miles from his house. So yes...it gets old.


I don't want to commute...but damn..I'm a social person and crave interaction. Well...interaction with folks I have SOMETHING in common with anyway.

[Archren]

Originally Posted by CasterTroy

I don't want to commute...but damn..I'm a social person and crave interaction. Well...interaction with folks I have SOMETHING in common with anyway.

Here is where I would say go meet him at his office some day and interact with some of the coworkers. If he's the only person you get along with there, too... would it be worth the risk of him changing jobs on you again?

[tommymac]

At the jobsites its all construction guys, filed and office people. I deal mostly with the safety guys. We have good teams here and at the other sites for the most part, and some of us have different common intrests so theres always something to talk about.

in the ER the docs are hit or miss, some I go drinking with others I want to throw through a window. Nursing and our ancillary staff is mostly prety lazy people so they tend to stick together for when they get called out for not doing their jobs.

What i learne dlast year when I interviewd for a job I realy didnt want was that I am a desired commodity. I have 8 yrs of inner city er expierence so I have seen a lot, can make do with few resources, an ddont need a doc watching every move I make. But the big seller is I want to work overnights and have no qualms about weekend overnights. I am hoping this will help me into a better gig closer to home and in a more functional facility.

[CasterTroy]

Originally Posted by Archren

Here is where I would say go meet him at his office some day and interact with some of the coworkers. If he's the only person you get along with there, too... would it be worth the risk of him changing jobs on you again?

Yeah I've done that...about 6 months after he left I went up on a day off to catch up and have lunch with him. Didn't get a lot of interaction with his co-workers, but he seemed to think highly of them. Had a couple that rode.

I got a taste of a really good thing from 2007-2009 when I went to work for a big firm in DC (Herndon actually) where the office up THERE had 250 people, and there were SEVERAL people I actually got along with great. I loved it...but I only got to work in THAT office every few months for a week at a time.

There's nothing like that HERE though, and when the economy tanked, they severed the satelite offices (meaning the NC branch was chopped)

I was just telling my wife the other day about missing the interaction I had at that firm when I was up there.

I get what you're saying though Cari...and yeah, you're right.

[Bluestreak]

The last job I was at I had a 50 minute drive one way and that was in good traffic. I did it because I needed the job and there wasn't much open around me. As soon as I found a job closer to home, I jumped.

I can relate to being social. I left a lot of good friends behind at the last job. I've made several new ones at my current job so I guess that makes up for it.

Between stress, fuel and vehicle wear and tear, the job had better pay very well for me to make that kind of drive. I guess that's one of the biggest reasons I changed.

It's also hard to top a 5 mile drive to work.

[Tmall]

I live ten minutes from work. Yet, I'm looking at property outside of the city that would make my commute 45-60 minutes. All because I want a house on a lake with a nice back yard that doesn't cost over 300k.

So, while I'm not there yet, that is the reason why I'm considering it.

[Archren]

I didn't mean to be a debbie downer... in my case I've been lucky that I have found a small handful of people where I work with whom I get along very well.. but I didn't choose to work here because of that, I didn't have much of a choice (where I wanted to work unfortunately didn't get any funding for full-timers). A job was a job for me. But if I'd had a choice back then.. I would drive a little further to be where I was before since I knew and liked just about everyone I worked with.

That being said... in spite of not being buddy buddy with a lot of people here, I am in a position of higher responsibility and higher visibility. My network within this (relatively) small community of full-time National Guard has expanded, and being that I knew no one here before, I think in having to prove myself I have earned more respect than just being grandfathered in.