Does the commute influence your decisions on where to work? Why don't companies have offices in SF? I can't believe they think it's a good idea for employees to lose 2-3 hours every day in this way.
Many firms locate down in the heart of the valley for many reasons including that office space is considerably less expensive, infrastructure is theoretically somewhat more robust, traditionally the biggest money firms are down there, many of the firms down there are related by chains of nepotism, there are fewer "distractions" for workers in those boring areas, executives can afford more posh places down there, ....
The valley proper, back when I worked there, had all the elements of an old-school company town: easy for workers to move into, hard to move out; collusive hiring practices across firms; not much to do beside eat, work, sleep, and pay rent; even its own set of camp-follower brothels. It's an ugly, horrible environment and you're darn right it influences the decisions of some to simply not work there.
For the latter, it seems obvious that real estate and infrastructure are cheaper in the Valley.
For the former, it really depends on where you live in SF.
If you are driving a car to the Valley, how far are you from the 280 or 101? Does your employer allow you to work your schedule around the rush hours? Are you working for a startup where you are expected to put in long hours and possibly even spend a lot of time with coworkers outside of the office?
If you are taking CalTrain, how far are you from the nearest station? I lived in the Sunset for several years and commuted to Palo Alto; it was a bit maddening, mostly due to the long time it took to ride MUNI to CalTrain. Door-to-door was around 100 minutes, but it was 100x less stressful than driving. Plus, I could catch up on news/email on the train. On the rare days that I'd drive in, I'd arrive at work already feeling beaten down.
While it's true that there's plenty of cool stuff going on in the Redwood City-Sunnyvale corridor, I still prefer life in SF. I'll speculate that you'll hear a lot of startup-centric people here bagging on it, but to each his own.
Some advice:
- live as close as possible to the highway or caltrain. this means soma, potrero, the mission, or noe valley.
- negotiate at least 1 work from home day. friday is the best. (although wednesdays are usually easiest to ask for first)
- work off peak.
It's possible to get your average commute to about 45 minutes, which isn't so bad (still gets old though).
Some do. Perhaps you should ask your company why it doesn't. Or maybe you should work for one that does. Or even work for an SF-based company.
> I can't believe they think it's a good idea for employees to lose 2-3 hours every day in this way.
What fraction of your co-workers commute from SF?