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Comment by labcomputer | Hacker News Reader

> Traffic and commuting is one of the worst little things of daily life. It's dangerous. It ruins the environment. Parking sucks.

I agree, but commuting has significant mental-health benefits. It provides a clear mental separation between "work" and "home".

I and several of my coworkers have noticed that we never feel "off work" anymore. Work just bleeds into everything because there isn't that 30 minute period (enforced by the need to arrive home in time to make and eat dinner) to clear your head at the end of the day and mentally switch contexts.

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> commuting has significant mental-health benefits.

My experience has been the exact opposite. I've been fortunate to have very reasonable commutes in all my jobs, but WFH is much better than my 25-30 minute commutes. I no longer get the "it's 5:50PM but can you take a quick look at this because you're the only one still here" issues that had me commuting home at 7 or 8 pm every few weeks. And then there's the 20 hours a week of time I get to play with my kid, do chores, or relax. Sure I still get the occasional slack message mid evening, but that was happening before WFH as well. There are downsides around ease of communication and sense of camaraderie, but work life balance/separation has been pretty much 100% win.

I have noticed a tendency among people to rationalise things that suck in life to actually be good for you. Phrases such as "It builds character" or "It is necessary for the society/people/..." are not too uncommon.

It seems to be a universal characteristic of people to co-opt largely harmful activities such as smoking for useful things such as social interaction or relaxation.

You can just... Make one. You can just make the division. You can turn off the work computer and walk away at five.

That's just what my wife has started doing. It's an easy division when you stop looking at emails after 5.

Not the same thing. You're still in the same physical space.

Again, that time on the bike/train/car provides head space to mentally context switch away from work time and into home time.

Plus, it's very easy to do "just one more" commit while you're boiling pasta for dinner.

Have you tried going for a 20 min walk or something like that after work? I have a dog so I find that taking him out after helps with this.

This is not a need that all of of us have. Nor is a commute an effective way for all of us to disconnect from work. It very much depends on both the person and workplace in question. Where it apparently is a serious need for you, I'd second some of the other suggestions on finding your own replacement, maybe something along the lines of set an alarm for end of day, turn everything off, and get out of the house and walk/bike.

I don't feel that way at all. Yesterday I dismissed one person who wanted me to "take a quick look" by saying that my work day ends in 10 minutes so I won't be able to help much, then after these 10 minutes I closed down my work laptop and enjoyed the rest of my evening without thinking about work once. The problem exists solely in your head.

> commuting has significant mental-health benefits

This seems like a stretch for anyone who has ever dealt with rush-hour traffic in a major city.

That's true, which is why I think there's a middle ground. A total 10-30 minutes daily commuting is nice and better than 0. I saw statistics once that said the average one way is 40 minutes, which is dangerous and tiring.

Is that the mean or median?

Appears to be mean: https://www.getkisi.com/work-life-balance

I agree, exacyly. Unfortunately, having such an ideal commute is basically impossible for most people, who are left with the other two options, both of them worse. Alternate between commute and wfh is better but just not as good.

I really feel like an ideal commute is one of the ultimate luxuries, given how much impact it has on daily life. Even better than 20 mins by car is 20 mins by bike/ on foot.

This is a truly, truly terrible take. I work 100% remote and I've never been happier. Our culture is fantastic and we are encouraged to log out at our EOD working hours.

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