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Comment by xyzzy_plugh | Hacker News Reader

The last time I worked in an office, I spent half of my time working alone at my desk, or in a video call. I can't remember ever having a significant non-video call meeting. It got to the point where most days none of the folks in our corner of the open office even talked to each other. What was I spending 2 hours a day commuting for? Sure the office was extremely nice, but the whole thing was a farce.

Later on I asked to transition to fully remote, which was denied as I didn't have a track record of working remotely. Ignoring this torturous, flawed logic, I pointed out that I had effectively been working remotely the entire time I was there, but it fell on deaf ears.

I soon left and have been working remote ever since. I'll never go back, and I'll never have to. Turns out there are tons of more sane remote friendly employment opportunities out there than there are in-office jobs in my city.

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I had a similar experience, but my employer was fortunate to have our lease expiring in late 2020, so we just took the dive into being all-remote. Since then, I've had direct reports from the UK to Oregon. I live in a major city with a lot of talent, but being able to increase our pool to a global search has been amazing, and I think we all get more done by working from home.

Why does everyone claim to have an hour commute? That’s a significant outlier.

Having recently driven through downtown Toronto at rush hour for an in person office visit, I could see how an hour would be easy to rack up, because I’ve done it. One day at the end of the workday, it took me 20 minutes to get from my parking garage, around a single city block, and to the highway on ramp. Never again.

You’d be surprised how many people that work in Manhattan offices have 1hr+ long commutes.

In the is Seattle area you’re likely spending 30-45 min to go 10-15 miles. 20 miles is easily an hour.

I invite you to visit Bangalore or any city in India.

Unless you are a career beginner and living in a shared one room "paying guest" arrangement closer to office or you are upper management earning enough to afford an apartment closer to office ... you are more likely living in an affordable apartment (that still costs you your life savings and 20 year mortagage) and commuting through horrendous trafic for 2-3 hours each day. This is me.

Is it? Back when I was commuting from Boise -> Nampa (a suburb where a lot of folks live) leaving at rush hour it'd easily take me a minimum of 45 minutes to get home. They've done some upgrades since so it might be better now, (I blessedly don't have a reason to find out). Plenty of folks were going to Caldwell (even further out).

I don't have firsthand knowledge but it would surprise me to learn the big tech hubs are better.

An outlier in which direction? If you have to make even one transit connection, it's hard to average less than an hour.

In the United States the average commute time is under 30 minutes.

The vast majority of Americans live in suburbs and the door-to-door from their suburban rancher to the office by car is 15-20 minutes.

If, in the United States, your commute is over one hour you are an extreme outlier in the "wtf are you thinking?" direction.

> wtf are you thinking

1. Wanted to buy a house (everywhere closer is either a ghetto or 100k+ more and usually both).

2. Not going to spend 6 additional months job hunting to micro-optimize commute.

All GP and I are trying to point out is that the average commute, depending on city, is somewhere between 15-40 minutes and is normally distributed.

> If, in the United States, your commute is over one hour you are an extreme outlier in the "wtf are you thinking?" direction.

In a post-pandemic world the "what they were thinking" may well have been that had 2 years when they weren't permitted to work in an office, and made decisions on the basis that this would continue.

My dad moved to an entirely different city 8 hours away from where he was originally living (although in his case he checked that he would allowed to continue working remotely before moving (which he has been able to), and was close to retiring anyway).

All GP and I are trying to point out is that the average commute, depending on city, is somewhere between 15-40 minutes and is normally distributed.

Can you provide any statistics to show that it's an outlier?

Quite common in most European cities, it suffices to have at least one change of transport.

in LA, it’s 45-60+ minutes to drive anywhere. work if you’re lucky. groceries. gym. social activities.

I’ve had 3 hour commutes in Chicago suburbs too.

Austin and the Bay Area are awful too. Did all of them.

Now I live in a town where it’s no more than 15 minutes to anything.

Double check me, but every source I can find says the average commute time in Los Angeles for working professionals is bang on 30 minutes.

Where is this magical place that also has in-office well paying tech jobs?

One answer could be survivorship bias.

Only the people who have long commutes are going to make comments about it, and thus every comment makes it seem like every person is saying they have an hour commute.

When in reality the people with short commutes don't comment on it.

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