I've ended up in a situation where I am commuting one hour each way to a client's office once per week.
This is my choice -- I could work totally remote, but I have found it necessary in order to resolve some issues to go in.
The difference is even more stunning when you are only doing it 20% of the time. I am fried when I get home, and commuting in Houston on a regular basis can take years off your life.
People get sucked into living like this slowly and don't realize how damaging it is.
I'm super lucky and 1) Work from home 2 days a week, and 3) When I do travel to the office, I rotate my day forward to start from 5:30 am and finish at 2:30 - 3 pm to avoid traffic.
15 years ago in Houston, 6:30 am was adequate to avoid most traffic when commuting from the Northside, nowadays, you need to be out the door about 4:30 am. That's a huge change. Traffic on I45 ramps up in the Spring area, right around 5 am.
I typically avoid commute time and have a flexible schedule. It's still an hour and driving on 45/the beltway is stressful no matter what time you do it at :S
This is my choice -- I could work totally remote, but I have found it necessary in order to resolve some issues to go in.
The difference is even more stunning when you are only doing it 20% of the time. I am fried when I get home, and commuting in Houston on a regular basis can take years off your life.
People get sucked into living like this slowly and don't realize how damaging it is.