Michael Bell wrote:
People sometimes talk about NEEDING a psychological distance
between their work and their home. It might be expressed in time or
distance. Do people need time to re-adjust themselves between the
attitudes of work and the attitudes of home.

For most of my career, my commuting journey was between 30 and 90 minutes
each way. For the short period when it was 10 minutes, I did feel sometimes
that it wasn't long enough to let me unwind before getting home. However, I
wasn't bothered enough about it to cause me to go and do something else for
20 minutes before getting in the car.

As a particular exaple of this, people sometimes say "I don't
want to live just round the corner from the company in case the boss
gets into the habit of ringing up and saying 'Fred. You live just
round the corner. Can you pop round and do a little job.'". I know of
no ACTUAL CASE of such exploitation, but certainly many people say
that is the reason why they live where they are, some distance from
work. How widespread is this?

Less than it was, I suspect, because people are more able to work from home,
whereas 20 years ago you had to go to into the office to cope with a weekend
crisis.

If this is true, then efforts to improve transport are a waste
of time, if you make it easier and better, people will offset it by
moving further away. Rather depressing.

It gives them the choice to move further away if they wish to. I don't see
what's depressing about that. I think most people would ideally like a
short commuting journey, but find that it conflicts with other needs, such
as:

- frequent moves of workplace due to job changes (in one company or
several), but a desire not to move home
- partners with jobs in different places
- area of workplace not suitable for living (property prices, environment
for bringing up children, etc.)

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)



This is what I have heard and seen, is it general experience?
Is there something we could or should do to change this so that people
can live nearer their work, put less burden on transport, and waste
less time?

--

Michael Bell