Last summer I accepted a promising job offer that turned out to be a nightmare. The workplace was a 15 mile highway drive from my home which seemed very close. But my interviews weren't during rush hour, and on my first day of work I realized how terrible the highway situation in the mornings was:
Traffic was so bad, I drove most of my commute at like 10mph. And to make matters worse, the office was in the city center and didnt have it's own parking spaces, so I'd have to circle around the streets every day until I found one that was free of charge. My commute turned out to be 1-1,5 hours ONE WAY, so 2-3 hours in total, on most days. And as if that wasn't enough, the office was ruled by a gang of bitter boomer ladies that would throw a huge fit when us younger ones were 1 minute late. They actually expected you to be there at least 15 minutes before work started (unpaid of course and for no fucking reason, because it wasn't busy).
Anyway, back to rush hour. I still have a trauma from being stuck in traffic jams with dead-eyed irritated people, honking their cars as if that would help anything… seeing accidents on the way and thanking God it wasn't me. How after all the time wasted in an hour long unpaid lunch break and commutes, I'd still have grocery shopping and chores waiting for me at home.
Since January I've been at a new job that is a 10 minute bike ride from my home and I couldn't be happier. I still hear the “10 mile long traffic jams on highways x, y and z” -news on the radio every morning and I can't help but wonder – how do people do this!?