Re: When you work for the man, you work for the man
But the same rules apply, if you didn't like the fact you spent so long commuting each way and so much 'unpaid' time you wasted each week travelling you could of moved job to a different job that was closer to home. High Wycombe is not exactly a high unemployment area.
Everyone that commutes to work is doing so because it is the job they chose to do. You aren't at work whilst commuting so why would your empoloyer pay you. Not only that but if they did pay you then you would need business insurance in any vehicle you drove in and their insurance would need to cover you for injury whilst out of office but on your way in.
The motorways are full of people commuting every day because it is their choice to do that job on that salary. As other have said if you dont like it change job.
I left a fairly secure job to become self employed and earned a lot more money up in London, it was my choice and I had to pay lots of money for insurances etc. that i never had to do as an employee.
When a company that owed me for 9 months work was trying evrything possible not to pay it was my choice to take them to court for the money which would of been stressful on myself and family. Instead I made a decision to up and move from the south east back to the small village in the north I had grown up in. After a few months I started working for a company that was a 90% pay cut compared to what I could possibly earn in London in a different career path altogether. It was under half the salary I had at my emploer before going self employed.
but as an individual I was happy and less stressed as were my family. I bought my house in the north for cash, spent £40K on an extension mainly for our dogs. So yes I was lucky I had no mortgage for many years before.
Do I regret spending 20 years of my life working in the SE and London - No. Do I regret moving back north and miss all the money opportunities - No.
I changed employer again after a few years and ended up commuting 1 1/2 hours each way, more on days ofsitting with other 'friends of the M6'
I left that position and took another pay cut again to be only having to travel 5 miles each way. Even that became a drag and I gave it all up to become my wifes carer and I will do bits of work if and when i choose to do so.
Yes I have the luxury of having no mortgage, of choosing to drive my 15 year old car rather than buy myself a new 'shiny' of feeling very comfortable with my lifestyle that is very basic and simple.
Not everyone by age 35 has paid their mortgage off and can spend the next 30 years living without any debt or loans for anything. But it is ultimately down to individuals what they want to chase in life, worldly goods and perceived image of success.
It isnt up to companies to provide you with a well paid job that you can work from home. Having worked at a research establishment that started to allow certain 'administrative' staff to work at home 3 days a week well before the pandemic I can safely say that they were not more productive whilst out of the office. Indeed responsibilities they had to organise documentation to access laboratories had no way of being carried out when they were working from home. Not that they ever did much even when in the office the first thing they did every day was login to facebook NOT the companies database system.
That was a senior managers decision and so they also could never be found 3 days a week unless you chose to call their local golf course.
People at all work levels can be shirkers it's up to those even higher up the food chain to pull them up for it.
My philosophy is that if I am an employee of a company they are buying an agreed number of hours per week off me for my work, which I will carry out to the best of my ability. But don't ask me to work overtime or weekends paid or unpaid at stupidly short notice - example at less than a minutes notice at the end of a day. My time is my time. If I wasn't happy with how things were playing out I voted with my feet and left to do work I was happier to be doing instead.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
