Cost of season ticket for my new commute: £3000, gasp!
I have been thinking about the issue of work-life balance today. I like many academics (especially those with partners) am not able to move to the town where my job is, so I have at least a few years of commuting ahead of me. While I am not sure that I want to spend 4 hours every day on the train (!), the prospect of spending the same amount of time driving on the M6 upsets me even more! Question: Is my new job worth the price of traveling in terms of time and money? Answer (for me at least): of course it is.
The great thing about a career in academia is, unlike in schools or FE, it’s not just teaching-focused. Therefore I will be given time each week by my employer to go off and do some research and prepare my classes. So, an academic career is suitable for a long commute, at least more so than a traditional 9-5 job. I certainly won’t have to be in the office five days a week. And with the purchase of a laptop, I can spend those 4 hours a day on the train working, answering emails, marking and so on.
You do hear of some comically-long commutes by people in academia: I will be doing Coventry to Manchester, others I know of include York to Manchester, Sheffield to Canterbury and London to Edinburgh, although those last two are weekly rather than daily commutes. Think about the U.S. and it’s even sillier there, I know people who regularly travel several hundred miles daily, or several thousand miles weekly. With both members of a couple working full-time in equally high-powered jobs, this sort of thing is only going to become more common in all sectors, not just academia.
Do you have any experience of doing a long commute, or living away from ‘home’ to do a job? At what point does this sort of sacrifice become not worth it?
Do universities as a rule offer you anything for travel expenses or do they assume if you want the job you will absorb the cost of this yourself? I wonder if this is something you think Universities are looking into as part of their offering if the market is changing and people are willing to travel further?
Hi Ali,
I am not quite sure what the norm is in other sectors/industries, does anyone know?
In academia some especially ‘green’ unis offer incentives to get on to public transport, so will do discounted tickets for short journeys or interest-free loans for more expensive season tickets.
As far as I know, they don’t offer travel expenses to get into work, although of course for full time staff most unis provide travel expenses for conferences, research trips etc because this is all part of the work of an academic.
I certainly think unis should consider helping out long distance commuters, but by making working from home easier and more acceptable outside of teaching hours. Many unis are pretty good on this already.
Sorry, more questions than answers there I am afraid, perhaps someone else can help us out?!
Catherine
I do think employers as a rule should seriously think about discouraging daily long distance commuting, I can’t see how any university would be able to hold its head up and say it’s doing everything it can to be environmentally friendly if it also allows staff to drive 100s of miles every day. Then again, RAE means that universities are desperate to get top academics in no matter where they live (or how much time they spend on campus?!) so the two don’t go hand in hand!
Joan,
I couldn’t agree more, we must all try to work towards more environmentally friendly working practices including staff traveling. Anecdotally, I just heard the best (or worst) commute yet: it’s in the private sector and a weekly not daily commute, but someone was traveling from L.A. to Sydney to go to work!!! Two 14 hour flights every week of the year: shocking. Can anyone beat that? I don’t think any academic post in the world would justify that sort of journey and the carbon footprint is ridiculous.
Catherine
There will always be people who do long commutes, and because universities are so closely tied to their locations we’re likely to get more than the “fair” share of long commutes than others. But then what is “fair”? You get pop stars / orchestras travelling long distance to do concerts, etc., the LA – Sydney traveler’s carbon footprint is surely more than many many people but some jobs just involve a lot of traveling. In a way lecturers are also doing ‘gigs’ so to travel a fair amount is possibly (but unfortunately) reasonable. Personally I hate commuting, I try to live next door to my dept if possible.
Hi AM,
I couldn’t agree more, I think in our sector commuting is often unavoidable. My new four-hour commute will be a real shock to the system as I have been walking to work for several years. I am pragmatic about it though and will treat those hours on the train as part of the working day doing some work on my laptop (if I can get a seat that is!).
It’s an interesting point though, about other professions that involve even more travelling. It can seem quite glamorous, but people say that you quickly get fed up of the endless round of hotel rooms and living out of suitcases. I suppose it comes down to the sacrifices that an individual job is worth. And that answer will be different for everyone, but it’s good to have the discussion to make people think about work-life balance.
Hi Catherine,
Just discovered this blog – it has been so reassuring to read of someone in the same position as me struggling with exactly the same issues so thank you very much for writing it.
The commuting issue is particularly troubling me at the moment. Just been offered a temporary (10 month) post in Sheffield and am thinking of commuting from London which is where my partner is. About the same sort of distance as from Coventry to Manchester (I think). Are you planning to mainly travel up and stay over night in a b+b or something or to do the return journey in one day?
Hi Matt,
Thanks for commenting on my blog! Well done for getting the post in Sheffield.
Because my job is permanent and I am on probation for the first year, my teaching load is lighter than it would normally be, to ease me into the job so to speak. Therefore I can get away with travelling up daily. I’ll only be ‘in the office’ three days a week and I don’t have any 9am starts.
I reckon once you get your teaching timetable you’ll be able to determine the best plan of action. Also money comes into it (as always!)…it may work out cheaper to travel off peak and stay over in a B & B rather than buy peak-time rail tickets.
And issues of work-life balance are important too: you obviously want to spend time with your partner and other family/friends so what is the best plan of action for leading a normal home life and not being on the road all the time? All tough decisions…good luck with them!