Would you quit if your company moved your office?

My company did move, but closer to my house.

I've driving-in-the-dark and even walking in the dark issues so timing has been very important to me and for the lives of others on the road. When I finally got a good job near home, that was terrific, and I stayed for years. There were jobs I reasonably expected I could walk into in both downtown Los Angeles and the far part of the San Fernando Valley and I couldn't go for them for that reason. Plus, regional transportation in LA sucked, or so I thought until I came to Albuquerque.

The answer for me is, "it depends."

I love my job, and I love the people with whom I work.

I wouldn't give up a significant amount of my time with my family, however.

Out of town, and even then I'd think about it.

My company was threatening to move downtown a while back. I decided I'd probably move closer to downtown if they did - but they didn't. It was all a ploy to help with re-negotiating the new lease.

But if they moved out of town or wanted me to transfer to another location...well, as DrewDad said, it depends.

I had to move location to another town for a year and a half. I knew that at some point I'd be back at my original office, so I suck it up and toughed it out.

My trip went from 15 minutes to 45 and from 10 miles to 35.
I went from a semi-civilized drive as far as traffic, to traveling on an interstate surround by tractor trailer trucks.

I can never adequately express how much I hated it, and hated the town I had to go to, but in the end it was all right because I got back my really nice office, a salary increase, and my sanity.

I travel about 15 miles to work - no problem, it's mostly against traffic.
Moving to another city would depend on the offer and where it is.
Since I live in paradise now, it would be pretty hard to beat

****, I already drive 50 miles to work every day. I must be nuts!

Non-applicable. My company's office is in another state as it is.

I long time boss liked his long drive - it was his only quiet time....

I went from downtown Boston (pub tran) to Westwood (driving, maybe 35 mins in the AM, with traffic every afternoon). But I did it gladly because (a) I was working for a company where you'd never get promoted unless you sucked it up and transferred (stupid reason by the company, and I never got promoted by them, anyway) and (b) I was working with a woman I hated so that got me away from her. She went to another department and within 6 months I had returned.

That town is within my commuting radius, which is the Route 128 circle. Nothing is more than maybe an hr away (I've also worked in Burlington, MA, which was about 40 mins each way) and it's a well-known radius so if a recruiter asks it does not have to be explained.

I prefer pub tran but I've driven, too. Eh, it's okay. For a driving job, though, I prefer it if there's a fighting chance of working at home if the roads are really bad.

I'm in a situation where a job that I love dearly moved to a location that I despise. My commute has doubled along with my gas bill. I live somewhat in town and the office, which had been at a very convenient location on public transportation, moved to an exurb 20 miles outside of town. Public transportation, though technically possible, would take about 2 hours each way. We considered moving out here but we just can't stomach it. I'm seriously considering finding a different job closer to home.

I'm waffling because 1) other people have much longer commutes and don't complain, so what am I whining about and 2) I do really love the job and the people. But I wish I could take the train sometimes or ride my bike to work. I wish we didn't need two cars. I wish it didn't take me 45 minutes to get back in town to my kids' school. I wish the long drive didn't suck the energy from my soul.

Yeah, those energy-sucking drives... In L.A. I was about 25 miles from work, which depending on traffic took about half an hour or about 3 hours. I think 4 hours was my record (one way), 1.5 hours was common.

There's been all this recent research on happiness and long commutes are really, really, anti-happiness. I mean you know this, but.

Not just the drive itself but the bite it takes out of time to do other stuff, more relaxing and social stuff.

I know you really like this job, though! Sorry you're in this situation.

Any kind of car-pooling possible with a co-worker? Wouldn't solve everything but might make the commute less odious plus also having green implications (and maybe even rendering a second car unnecessary...)

Work from home?

Small branch office if there are enough of you that hate the drive?

Carpooling is something I looked into but unfortunately there is only one other person who lives inside the perimeter and he has a different schedule (no kids).

It's funny, we were really hoping to go to one car before this move, so that's another blow. Most everyone I talk to around here seems to think it's just par for the course and I'm starting to feel like my expectations are too high. Some people commute here from much further away and don't complain, so I start to feel guilty. But we made the choice to live where we live for the express reason that it's important to us not to spend a lot of time in the car and to be able to walk to places and to use public transport.

Sometimes it's not so bad. I can usually get to work in about 35 minutes, but the drive home is much, much, much worse, ranging from 1 hour to 2 with nothing pretty to look at except the ass of the car in front of you. By the time I get home I have no energy for my kids.

Ah, I broached the subject. I asked for 2 days a week of regular working from home. There are two problems with it: 1) we have a very collaborative environment, which is one of the things I actually enjoy and 2) we are owned by bankers so we don't have a work from home policy. Management is concerned that pushing for one would yield a policy that reads like this: there is no working from home.



Unfortunately we aren't big enough for this, but if we were that branch would probably be in another suburb where more of my coworkers live.

Am I just a freak for wanting to live in the city?

The other way around. I moved on my company. Went from seven miles to forty each way. It was worth the trade.

You are not a freak, FD, at least not in my book.

I hadn't considered what I'd do if the company moved to the outer burbs. I'd move or quit. Probably quit.

I could never do the 1 1/2 hour commutes (x 2) that some of my coworkers do every day. There are lots of vanpools too, but even so, what kind of life is that?

Maybe it's not so much the distance as it is the fact that it's somewhere I wouldn't want to live. If they moved far, but to a place that we'd like to live then we could move to be closer. But this place isn't any place like that, though we did seriously consider it.

Wow, I really feel for you freeduck.

If I hadn't known that eventually I move back to my original location, I don't think I would have stayed at the job….actually, I doubt I would have. Like I said, I hated every second I had to do it to. Every day, around the same place I would just lean my head back in the car and moan "God, I'm in the middle of nowhere, I can't stand it!"

You only have so many hours in your day, in your life, and I personally wouldn't want to long term waste so much of my time getting to where I have to go.

In addition, I had to make changes in my lifestyle at that time. I could no longer run out for a ½ hour to run errands, because the places I needed to go were where I lived, not worked.

I'm with you. I like living where everything I want to do is in a reasonable distance. I'm not, for instance, like someone who lives in a big city like New York or Chicago, but I'm definitely not a country girl. Been there, done that.

Would you be able to relatively quickly find another good job?


BTW, with me it was the same that I'd never of wanted to live there....God.