Millions admit the suffering from a daily fatigue commute. Is there ever a chance to reverse the situation?
Statistics in the U.S. before the pandemic shows that an employee would take more than 27 minutes on average to get to work. In the UK, this number is over 60 minutes, more than double.
I scoured the Google search page for the data in Vietnam, but unfortunately, there are not any reports that provide an exact figure of how long Vietnamese employees have to spend on daily office commute by and large. Most of the people around me have at least once confessed a vain hope to stay home instead of driving to work, or lament the coming commute from work after an exhausting day. In fact, 25% of Vietnamese Gen Z say that not having a commute is what they love most when working from home. (Dreamplex & Decision Lab — Gen Z & The Workplace in Vietnam, 2021.)
I spent at least 2 hours/day commuting to work in the past several years. That’s what you have to exchange when living far from the city center. (If your home is at the prime location — congratulations!). Here are a few things I do to make my travel time more worthwhile:
Although I have kept an optimistic attitude and tried many ways to value my commuting time, I still cannot dismiss this period of a day when I am dissatisfied the most in the driving state, my spine speaks up too!
Commute time is downtime, all you can do is passively receive. Wait, what about public transport?
Even if you really want to save energy for yourself and Mother Earth, waiting and sitting on the bus takes twice as much time as you drive yourself on your compact motorbike. Not to mention yet you may need a quick ride by bike to move in-between during the day, for food, for location change, or for whatever reason you cannot deny in the 2-wheel-favored cities.
In terms of health, joint pain and backache are what you could experience when driving for a long time and without a back cushion. Racing with turtles up the bridge foot or cramming in the crowd surrounded by horns and smoke — is such a nightmare. In this case, many people choose to go to work really early or leave the office a bit later, which means more time jumps out of the window for no purpose. Quarantine directions allowed less traffic on the road. It’s true to say the epidemic somehow addresses our problems a bit, isn’t it?
Not everyone has the conditions to live near the workplace or choose a job close to their home. The Harvard Business Review published some articles mentioning “commuter’s bias” to point out a quite common commute-related trap of townsfolk. When standing at the crossroads of job offers, many people are more likely to believe that they can drive longer distances in exchange for a higher salary and keep a spacious apartment yet away from the center. They often underestimate the disadvantages of wasting time, effort, and expense of traveling to work — the opportunity cost of better physical and mental well-being.
Will the work remain at the same level of efficiency?
The pandemic has proven that almost every profession can transform online. Have you ever seen a doctor examine and prescribe a patient over the phone?
The hybrid model comes as the future of work and also the key to daily long work commute problems.
It empowers employees with the freedom to choose the most preferred time and place to work. People can work from home, at a coffee shop, or at the site closest to their place (if the company is big enough to have multiple headquarters in different regions, or they can be based in a coworking space and have access to all satellite offices -the common style nowadays.)
Many reports are out to prove performance and productivity of employees increase when they work from home. Without being emotionally drained by emissions and traffic lights, most of them can start the workday earlier (then end it earlier). Otherwise, the time savings can be used for longer sleep in the morning or for personal interests instead. My two hours a day, which equates to more than 460 hours per year, exchange for a lot of free time for hobbies and personal care which makes me much happier and more relaxed.
Wandering on Medium, I was caught by a quote from author AJ Jones:
“Commuting has symbolic value: It demonstrates an employee’s loyalty and commitment to the organization. But when stripped to its core, commuting is nothing more than the sacrifice an employee makes to meet the conditions of their employment.”
How can we make employees come to the office voluntarily and enjoy all the facilities provided?
To the point, the effective employee experience program exerts a crucial role. Even the best design gets stale after a while, but what stays in mind is how it feels. Very supportive. Comfortable. Connected. Some simple descriptions of feelings are made up of many different pieces like a puzzle, aiming to change the perception of coming to the workplace, from the obligation to the right to take job perks and benefits. By then, office time will carry more weight than the time it takes to get there.
At the end of the day, sacrifice or honor depends on each person’s definition. Hybrid work coming with splendid on-site experience dares to impact that definition. Do you agree?
Great workplaces attract, engage, and retain talent better. Dreamplex provides Physical Office and Workplace Experience to create A Better Day at Work for millions of employees in Vietnam.
WE CREATE BETTER DAYS AT WORK.
