
On a daily basis I speak to Surveyors across London and the South East who are looking for their next job. There are a multitude of reasons as to why they are looking to move, the most common being that there is no room for progression or they were mis-sold the role. However, more and more commonly people are moving jobs because of the amount of time they spend commuting to work. Whether they are driving or using public transport, some are spending upwards of 2 hours each way on their journey to work and they are realising that this is ruining their quality of life.
Being someone who helps people in to new jobs, asking a jobseeker their commutable distance is an important question when considering whether the location of a role is realistic. With this in mind, I wanted to look in to this and I will look forward to hearing your comments.
WHY?
I’m seeing 3 recurring reasons why people accept roles which involve overly long commutes (if you know of more I would love to hear them).
Now, I don’t need to do the maths for you, travelling an extra 4 hours each day adds a sizeable chunk to your working week and it is your personal time that is being eaten up. Jobseekers have rightly pointed out that this is time which could be spent with their family or significant other, out with friends, at the gym or improving their prospects through evening classes and NOW they want it back!
With the job market and the construction industry in the best shape we have seen for a number of years, NOW is a great time to review this and make some changes.
HOW?
Doing this may seem harder than you might think but there are proactive things that you can do: –
Very occasionally I come across people who actually enjoy a long commute… They read, catch up on emails or even sleep. If you are one of these people I guess this article is moot but if not then I hope it has helped to highlight how important it is to look at every aspect of your job, not forgetting to take your personal life in to consideration!
I would love to hear your thoughts on this post and if you are in this very situation, we would love to help.