Exercising instead of commuting
The company I work for is really big on allowing employees to telework (work from home). In my particular group, most employees work from home at least one day a week. I will be eligible to participate in that program in the end of December! YAY!
This morning, I learned about a teleworking pilot program where an entire division (about 40 people) of an orgranization worked from home for 3 months, every day of the week. The pilot was a huge success, and my company’s leader wants to push for people to work from home more than one day a week.
Here is what I thought was really interesting about the pilot program – the employees were required to spend the time they weren’t commuting on a wellness initiative. That could be walking, yoga, biking, running… you get the idea – some sort of physical activity.
When I heard that, I thought “holy crap – that would be a lot of exercise for me!” My door-to-door one-way commute is an hour and 45 minutes. That is three and a half hours of commuting in a day! Imagine how much I could work out. Ha.
Metra, I love you and all, but we spend TOO much time together!
I think that is a really cool idea, to encourage wellness in employees. After I heard it though, it just reminded me how depressing it is that I spend that much time a day commuting. Blah.
How long is your commute (to school/work/wherever you go)? What would you do with that time if you didn’t have to spend it commuting?
Themocracy
That is one long commute! I don’t think I could do that everyday. I work from home right now. I always think it would be neat to have a job in the city and take the metra. The nice thing is you leave your work at work.
That is a freaking LONG commute!! To and from work, my commute is probably 40 minutes a day, but it takes me much longer because I drop my dog off at my parents house first.
Honestly, if I had the extra time, I’d sleep.
An hour and 45 minutes? Gah. I couldn’t take it. I live 4 minutes from my job, so I guess I already know what I do with my time. I sleep in.
I work from home Monday, Thursday, and Friday. On Tuesday I drive 1 hour 45 minutes to my office. I stay the night with friends, work Wednesday, then drive home. I can’t imagine doing the commute everyday!
That is nice that office lets you work from home. What a long drive though!
Dude. That’s a hell of a commute! We moved to where we are now to be closer to John’s job, but he still spends between an hour and an hour and a half in the car every day. Which isn’t even 1 way for you!
I kind of miss my commute – once I learned to let go of the road rage (HA! I was terrible) it turned into my “decompress” time of the day. Now my exersize is what forces me to step away…
It takes me around an hour (2 hour round trip) to get to work. I take a train similar to Metra. I love the train but an hour and 45 minutes is crazy long! I work from home once every two weeks and I love it! I sleep in but start work before I normally would and I’m off for the day by 3:30! I usually run during my lunch break and then I have the afternoon to myself.
I like the idea of what the pilot program is doing, but you’d think they would just push for 30 minutes of working out per day instead of commuting time!
I’m lucky in that my work is a mere 7-9 miles from home. I can commute by bike in a half hour. I’m unlucky in that I live in the Pacific Northwest and we get a LOT of rain here…
I’m right up there with you on a long commute (3-1/2 hours). I would love it if I didn’t have to take the train to the city everyday.
It sounds like you have struck pay dirt with this incentive. I hope it’s as good as it sounds.
That is an awesome program! Wow. I wonder if the people really had to exercise the whole time or if they could just start work earlier and be done earlier.
You know my door-to-door commute is 45 minutes (sometimes 40 if I luck out with trains) but I’d much rather be spending that time running or at the gym.
I’m torn on working from home. I’ve done it a few times and I find myself really distracted. I can’t wait to hear more about it when you start doing it on a regular basis.
I think if I worked from home all the time I would be distracted. When I start working from home I hope to save the concentrated work for that day 🙂
I do work more now that I work from home because I don’t have any commute and I don’t have to get ready!!
Wow, that is a long commute — I go a little nuts as it is, and my commute was less than an hour! I say “was” because my office moved yesterday, and now it’s just over half an hour. I actually like having the “off” time to catch up on reading or whatever, but I DON’T like it when the train stalls every five seconds!
Ha, I wonder if a program like that allows for delays in commutes?! ;p
<3 <3
Wow– that pilot program sounds really interesting. I’m allowed to work from home, not because of a long commute, but because my boss is mostly retired and the work I do isn’t based on place, unless I need to be at a client. I think the push, though, to have people use that time toward their health is a really great show. Employers want to decrease their health insurance costs (which routinely go up 10-15% a annually) and wellness initiatives are being linked to decreased costs. I say happier and healthier employees would be a result 🙂
That is a very interesting program. One of my students is actually writing his final research paper on wellness programs/initiatives in major companies and how they are effectively implemented. Maybe he’ll mention things like that! Do you know how the company kept track of the employees’ fitness and wellness routines? Have you seen that some Japanese companies are instituting really strict wellness initiatives to keep their employees from getting fat?
I bike to school when it’s warm, so that’s about 15-17 minutes on my bike and maybe 25 minutes when I take the bus in the winter. I would definitely love a job where I could work from home (I hate dressing up, and I get so easily annoyed with people. Offices might spell disaster for me…) and exercise.
I would really be interested to learn more about those programs! It always seems that other countries are more on track than us…
I’m with everyone else in agreeing that that’s quite a long commute. Good thing you can take mass transit to do it though, I’m sure that’s a relief!
On days that I fly, my commute to the airport is 5 miles – and then the actual commute of the flight and drive to site (probably about 4 hours in motion on average in a day?). Otherwise, I work at home, which is fantastic. I’ve found myself spending that extra commute time sleeping in (way too much), working extra (this happens a lot), or just vegging. It’s also really nice to have the flexibility of taking ‘lunch’ when I want to, and going for a run or swim or whatever – and then not having to look nice again afterward!
I think telecommuting is work of the future. I did it for a while and saw very few reasons why we all have to go an office. There’s more flexibility at home, less commuting (and environmental damage), and the work DOES get done. I think I’m more efficient at home because I have reason to be. At work, I’m more likely to drag something out. I’m lucky that my commute is only about 15 minutes. In Southern California, an hour commute (one way) is pretty standard. Your work’s attitude is GREAT, and I’m so happy you’ll get to take advantage of it soon!
I love that idea! I really hope that when I go to school, graduate and get a real job that my future employer will let me work from home sometimes (or all the time). That would be a dream come true. Right now my total commute is only about 15 minutes.. so not much exercise for me.
Wow! What an awesome program! My work frowns upon working from home (such a non-profit state of mind, ugh). My commute is only 15 minutes. I’d like to work out more than that if I worked from home!
That sounds like a great program! My brother usually does 1 day/week at home, sometimes more with his government job.
Love the wellness initiative aspect of it though.
That is really clever!! I know when I worked from home it was sooooooooo much easier to get my exercise in without the commute. I could sleep in later, exercise at lunch, whatever. Although I could not go back to telecommuting full time–I like it so much better being around people. Still, a few days a week would be nice!
My “commute” to work is only about 20 minutes, so I will still do my workouts during their regular time, BUT, I would get housework done on my breaks and lunch, so it didn’t cut into my evening time!
1 hour 45 minutes?! You need to move downtown, girl!
I commute 10-15 minutes each way (totaling 30 minutes max of travel). And if I could live closer to work, I would!
City living is just not for me! But I don’t want to do it forever.
It’s at least 2 hours 15 minutes on a GOOD day for a round-trip commute. Tonight, it was 2 hours just getting home, plus the 45 minutes it took to get there. DC traffic is crazy!
On days I work from home, it’s amazing how much extra time is in the day.
Round trip my commute is about 1 hour and 15 minutes… it was 40 min. when I had a car, but I’m finding I kind of enjoy my relax time on the bus. I can read, listen to music, or just doze off… it’s crazy how easily I can doze off, haha. 🙂
my commute is about a total of an hour and a half to two hours a day. if i didn’t have it…oh my gosh, i can’t tell you what i’d do. on top of the two jobs…and the driving, i barely have time to work out. I would definitely enjoy working out at different times of the day, rather than at lunch or at 4 a.m.!
I don’t think I could do your commute. My husband has a similar thing and I just don’t know how you guys do it.
That would be so cool to work from home more than once a week. I know you would still have to work but at least you would skip the extra 3 hours those days.
My commute is only about 40 minutes round trip but I would love to be able to work from home. That would free up so much time to get to the gym or run a little longer outside in the morning!
Wow- I would love to work from home. Obviously, working in a school, that is not practical. Although my boss, the principal, “works from home” when she feels like not coming in. No, not kidding. My commute is about 20 minutes. If we had any way of showering, I would bike every day.
That is awesome that your company is encouraging teleworking and you get to participate soon! I spend two hours each day travelling back and forth and hate it just a little more every day! The buses are crowded, smelly, stuffy and uncomfortable. Some days you wait forever in the freezing cold for one to show up and sometimes they don’t. (If a driver is sick or doesn’t feel like working.)
Everyone-With the exception of emergency personnel. ie. police, doctors, nurses, firemen, etc-should telework. It would cut significantly down on pollution, cold/flus, car accidents and would enable people to spend more time with their loved ones, perform household chores and yes exercise.
working from home is the best! And it it’s super nice sleeping or running when you would normally be commuting! Plus, not getting ready for work save a lot of time in the morning too.
I had that exact commute and I do not miss it one bit. It’s great to get something done after work, have something to eat and be still be home I normally would be if I had my old commute.
I love the exercise initiative aspect of this whole thing as it would otherwise save me my personal exercise time to do other things. However, I maintain that working from home is dangerous. I’m way too easily distracted.