One in five British workers commute for more than two hours every day according to research by recruitment website Monster.
11% of workers travel for up to 90 minutes each way, whilst 9% commute for even longer than that. Monster polled nearly 500 respondents about the duration of their commute and found the following results:
Andy Sumner, Managing Director for Monster UK and Ireland said: “If you aren’t happy in your job, then the commute is likely to feel like a grind every day. However, assuming you’re content at work, then a little imagination can make the journey a lot less arduous, pleasant and even surprisingly productive.”
“Consider reading a book on the tube or listening to a podcast on a topic you’ve always wanted to learn. If you’re going to be sat at your desk all day, perhaps make walking or cycling part of your commute.”
Surprisingly, a report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found that employees with a longer commute have a better quality of life than those with a shorter route to their place of work.
The Commuting and Personal Wellbeing 2014 report found that those who commute for more than 15 minutes each way experience a low level of life satisfaction. They also reported lower levels of happiness and higher levels of anxiety.
However the ONS found that whilst commuters with a journey time lasting between 61 and 90 minutes felt these side-effects the worst, when the commute time reaches three hours or more the negative effects on a worker’s personal wellbeing disappear.
This suggests that the 9% of workers who commute for this length of time each day have either different expectations or different experiences when it comes to their journey to work.
The rise of the internet and flexible working could eventually make the daily commute a thing of the past. Until that happens though, approximately one in every five workers you see today will spend at least an hour getting back to their homes tonight.
