Posted: Fri 22 November, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Driving, M1, M25, People, Thoughts, Work-related |
(No, not that sort of commitment – chiff that!)
Anyway. Having been a contractor for [far too] many years now, I find I still really don’t understand the people who take on a contract that’ll involve a large commute, and then bitch about it, or try and change the pay/conditions of the contract because of that commute. If/when I take on a commute, I know what kind of distance I’m going to be travelling in order to do it. I’ve usually checked out the drive/travel – at worst I’ve a pretty good idea of where I’ll be going, how I’ll do the travel, and what it’s likely to entail.
A current colleague is coming to the office daily from Essex, via the M25. It’s a 70 mile journey each-way, using the M25 and M1, and should take about 90 minutes. I’ve done longer journeys as a commute (both in mileage and travel time) and it’s roughly the same time/distance as I was doing from Suffolk to London a couple of years back. (That was actually a longer one because I then did about 45 mins on Tube travel as well)
At least once a week this colleague bitches about how bad his commute is, how troublesome, and what a nightmare the traffic is. I know he’s tried to get himself paid for travelling time, or reduce his working hours in order to level out the commute time. So far, the company has resisted changing anything, because he knew (or should’ve known) what he was letting himself in for – and I really can’t blame them.
With a contract, if you sign up for it, you should see it out at the terms/rates you agreed. I always do. The only time that changes is if the company is crap, or the conditions are not what you were told at the time. If they’d promised to pay for accommodation or whatever, and then didn’t, that’s a reason to change terms/rates. If the job/place isn’t what was sold at interview, fair enough, change things. If the job is simply not quite what you’d expected, grin and bear it.
Contracts are finite things. I can handle pretty much any commute or working conditions for three or six months. If you can’t, you either a) shouldn’t be contracting, b) should figure out your locations and commutes better, or c) should learn to shut up and put up.
Posted: Thu 31 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Change, Commuting, Depression, Domestic, Driving, Time, Work-related |
Last weekend, we switched back from BST to GMT, which is just another major clue that winter is just about here. (If you’ve missed the storms/gales, fireworks, X-Factor, Strictly, autumn leaves, shorter days etc.)
Thankfully, the gaining of an hour doesn’t usually affect me too much – the loss of one in spring usually hits me a bit harder, but still not all that much.
However, it appears to have somewhat confused the cats, who really don’t know what to make of it all. Food times have been disrupted, as well as everything else.
What does affect me the most, though, is the fact that I’m now leaving work and driving home in the dark. I don’t mind night-time driving, but still I find the darkness affects me just because it reduces the amount of available sunlight I get during the day. Indeed, the next time I’ll be even close to driving home in daylight is at the end of February.
As with previous years, I always found that the thing that affected me the most with getting home in the dark was getting back to an unlit house. Particularly when I was in Manchester, that return to a dark and empty house was very unpleasant, and since then I’ve always made a point of having at least one light on a timeswitch, so it’s on when I get home. It’s a ridiculous thing, but it makes such a massive difference in my head – very strange.
Posted: Mon 21 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Central Bedfordshire Council, Commuting, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Work-related |
This morning – and for the next two days – it turns out that Bedfordshire Council (Sorry, Central Bedfordshire Council) are resurfacing the road outside my house. (Again)
As work is (apparently) due to start at 8am, and go on ’til at least 6pm – i.e. the entire time I’m usually away from the house – it’s not too bad. However, it would’ve been nice to be warned about it in advance, which would’ve meant I might have parked elsewhere, for example.
It’s obvious that the warnings haven’t gone out at all, as there were also school buses and bin lorries trying to get down the now-closed road while people were working on it.
I don’t mind too much – it just means I find and use a different route to/from work today and tomorrow, which is always entertaining. But I can only imagine how many unwarned people there are who are going to be noticeably affected by the lack of warning/notice/signage about this over the next couple of days.
Not, mind you, that I expect anything less from the twunts that run the council…
Posted: Mon 14 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Travel, Weirdness |
I don’t know why, but today already seems to be populated by car accidents
- In the village, a van has gone straight over/through one of the traffic-calming pieces of road furniture, ripping it apart and also tearing off the front axle. (I’d love to see the insurance claim on that one!)
- On the way to work, two roundabouts had vehicles pulled over into inside lanes, with people exchanging details
- A slide of my own on another roundabout while being followed by a police car – fortunately small and controllable, but enough to think “Oh shit!”. (I know I was going slightly too fast, but trying to get out the way of aforementioned police car while I had nowhere to go due to fuck-knuckle bastards not moving in the other lane)
- I did manage to destroy a low-flying slow-moving pigeon with my windscreen. Hell of a thump, no damage, and no way to avoid it, due to a Mercedes very close behind me.
So far I’m fine, and it’s just been stuff around me, but it’s still weird.
[Updated : with regard to #3 above, another colleague comes the same way and also saw someone slide slightly at the same place, so I’m now thinking more that there was something on the road at that point than that I was being a dick]
A few years back this little set would’ve convinced me that the world was out to kill me today. I’m a bit less paranoid about that kind of thing now, and more believe in “shit happens”, but all the same, I think I’m going to be driving quite carefully on the way home…
Posted: Tue 8 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2012/13, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Health, Travel, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Work-related |
With the job change, I’ve just regained about 2½ hours a day. My commute has gone from 45-50 minutes each way to 20-25, which gives me the best part of an hour straight away. However, I was getting to Cambridge 45-60 minutes early, and leaving 45 minutes late in order to avoid the really slow/shit traffic on the dire sections of road. So that’s another 90-105 mins regained too.
With that time, my primary aim is to get back into doing something healthier, the cycling, maybe some workout stuff as well. That’s the plan, anyway.
However, despite the new workplace being a lot closer, I’m not planning to aim (yet) for cycling to work and back. Even the shortest route is a ten-mile journey, and some of the roads are pretty dodgy. I might explore a bit, see how things, go, but for now that’s firmly in the “see what happens” side of the list.
When all’s said and done, I’m just glad to have the time back, alongside having a better contract that’s making me happier too. I don’t mind idiot commutes (as regular readers know anyway) when it’s a job I’m enjoying, and when I’m happier with how work is coming along. When it’s a shit job though, the crap commute just exacerbates everything, makes me even less happy, knowing that I’m wasting even more time, that the entire thing is just a faff, and one I can’t be arsed with. It also turns out that when I’m down about my work, it also has a lot of knock-on effects on other bits of my life, as well as my self-image/ego/whatever, which I plan to write more about for tomorrow.
Posted: Mon 7 October, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Work-related |
Following on from last week’s post about change, today is the start of a new job.
The previous contract was OK, but really wasn’t working for me for lots of reasons, mainly related to the work involved. (as I’ve said before, it turns out I really don’t like working with pure data, I find it boring and uninspiring) Coupled to that, I didn’t overly like the company, or the way they did things. The final bit was the commute (and yes, this is me, the King of Idiot Commutes saying this) which just pissed me off. The route from home to Cambridge is just shit at busy times, being all single carriageway, and prone to absolutely solid traffic the entire way along it, so I’ve been leaving home earlier, and leaving work later, spending the ‘spare’ time reading, as the workplace won’t let me do flexi-hours. If the job itself were fun, interesting or challenging, the commute and extra time wouldn’t be an issue. But because the job isn’t/wasn’t fine, that commute just became the final straw.
So anyway, I got a call two weeks ago about a job that was closer to home, much more my type of thing (eCommerce portals, creating stuff from scratch, integration with existing processes, etc etc.) and based in an office on the grounds of one of the local stately homes. Spectacular stuff.
They interviewed me by phone last Monday, and offered me the job by the end of the day. I’m starting today, and I haven’t even met these people yet. That’s kind of scary, but it’s also pretty cool, being hired for my skillset rather than how I look in a suit.
Whatever happens, this means I’m getting back about three hours a day in travel time, getting paid about the same, and getting my life made easier and happier. It really is a no-brainer as far as all that is concerned.
We’ll see how it goes – all I know right now is that I’m just so pleased to be finished with the previous one. And I’ve kept my 100% record on successful interviews for this year, which is even better.
Posted: Thu 26 September, 2013 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Charm School, Commuting, Driving, M1, Work-related |
I have to say, because of this I’m very glad I’m not commuting via the M1.
It wouldn’t have affected me directly, but from the traffic reports, the closures and rubberneckers were screwing things up for everyone else, so I’m pretty pleased that I was commuting in the opposite direction, away from the M1 entirely…
Oops