I hate commuting. I spent good part of my early life when I was working in my first suit-and-tie office job commuting back-and-forth in the San Francisco Bay Area.

My Early Commuting Exposure

At that time, I didn't have the fortune of a working car, so I had to rely on public transit, something American Pacific western municipal design didn't support well. For me, it was an ugly process of taking two buses and a train twice a day to get from what was the northern part of the Bay Area into San Francisco and back. I’d have to get up at five in the morning to catch up 5:45am bus that would then get me across to the East Bay to the rapid train system, BART. That was our equivalent of the subway compared to many other cities. On the return, after a long workday of 8 to 5, I would take another train back home to the East Bay, and then from there I'd catch another bus and finally a half hour walk up the hill to get back to my parent's house. It was a godsend when I was finally able to move to a small hole-in-the-wall studio apartment in the City instead. At least then I just took the City buses to get around.

We Had to Find Something Other than TikTok to be Amused

Four hours of my daily life was wasted in a commute, and that was before the Internet and mobile phones with the ability to get something done while you’re sitting the whole time. I was literally sick of reading after a few months of it, and I swore I never wanted to be in a career where I had to do a commute again.

Something Close By

So, once I had a really good career job, I made a point to live close to my work, and it was wonderful. 30-minute bike ride in or a 10-minute vehicle ride, and I was at work or home. Losing hours of my life sitting in the car and trying to get to where I was over, at least for the time being. Unfortunately, many of the places where I lived that were close to work weren’t necessarily the best neighborhoods. Eventually, as you grow older, something better for your personal property and place to live and your real home became a stronger and stronger pressure, so I eventually migrated away from the downtown area as I got into my 30s. By this point I was also starting a family, so I found a spot in suburbia that could work. It was still technically without a major commute, more like  You know a 20-minute ride in either way.

Now, some 30 years later and working a lot closer to retirement but still commuting, I am amazed society still hasn’t bothered to embrace public transit in my area or developed something better. I still rely on a vehicle, like thousands of others, and we still sit in our cars or trucks or SUVs trying to get from point A to point B. We spend hours of our lives wasted on the cement highways to do it all over again the next day. 

A Moment of Clarity

When the pandemic hit the commuting requirement, as far as I was concerned, disappeared entirely. Not having to deal with car maintenance or engine problems or pollution or just the stress of crazy drivers almost killing you while you’re just trying to get safely to wherever you’re going was wonderful. Remote work meant not only did I not have to deal with commute, I gained another hour of sleep since it didn’t take me that long to get ready at home before I had to start working, and then I didn’t lose an hour on the way home. Two hours' profit daily! I was already home; quadruple benefits! But, it's disappearing again.

Personal Empires are Threatened

When I hear the nonsense about returning to work boosting productivity, better integration with teams, and creating better output and yet there’s no metrics to show that (in fact, all of the key operating metrics that anybody would judge an investment by in terms of a company value say the opposite), I say bullshit. The only viable reason why return to work continues to be pushed is for certain people to justify their personal empires as management. Most managers don’t produce anything at all. Instead, they maintain a semblance of control, and if they’re really motivating, they get people to do more than necessary.

The majority of managers are still employed under the false assumption that they somehow produce accountability for the various operations that they are officially assigned to. They sit in meetings a lot, and they simply pass on the information that they’ve gained in the same meeting to their workers, who are the ones who actually doing the work. So, it becomes extremely clear that the only reason return to work is such a hot button is because these managers need justification for their existence.

Companies would probably be closer to being in the black if they got rid of all of the management fat that doesn't produce anything, but that’s never going to happen because the decision-makers are the very same managers who need an office to rule over. I’d rather be that remote person producing measurable output than being another commuting seat-warmer in a useless meeting.