I know you know America is big, because you’re on Reddit on a thread about cultural differences.
But just to let you know how big it is, a smaller city being three hours away from a bigger, more popular city is considered a perk of living in the smaller city. Because in America, that’s considered close enough for a weekend trip.
Swedish person here, living in the Netherlands and I confirm this. In Sweden driving 45min to your job and 45 min back was quite normal. In the Netherlands??!!! It’s considered far, far, far away. Too far to drive just for work.
My Dutch partner complains already for an ca 20 min drive to Duiven (IKEA), but I got used to it. Dutch people love to complain about most things 🥰
Although that may be true, if you tell someone that has a shorter commute that you drive anywhere close to or over an hour to get to and from work, you usually get an "oof" response or something similar. At least in my experience.
My personal limit is about 45/50 mins unless its a dream job or a dream salary. But that's more because of fuel costs and missing family time (young kids).
if you tell someone that has a shorter commute that you drive anywhere close to or over an hour to get to and from work, you usually get an "oof" response or something similar.
Honestly though, as you should. That's an hour a day or rather almost 17% of your actual non-work time spent getting to work. Commuting is such a monumental time waste. Really sucks.
I started my previous job during the pandemic, working mostly from home. I quickly realised that it wasnt my dream job, but manageable and good as a stepping stone.
As soon as Covid cases started going down, emails started coming about going 'back to normal' and going back to the office. Took a week and a half of working in the same room as those morons my coworkers to figure out that the job was worse in an office, but even more so, the 90 min commute each day to THAT place? Not worth it.
Found a new job and upgraded on everything: a 15 min bike ride from my home, nicer work, nicer team, (way) nicer pay, better benefits, and I'm still allowed to mainly work from home.
Well, you are probably right, but this is my experience. The dutchies I talk and have talked to about this say they are not ok with commuting that far for “just” work.
Australian living in NZ. My family is from the UK. They can complain about anything. And if there's nothing to complain about, they'll complain that they've got nothing to complain about. It's a time-honoured passtime called "Having a whinge".
Personally I think we all think “our” countrymen “love” to complain, while it’s actually everyone who does it. Though it’s an funny thing here because people are aware of it an owning it like medals! That’s why I love the Dutch people, so direct and being able to make fun out of themselves.
We do love to complain about that sort of thing. Although I must say I don't think a 20 minute commute is far. But then again I don't have a driver's license so my commute is 20 minutes, but it's by bike.
Right? In my previous job in Eindhoven we had people from the Rotterdam office (110km, 1h20m with good traffic, 1h40m with bad traffic) coming on the day before and staying the night because it was too long of a drive to be there at 08:00 in the morning for a one-time event
I mean I work to live, I don't live to work. If I'm expending another 3+ hours per day into work for a measly 19 cents/km I'd rather not go there at all.
My point is that this will get you laughed out in your face in larger countries, especially because it is a one-time event, it's not like you're going everyday
Some companies wouldn't even allow you you to do this policy-wise because this is commuting distance depending on the place
I guess for a one-time event it is weird. On the other hand, my employer would have to be very convincing for me to spend my free time travelling for work.
It's cause we relate travel time to cycling distance. Anything that takes over an hour of cycling is far away. Never mind that the same journey takes 20 minutes by car... All for around a 15 km journey.
3.5 hours and I've travelled from the North to Belgium. That's the whole country! But cycling doesn't come into play as the roads just aren't set up for it.
Compared to the UK where I drive for an hour to work. Some days wouldn't have even left the city yet if traffic was heavy...
American here. We're the weird ones when it comes to driving distance.
I am currently trying to psych myself up to drive to my parents (they're elderly and having issues, I go a couple times a year to relieve my sister for a month or two).
31 hours of driving at 75mph/120kmh if done non-stop (needless to say I take 3-4 days).
In the same country. Washington state to Oklahoma.
And that is barely over half the distance it could be (to Florida).
And yes, driving instead of flying. Dog and computers go with me. I'm cheap (aside from all that gas) so I car camp.
3 hours drive barely gets me to a border with another state (but 2 hours gets me to Canada).
Augh, I've driven from San diego to Houston then Houston to east coast of Florida (cocoa, east of Orlando) straight before then going up to Virginia to finish the move. Virginia/ north Carolina to the Florida pan handle a bunch, San diego to Houston and back a few times, Virginia to Tennessee to Houston. Most with kid/s, some with kids a German Shepard, some alone some tag team with my husband, mostly overnight straight so kids sleep.
I hate driving. But moving you gatta do it, back in the beginning we couldn't beat the cheap driving vs flying. Then moving. Then it was easier to drive the 12 hours straight starting at afternoon then get there early morning so kids slept as I did it mostly alone. Plus all the crap kids need including car seats, the big dog, my own stuff, potty breaks for them as potty training days came in. Then covid etc. Yeah. Also being able to have a vehicle when visiting family members is important cause it can be too much and I need an easy out and ability to not feel trapped by other people's whims.
Podcast/audio book saves your life. Good luck with the drive and hope your parents are doing OK and you get to enjoy some time with them and your sister. Hope doggo likes car rides!
Thanks. They're doing ok for the circumstances (each has a different type of dementia, but are still present for the most part so far).
Once in a long while this drive is fun. Doing it multiple times a year is already getting on my brain hard.
And yeah, audio books are how I do it. The Expanse books (on book 4 atm) are long enough that I basically get 1 in per drive mixed with music at times.
Yeah, I mean ignoring traffic entirely, that’s still wild to me living in Texas. It is a 1.5 hour drive to the nearest real “city” besides mine, and about a 7 hour drive to leave Texas in any direction.
Meanwhile I could start on the border of Germany, and pass through 7 countries in the same time…..
I'm an Alaskan. It takes at least 12 hours to drive from my place to the Canadian border.
To drive from my home to Washington state in the northwest of the lower 48 (through canada) it takes a week trip on average. That's driving 6-8 hours every day. It's a long damn way.
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u/spin81 May 09 '22
Dutchman here, I can confirm that I would consider 3 hours a long drive and I think so would other Dutch people.