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Long communtes dragging american economy { July 28 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/moneyhappy/7928http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/moneyhappy/7928
Money & Happiness
by Laura Rowley
Commuting Is a Drag (on the Economy)
by Laura Rowley
Utility Links
Friday, July 28, 2006
Ron Rogers gets behind the wheel of his Acura Integra before dawn in Brentwood, Calif. His iPod, loaded with stand-up comedy and audio books, is hooked up to the car stereo.
Rogers needs plenty of audio material for his commute: He drives more than 90 miles -- roughly two hours each way -- from the San Francisco Bay Area to his job as a public relations specialist at a communications technology firm in suburban Sacramento.
Rogers is one of the 3.4 million workers that the Census Bureau has dubbed "extreme commuters." At least 2 percent of Americans wake up to a commute of 90 minutes or more one way. Not surprisingly, most of these workers live near major metropolitan centers: New York, New Jersey, Maryland, California, and Washington, D.C., have the most workers with extreme commutes.
The number of super-commuters nationwide has skyrocketed 95 percent since 1990, as workers hang on to lucrative jobs in city centers but move farther and farther afield in search of better housing, low crime, and good schools.
Too Much of a Bad Thing
Unfortunately, commuting is a bitter pill that rarely gets easier to swallow. Researchers have found that people have the capacity for "hedonic adaptation" -- in laymen's terms, the ability to adjust to extreme circumstances, both happy and unhappy.
For instance, classic studies of lottery winners and paralyzed accident victims found only small differences in life satisfaction between these groups and control subjects. But certain experiences -- living near a noisy highway, for example -- become more aggravating over time, something scientists call "sensitization." Commuting falls into this category.
A 2004 study by two economists at the University of Zurich found that people tend to overestimate what they'll get by commuting long distances -- i.e., a bigger paycheck, a more prestigious position, the ability to buy more stuff -- and underestimate what it will cost them in stress, health, and loss of connection to family and friends.
Driving to Stay in Place
Which brings us back to Rogers. Married with an infant son, he fell into his morning marathon involuntarily. Shortly after he bought his home in Brentwood in 2004, he was laid off from his PR job in nearby Pleasanton. In July 2005, he found the position with SureWest Communications in Roseville, outside Sacramento.
Rogers quickly put his home on the market, but real estate prices were declining as new developments became available and interest rates inched higher. Rogers would still have made a small profit by selling immediately, but not enough to afford the same digs in Sacramento.
"We were afraid we would end up selling and never get into a similar house again," he says. And so he began his long-distance relationship with work, spending $400 a month on gas and occasionally crashing on friends' couches in Sacramento.
Then, about four months ago, Rogers and his boss hit on a solution: telecommuting. Rogers now works from home two to three days a week -- a setup his company had never tried before.
The Country's Costly Commuters
In 2004, more than 24 million Americans, or nearly one-fifth of the workforce, worked at home during business hours at least one day per month, according to the International Telework Association and Council. About two-thirds were self-employed, but 7.6 million worked for companies.
With the miseries of commuting well-documented and gas prices hitting record highs, one would expect the masses to be banging down their managers' doors looking for a deal like Rogers'. But many workers who have the ability to telecommute don't take advantage of it, according to a new study by the University of Maryland Center for Excellence in Service and consulting firm Rockbridge Associates.
The poll found that only 2 percent of adults who work telecommute full time; another 9 percent telecommute part time and 8 percent have home-based businesses. Of those who could feasibly telecommute, less than half would choose to do so more than two days per week, and 14 percent would not telecommute at all.
The study suggests that our unwillingness to sacrifice our social lives at the office, combined with our love affair with cars, costs $3.9 billion in fuel and time annually.
Telecommuting Isn't for Everyone
These findings shocked me, since I've thoroughly enjoyed working from my home office for the last few years. (Actually, it's an unfinished space in the basement that's pleasantly cool in the summer and bone-rattling cold in the winter unless the space heater is turned on full blast.)
One reason workers don't telecommute is that the financial savings just aren't that significant for most people, says Charles Colby, president of Rockbridge Associates. "The median commuting time in the U.S. is 20 minutes, and many people only have 15 or less," Colby explains. "Let's say gas goes up to $4 a gallon. You commute 20 miles in total in a typical day and your car gets 20 miles to a gallon -- you're looking at four dollars a day."
An estimated two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies offer telework options, according to Gil Gordon, president of a New Jersey consulting firm that has been advising companies on the practice since 1982.
He's not surprised by the University of Maryland/Rockbridge study. "One of things that makes an employer desirable is they are open to flex time or telework or casual dress," he explains. "Even if people don't take advantage of it, they like to have the choice. People are savvy enough to have thought about it and know when it's not right for them."
Kristin Beltramini, 24, knows telecommuting is right for her. Like many Boston-area workers, she lives across the border in New Hampshire -- more than 40 miles from her job at a public relations firm in Woburn, Mass. On a good day, she'll spend an hour driving to work. But on Friday night, that almost doubles. "People are leaving Boston for the weekend -- the lakes in the summer, the leaves in the fall, and skiing in the winter," she says.
Beltramini drives a Honda Civic that gets 36 miles to the gallon, and fills her tank once a week to the tune of $30. She figures working from home four days a month saves her between $24 and $36 and countless hours of aggravation. She relies on her cell phone, laptop, and high-speed Internet connection to link to the office's network.
Coming Up with a Plan
If you too want to telecommute, put yourself in your manager's shoes first, Gordon advises. "Anticipate his or her concerns about your availability -- how you'll answer phone calls, what you'll do if there is a meeting or if you're needed in an emergency."
Also explain, in writing, why working from home will give you the ability to be more productive, to organize your work better, or meet deadlines more effectively. Figure out what parts of your job can be done more efficiently from home. "It's all about keeping your manager's blood pressure low," Gordon says.
As Beltramini has discovered, working at home "is a great chance to be extremely productive because people are not coming to my desk asking for things," she says. "The only distraction is my cat likes to sit on my lap or walk across the keyboard."
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