Why I Love To Commute For 4 Hours
I deeply value the possibility of working from home. However, I also have no issue commuting for 4 hours a day. Here's why.
Suddenly, everything happened so quickly. I was just having brunch with some friends on Sunday when an urgent work email arrived. It was March 8, 2020. A couple of hours later, it was clear what we had to do: Grab our stuff from the office and stay at home.
The newsroom of Blick, where I used to work back then, went into lockdown a week earlier than the rest of Switzerland because of two suspected cases. So, I worked from home for the next three months with only a few exceptions. And my apartment remained the primary workplace for more than two years.
When the pandemic forced many workers to stay home, I already knew I could be highly effective. I worked from home before as a project manager at Blick in 2018 because the busy buzzing of an open-plan newsroom didn't help to focus on writing presentations and concepts. My boss was okay with it but said: "Don't tell anyone. It's actually not allowed to work from home."
But it wasn't until Covid-19 hit that I optimised my private office space and added helpful hardware and tools like a whiteboard or multiple monitors. Quickly, my workspace was better equipped than the actual office.
Moreover, I came to love the added lifetime without having to commute 90 minutes every day.
Why the hell would I ever go back?