Various causes
The reasons are often varied: in most cases, the living space close to work is too expensive or not available at all. This applies in particular to metropolitan areas. If you are in a relationship, it is often not possible for both partners to find suitable work near the shared apartment, which means that commuting becomes necessary for at least one of them. Fixed-term employment contracts can also lead to an employee being caught in the commuter trap, because if in doubt, moving is not worthwhile for an employment contract that ends after just one or two years. In addition, more and more employees feel the need to present themselves to their employer as flexible – which often includes a willingness to commute.
Health Effects
But the daily driving has consequences: commuting has a negative effect on health for as little as half an hour. The most common manifestations are shoulder, neck and back pain. Many commuters also complain of headaches. In addition, there is fatigue, lack of concentration and, in general, commuters are more stressed, according to the results of the study.
In particular, it is the feeling of powerlessness in traffic jams or train cancellations that affects employees on their daily journey to work. However, train drivers still have the advantage that they can use the time to relax once they are on the train. In addition, they are often even more mobile than drivers, as they are forced to walk to the bus stop and thus move around a little every day. Drivers, on the other hand, have to stay focused at all times and, according to the study, move even less by driving directly from their place of residence to their place of work. Here, however, it can help to deliberately park the vehicle further away from the place of work in order to get at least a little exercise.
Consequences for applications
But not only the health suffers from the daily driving. A US study by the University of Notre Dame in the US state of Indiana has shown that people who live further away from the place of work were already disadvantaged when applying for a job. In the study, a total of around 2,300 fictitious applications were sent to real job advertisements. The test revealed that applicants who had given an address further away from work received around 14 percent fewer responses to their applications.
Consequences for job and career
Once you get a job, however, commuting has a negative effect on it. Commuters often show up stressed or late in the office when something unexpectedly goes wrong during their commute. In addition, they are often tired because they usually have to get up very early to get to the office on time. Motivation and productivity can also suffer from driving, and this trend also increases with increasing distance from the place of work. Due to the health effects of commuting already described, employees who travel daily are also more often on sick leave. All of this has a negative impact on performance, which should make promotion more difficult.
However, since there are more commuters every year, employers are also asked to make driving easier for their employees. For example, important appointments are not scheduled for the early morning or late evening, or the opportunity to work from home is given, which has become particularly popular since the beginning of the corona pandemic.
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