Commuting for Work: Is it worth it?

[commuter]

It is for me, but each person needs to look at it from their own situation. I enjoy living in a small town, but to find work for my type of position would not work.

[TheOtherMe]

I commuted over 45 miles for about 25 years. I had to use my car in my job, so (with the exception of about 3 of those years) public transportation was not an option.

This was in Denver. I thought the commute was bad then. I retired in 1995 and Denver is so much bigger now. The commute would be even longer time wise than it was back then. I remember 3 hour commutes during snowstorms. Got stranded twice in blizzards and wonderful people stopped and took a car load of people home.

[Phoenix84]

Pammey,
The important thing to keep in mind with a job like this is that it’s a gateway to better jobs in the future. It sounds like this commuting issue is just a symptom of a larger problem. You don’t know what you really want to do and where you want to do it.
Do you want a career or just a job? In other words, do you want to get a job where you have a future, can move up into positions of increasing responsibility and pay, or simply work as something to do while your husband is away in deployment and to keep yourself from boredom and have some spending money.
There are no right or wrong answers, but figuring out what you want to do will influence your decision on whether to put up with the commute.
You need work experience. It may not be worth it if you’re just looking at it from a short term dollars and cents perspective, but if you stay in one place and establish a work history, you will be in a better position to get a better paying job a year or two. Again, it’s all about what you want in the long run. If all you want is something to keep yourself busy and you don’t care about advancement or using your degree, I’d just get a job close to home even if it pays minimum wage. If you’re interested in establishing a work history in a profession, sacrifices (like a commute) will need to be made.
When I got out of college, I got a job as a technician not making much more than $12.00 an hour. I was making a bit over $15 an hour and I lived in a MUCH higher cost of living area. The job wasn’t using my degree (just as your job isn’t). I also had to deal with a 45 minute commute for the first several months. But the experience allowed me to get a better job just a year and a half later that almost doubled my salary. Now with a year and a half of this job under my belt, I have an even better job.
I would either take the job in Nashville or take a job as a busdriver. Both jobs get your foot in the door and get you valuable work experience. It’s great that your husband has a steady job, but you need to be able to support yourself.

[shanendoah]

A 55 mile commute in traffic, is almost never an hour long commute. It might be an hour drive on Saturday morning, but not Monday from 3-7pm - at that point, your lucky if it only takes 2 hours.

Our commute was in the Seattle area. We worked in the north end of Seattle, which granted, is not known for its good traffic. But since you mentioned having 2 dogs as well, and that being out of the house 11-12 hours wasn't really acceptable, realize that even if your commute is only an hour each way, if you work 8 hours with a 1/2 hour lunch, you're already at 10.5 hours out of the house. If you're required to take an hour lunch, your at 11 hours. The second there's an accident on the freeway going home one day, you're out 11.5 hours. It just all adds up really quick.
And while I know the TN/KY area has a lower COL than the Seattle area, would you really be using that BS in a job that paid $12/hr, or would you just be doing admin work in a department where other people used similar degrees.
I know the job market is tough, but I would definitely look at applying to something closer to home. Have you looked at community colleges in the area or satellite campuses for universities?

[pammy831]

cronewitch: I have definitely thought of doing some type of home business before. One of my ideas has been to make and sell a very popular food product in PA & WV that Southerners haven’t usually heard of but they fall in love with it lol. A good venue for this would be the flea market in Nashville because it’s HUGE. They have like 1600 vendors and they have it on the 3rd weekend of the month I’m pretty sure. I saw some rules on their website though about selling food so I need to get in touch with them to find out more details. I have done temp work for WVU while up here in PA before, but haven’t been able to find a good temp service in my area of TN yet.

HappyCat: It definitely sounds like your commute wasn’t pleasant. The more I think about it and hear stories from all of ya’ll, the more I think I wouldn’t be able to handle it for very long. I’ve never actually heard of a bookkeeping certification. However, I have thought before about helping out military families with budgeting and things like that. There’s a Finance division on post that I’d love to get involved in but I have serious doubts about being able to get in there since I don’t have the spousal preference or any really good experience yet.

cawiau: I’m not sure if I could put as positive of a spin on it as you seem to LOL. I am somewhat of a home body so I’m concerned I would probably just be wishing to be at home relaxing and reading a book. However, there are audio books….hmmmm lol.

Urban Chicago: You really hit the nail on the head. That is the decision that I am having a hard time making right now. On the one hand I want to just do something for extra money and have time with my family, but on the other hand I feel like I let society tell me that since I have a degree and no kids, I should have a career by now.

thinid: It sounds like you have a good system set up for yourself. Unfortunately getting a new car really wouldn’t fit my situation. Me and DH are both from the same area in PA so we drive back and forth to PA at least a couples times a year to visit and such. With our 2 dogs, we have to have some kind of vehicle that we can haul them in. He has a Mustang, so that’s not an option lol. We had an F-150 before and they rode in cages in the back, but I’d much rather have them inside where they’re safer and don’t have to worry about the weather getting on them.

bobosensei: I am so impressed with what you have been able to do with your jobs on post. I need to take some pointers from you!!! I have worked 2 jobs on post before, once at the Shopette right after me and DH got married and then I did substitute teaching on post. I guess I didn’t make any good contacts, or at least none that have been useful to met yet lol. I would love love love to work at Housing on post. I worked at a Century 21 office before and I’d love to get back into anything related to real estate. So you literally just got your jobs on post from getting recommendations from people?

frugalnurse: Thank you for the first hand experience advice. I must admit I’ve never driven in Nashville during rush hour times. I seem to only go that way on the weekends.

mich1: While the renting a room thing might work for some people, I just don’t think I’d be making enough money at approximately $12/hour to even offset the cost of something like that, even if I did want to do the separation from my family. The main benefit to me at the University would be the advancement and the retirement. I already have great benefits through my husband, which is another factor that’s making me lean more towards just taking a local job that isn’t as “glamorous” lol.

peace77: Thanks for the info! I had no idea you could find out traffic info like that on Google maps. I’m not surprised to hear about the lane closures in Nashville though. And yes, I have thought of the hospital jobs. I look at the Gateway Medical Center website frequently, which is the hospital in Clarksville and it’s only about 20 minutes away. Even if I could get in as a patient registrar or something, maybe I could move into something to do with accounting eventually. Thanks for the info about Springfield, I hadn’t known there was a hospital there actually!

linarex: Yes, the general consensus seems to be that driving in city traffic sucks!!!

oreo: I am definitely going to try out the commute during the times that I would actually be driving it to see how bad it really is. And as I said above, I wish I could have a small car that’s easy on gas, but my doggies are like my kids and I can’t leave them behind lol.

wvugurl26: Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that some parts of Clarksville are pretty ghetto. While my neighborhood isn’t THAT bad, I don’t think I would have bought a house there if I had done some further research. I think the major drawback to my neighborhood is that many of the houses are rentals and they just aren’t taken care of as well as they should be. I’m sure it wasn’t funny to you at the time, but that’s hilarious about the GPS and the pedestrian mode. I hope that never happens to me!!! lol. I really haven’t had much luck in finding a temp agency around Clarksville. I’m 99% sure they don’t have ManPower there and I’m not sure if the university in Clarksville (Austin Peay) has temp jobs or not. I should check into that for sure. I worked for Mountaineer Temps 2 times in the past, the latter being in the Financial Services Dept at the Waterfront which I really enjoyed. I definitely haven’t fully started my job search though but will swing it into full gear once I get back down there later this year.

commuter: It must be ok for you since it’s your nickname and all! LOL!

taxpro: That blizzard doesn’t sound fun! Well let’s just say that people in Nashville are not used to dealing with the snow. They had a pretty decent snowfall down there this year and I definitely heard some stories from my friends about how crazy the traffic was. Luckily that’s not the norm for there though.

phenoix84: As I admitted earlier, you’re totally right, I’m not entirely sure what I want to do with my life. I need to make the decision as to whether I really want to commit to a career and get my first real grown up job. While this isn’t something that I see happening, I do worry about how I would support myself if things went sour between DH and I or if something ever happened to him. Yes, I have the degree, but not much experience to back it up with. It sounds like you did a really good job with the advancements in positions that you achieved. I would love to be able to say something like that about myself some day.

Shanendoah: As we were saying last night, this would be a very difficult thing to undertake with the 2 dogs. Not only would it be difficult because of them needing to go outside, but I think the loneliness would take a toll on them too. I mean I’m not that crazy person who will stay home just so their dogs don’t get lonely, but I don’t want to become one of those ppl who gets pets and the neglects them either. The jobs making $12/hour do not require a degree, but I have found that I usually have no chance at even getting an interview in positions that do require a degree. My only conclusion is because I haven’t had many jobs that I stayed at for very long since I have moved so much. And believe it or not, many places are “prejudice” against hiring military spouses. They know that we sometimes move around a lot and are sometimes scared to take a chance on hiring us because they never know how long we are going to be able to stay. I actually went to an interview once where not only did this lady grill me about being a military spouse and therefore not showing up for work, but she asked me if I had any kids or “sicknesses” that would prevent me from coming to work all the time. I’m pretty darn sure she wasn’t allowed to ask me that LOL. Yes, I have looked at the colleges around my town. I have applied at all of them at one time or another and haven’t gotten called for an interview. But I guess all I can do is keep trying and hope that the right thing will come along for me at the right time!

[DebMD (banned)]

Welcome phenoix84

exalt #1

[wvugurl26]

Its hard not knowing the exact area. Not sure if there are any schools closer that might have positions or temp agencies like WVU. According to Google, Kelly Services, Staffmark, Randstad, Adecco, Labor Ready, and Remedy Inteligent Staffing are in Clarksville. I've heard of Kelly and Adecco. They might not have anything, thought it'd be worth a shot since I assumed you wouldn't need benefits.
I found some auditor jobs on usajobs in Oakridge, TN. Might be a worse commute than Nashville, I have no idea. They are open until 10/31. Not sure if it is a rolling announcement or what with that long date.
Don't know how much this narrows it down but my aunt/uncle's zip is 37042. Ha looks like they are pretty close to Fort Campbell and the

[Sum Dum Gai]

I currently commute about 37 miles each way, usually with very little traffic, which isn't bad, but the thought of adding more does make me want to projectile vomit. I'm also commuting that for a lot more than $12/hour. That sounds really rough.

[pammy831]

wvugurl26: I actually did Google the temp agencies after we were talking about that the other night. I found a few and some even had the actual jobs that they had open posted on their website, which is unusual in my opinion, but a good thing! Of course there was a perfect one on there for a part-time assistant in a real estate office but I really can't start applying for jobs yet. My husband is coming home for R&R from Afghanistan next month and he will be coming to PA so there's no point in me moving back anytime before then. I want to stay and work here until I get his car paid off anyway which will be the end of May at the latest. But I saved all of those sites to my Favorites in my Jobs folder so hopefully something will pop up when I do get back down there. I've never heard of Oak Ridge so it's probably not very close lol. I have the same zip as your aunt and uncle lol. But that covers quite a large area. Your post got cut off, but I live 0.6 miles outside of Fort Campbell lol. I can't really tell you by that much info how ghetto their area is because there's very nice and pretty not nice areas both in that zip code lol. I'd say mine is in the middle lol.

Dark Honor: That's pretty funny about how you couldn't stand it to be much longer lol. Yeah I don't think it's gonna be worth it for $12/hour at all.

[wvugurl26]

I didn't even notice it got cut off. Looks like they are close to 101st Airborne too. South of Highway 79 on the map. Maybe the temp thing will work out for you. Every company's different but I know in Morgantown that's almost how everyone at the $10-$15/hr range at Mylan got hired. Very few got in from the outside.

[pammy831]

Sweet! I used to live in an apt right off of 101st Airborne. I just live a few miles away from there now. I actually got an interview with Mylan through ManPower when I first got back up here a few months back and I turned it down because I got the banking job. Sometimes I kick myself, but I figured banking would be more portable if I chose to stay in it and I knew I couldn't stay at Mylan anyway even if I did get on full-time since I'd have to move back to Clarksville this summer anyway. Oh well.

[wvugurl26]

Eh I did 2 long term stints at Mylan. Not all its cracked up to be sometimes. I think the last stint helped me get my current job though as the stuff I audit now is drug and prescription related. I did get an interview for a permanent position last time. And then they gave it to someone with less of a brain who would just follow procedures instead of trying to improve them.
In terms of transferring I think banking would give you more options. Everywhere has banks even tiny little towns have one or two usually. They don't manufacture drugs all over the US.
I think its good you are considering options now and hopefully you'll be able to find something when you get back down there. Everything I wanted to do in finance was more corporate related and required more accounting so I just got an accounting degree.

[tiptap]

Commuted 55 miles each way in the last 8 years. It takes about 50 minutes without traffic. Prior to that 42 miles each way for 6 years. Got used to it. Job pays well. Our annual gas budget (2 cars) is $6k per year if the gas is at $3/gal and $8k at $4/gal, or about 3% of our income.