Career Advice - Daily Commute Stress

Driving Stress Levels Up - Why Your Commute Could Be Causing Health Problems

Advice Seeker: Dear April,

I'm so sick of commuting over an hour to my job every day; it's making me seriously stressed and sick. I recently realized that I could successfully do my work from my own home and I think I might talk to my boss about possibly telecommuting. Do you think my commute could be contributing to my stress and would telecommuting help?

Sincerely,

Driving Me Crazy

April Masini's advice:

Dear Driving Me Crazy,

Good Idea! The stresses of commuting and its health problems are real and obvious and by avoiding the daily commute, your health can improve in many ways.

How the stresses of commuting can affect you:

* Exhaustion from the extra hours it takes to get up early enough to beat the traffic to and from work.

* The odds of getting into a car or public transportation accident is much higher with daily commuting.

* The lack of productivity for the commuting time is stressful and bad business.

The obvious fix to commuting is telecommuting!

Technology is here to stay, and one of the benefits of technology is telecommuting. There are various ways for employees to telecommute. One way is total telecommuting, where employees and employers only communicate by computer and telephone. The other way is partial telecommuting which gives employees the opportunity to work in an office a percentage of their work week, and to work at home as telecommuters the other percentage of their work week.