Commuting is...

Tiring, expensive, a time suck, but potentially valuable?

I like this article's headline without even reading it, because I feel it in my bones at 6.30pm on the train home:

Long commutes make you fat, tired, and miserable

But there’s a surprising way to make them a little less unbearable.

VoxJoseph Stromberg

I am writing this on the third day of my return to the office. None of the colleagues I have spoken to have enjoyed the return to the office. Granted, a small sample, but I reckon the general sentiment is similar. Or maybe I am biased.

Searching further evidence to validate my bias towards remote work, the next article on my google search had a pretty revolting headline:

The Psychological Benefits of Commuting to Work

Many people who have been working from home are experiencing a void they can’t quite name.

The AtlanticJerry Useem

Halfway through, however, I come across this interesting idea:

"Boundary theory holds that... we have multiple selves, all of them authentic. Crossing between one role and another isn’t easy; it’s called boundary work. And the commute, as Arizona State University’s Blake Ashforth and two collaborators wrote in a seminal paper on the topic, “is actually a relatively efficient way of simultaneously facilitating a physical and psychological shift between roles."

Interesting concept worth further exploration. Could this be the root cause of people struggling to switch off from work while working from home? If this boundary theory holds, what non-commute replacement could be an effective transition between roles?