#commute

I have been calculating my commute time lately, and the numbers are depressing. I spend about ninety minutes in the car every day, which adds up to more than an entire workday each week just sitting in traffic. I am curious what everyone else's numbers look like. How much of your life have you lost to driving since we were forced back into the office?

There is something different about Friday in Downtown Dallas. The week is nearly done, and you can feel it. The pace is still fast, but the mood is lighter.

On my way to AT&T, I notice the people around me more. The coffee cups, quick steps, quiet faces, and small signs of relief. Everyone is still moving, but Friday gives the commute a different energy.

It is not just a commute. It is a reminder that we are all showing up, pushing through, and making it to the end of another week. Friday makes the city feel more human. I am looking forward to seeing others on the commute.

Recently moved and now I’m apparently 30.1 miles from the nearest hub which is about a 45 min - 1.5 hour drive depending on traffic.

HR says that I’m “within” the 30 mile range.

I’ve pulled maps on my own, it goes from 30.1 to 31 to as high as 50 miles.

Should I even try to fight this? How far are you from your hub within that 30 miles?

If they want to continue to treat us like children what’s stopping us from acting like children?

You know RTO5 is absolutely coming soon. They will start monitoring how long you’re working somehow.

Have a long commute? You better be working while driving. If not you better work as soon as you wake up and as soon as you get home to make up for the commute you didn’t ask for.

My top 10

It increases commute time & stress. Period...
It raises costs for emplyees...
It can reduce worklife balance.
It limits access to wider talent pools.
It hurts productivity for focused work.
It creates unnecessary office overhead.
It can lower employee satisfaction.
It makes caregiving harder.
It can increase burnout risk.
It is not improving collaboration.

It is deeply frustrating to navigate a demanding, long-distance Return to Office (RTO) mandate while balancing personal caregiving responsibilities, especially when that burden is not shared by the executive team.

The Reality of RTO Disparity

1) Executive Perks vs. Employee Costs: While executives often have commuting costs (limos, premium transport) covered as business expenses, average employees face thousands in annual fuel, vehicle maintenance, and parking costs.

2) The Caregiver Burden: RTO policies disproportionately impact employees with young children, creating immense pressure on work-life balance that senior leadership—whose families are often grown—frequently fail to recognize.Impact on

3) Retention: Research indicates that 80% of companies that enforced strict RTO mandates experienced talent loss, with high-skilled, senior-level staff, and women being the most likely to leave.

To have a modern workforce, nimble, ready to work at anytime and anywhere, and now they return us to our father’s old fashioned office drudgery.
We aren’t “liberated” we’re back to being pawns and cogs whatever you want to call it!
All that investment in tech just to have it wasted with commutes into the office wasting time on traffic on delayed subways or the MBTA commuter rail.
“We’ve come a long way baby”
Fools oops you didn’t think licking us down for three years in Massachusetts would have a deleterious effect to the local economy real estate and restaurants?!!
Now six years into it all of a sudden it’s back to work slave.

My life is ruined, my daycare bill is up , and over an hour commute to this sh---y Dallas building with sh-t parking and rediculous gas prices, this company is a joke, everyone is exhausted and less productive professionally and personally

I know it's exactly what these knuckle-heads want from us, but I just can't tell if this RTO B.S. will come back around or not. I don't make nearly enough to be spending extra money on gas just to sit in virtual meetings! I know many of ya'll are in the same boat as me. But what about the Mgrs, any news on RTO? Its been months and all we've heard was ZIP.

Long story short: After a long time of searching I finally found the right therapist for me, and was reassured that RTO couldn't interfere with my appointments. Well sure enough, my manager allows me to leave the office for my appointments, but the real issue is having to commute basically 4 times just to continue seeing my therapist. I literally cannot afford it. Thank you Bill.

It’s falling apart 45 min delay due to equipment shortage
And now they expect us to come in everyday?
I’ll be dead outside waiting for a train this won’t work.
Do they not see the impact with cars on the roads in the parking lot the mbta being useless!
She needs to get Maura involved. Maybe Maura can fix it.

lol yea right and vrabel didn’t cheat on his wife

$4.19/gallon and it was $3.30/gallon last year. Will they increase our merit this year to drive to office and follow the RTO policy?

A few days of this and I'll feel like I'm paying for the privilege of working.

Started back to work and thought I’d take advantage of $5 North Shore Parking with a shuttle to and from downtown Pittsburgh. Because I don’t have the extra money to spend like most of us. What a bust. Shuttles weren’t running every 15 to 20 minutes as promised but rather an hour to an hour and a half long. So much for that. Got into the office and the majority of the floor was empty. Why did I bother? No work got done. I’m sure we are going to see productivity plummet. Wasn’t approved to work from home to be with my epileptic child. Job well done, Bill.

Putting this here to see if anyone notices/cares to comment. I’m a Uniondale employee, one of about 200. Various business lines where most are vestiges of the old Dreyfus business. It’s clear the greater corporation wants to reduce headcount by forcing this move while offering no financial incentive. The commute from Long Island to NYC requires a train and subway. We’re looking at an estimated $5,000 cost for that, nothing less than 90 minutes, some will have over 2 hours one way. These are good dedicated employees who are being tossed out. Sure, the jobs aren’t eliminated (yet) or offshored (yet), and as someone here posted AI = All India. The transition will be difficult at best. We’ll see if it’s tolerable, but no one really seems to care. The announcement was heartless, an 8AM teams meeting where KB proved again to be soulless. He read a prepared statement that took all of 4 minutes. That’s it. Most groups didn’t even have senior management in house to… well to lead by example. But we will do the purposeless exercise of feedback, complete the peak on surveys, attend town halls in order to hear how fantastic everything is. Sad that a corporation of this magnitude won’t offer assistance to keep people happily employed. Oh wait, I just received an email from KB titled Uniondale Office - Helpful Resources. It contained two links. One for a commuter benefits program where BK hires a company to explain/manage your ability to have a maximum pretax (fed only) contribution of $340/month to cover commuting costs. Something but very very minor. And don’t forget that our taxes will now increase because NYC taxes will apply. Another 2-2 percent salary increase would go a long way in meeting the extra cost as well as supporting the idea that BNY cares about its employees. In reality leadership cares about the next McKinsey project (how’s P-M treating you?) and publicity for the CEO. All hail the smirking emperor who had a massive pay increase on the broken backs of his overworked employees. Let’s see how they react to people agreeing to move but resign at the last minute.

:(

Gas is creeping dangerously close to $5 a gallon yet we’re still expected to commute into the office three days a week. That disconnect is hard to ignore. Between rising fuel costs, time lost in traffic, the requirement feels increasingly out of step with reality.

What makes it more frustrating is that we talk a lot about “delighting customers” and being “customer-obsessed,” but there seems to be far less focus on the growing stress being placed on employees. It’s hard to sustain that level of care externally when internally, people are feeling stretched, unheard, and impacted by decisions of this AI-obsessed CEO. If the work is getting done just as effectively remotely, it’s fair to question whether this policy still makes sense for both employees and the company.

Can you hear me now Dan?

Yeah, I know you don’t care. Your laughing all the way to the bank.

At what point does the company give people driving to work for RTO an official break from coming to the office? Gas is at 4.49 currently out east and I cant imagine what the price is at on the west coast. Its clearly even more of a pay cut now.

Always has been. Now with a side of gas price misery.

Assigned city X to relocate. Asked for city Y. Accepted relo. Now regretting decision due to horror stories of commute and bad work life balance. I don’t think I can sustain city Y. What to do?

First time to Dallas. I am seeing traffic is 1 to 1 and half hour each way. Normal traffic in other cities is around 45-50 minutes.

What time do you guys start and leave from work to be in compliance but still have time to pick up/drop off kids.

#LifeAtATT

By this time next year, should we expect it to move to 5? Anyone jumping ship?

I’m exhausted. The commute, the cost, five days in a seat for work that still happens on a laptop and on calls with people who aren’t even here.

Let’s stop pretending this is improving anything. It’s not driving better results, it’s just draining people. Then leadership turns around and wonders why effort drops.

People aren’t checking out for no reason. They’re burned out from a system that makes zero sense.

This isn’t better for employees, and it’s not better for the company.

Roll it back to hybrid and start measuring output instead of presence.

Planning to move to a hub to save job with single salary. Which one offers low commute and best work life balance and not get fired in a year of moving?

Totally new to the place. Which areas are you staying for good schools, decent commute. How does parking work for HQ. McKinney, Frisco and Plano are looking as good areas but don’t want to go too far out to commute.

Got laid off last year and have been searching for months. Finally landed an offer but the commute is rough. About 75 minutes each way with traffic. I used to work from home for nearly six years before all this, so the thought of doing that drive three days a week is making me feel sick. After eight months of looking, I'm scared to say no even though I'm not desperate financially. Anyone been in this spot?

Is it true that we are being asked to move in July? Manager has no information. Told that we have time till September. Looking aggressively for an opening in Philly area jut no luck. Have to start looking for apartments if moved to NYC than commuting.

Apartments are very unaffordable in N Jersey or NYC suburbs with commuting time and cost. The overall tax impact is also high, if one has to move to NYC location.

Effectively a pay cut in these hard times.

HOUSING
Property taxes in Houston remain a double-edged sword: while they fund essential local services in the absence of a state income tax, they are among the highest in the nation.

Surging property values are leading to higher overall tax bills.

Due to rising home prices and interest rates. Monthly mortgage payments have climbing 44% since 2021 not including increases in taxes and insurance. Few have received raises of a similar magnitude.

Beyond the purchase price, rising insurance premiums and climate-related costs (like flooding and extreme heat) are making homeownership increasingly expensive.

TRAFFIC
Houston traffic is increasingly viewed as unlivable, with commuters losing nearly four days annually to delays, a number that rose in 2026. It ranks among the worst in Texas, characterized by severe bottlenecks on I-45 and Loop 610, aggressive driving, and rapid sprawl, making it one of the least livable major US metros.

I am paying nearly 30% more for my commute every week, and that’s in my econobox of a ten year old Toyota. I asked my boss if I could WFH one or two days a week. His response was su-k it up, “You don’t hear the people driving those 4WD trucks and SUVs complaining, do you?”

Especially with gas prices climbing. And since raises don't keep up with actual inflation, the rumored 5-day RTO would fit perfectly with their plan to push out as many of us as they can.

Today Trump acknowledged fuel costs would not decrease until November, if even then.

Just wanted to vent on the whole connect week policy for regional centers- I'm quite frankly embarrassed to hold client zoom meetings when in the office- that clients have to hear the background noise of loud talking, laughing and coughing. I understand the loud talking as we are all raising our levels to ensure our clients can hear us over our colleagues. I wonder what client's impressions would be if they could actually see behind the scenes. All the negativity I see & hear from co-workers on the fact they have to go into the office isn't helping my morale either. At the end of the connect week I continually ask myself why did I need to go into the office? Not only did I not gain anything from it other than another cold/ flu virus but feel demoralized & with less money in my pocket after filling up my car.

What is this nonsensical RTO mandate going to cost you? Is RTO really all about foot traffic to justify the real estate investment? Are we secretly being used as pawns but told its for culture and collaboration but at the same time becoming a huge monetary and time burden while being reinforced its for the collaboration and growth of employees while at the same time helping the company justify its use of a building just for tax benefits? Like for real I'm facing an added $2500-$3000 in expenses every month as a result of this RTO mandate. The office I've been assigned to is over an hour away without traffic. So in a perfect world I am losing at least 10 hours per week in commute times. I actually expect this number to be about 22 hours/week based on our traffic. This is not work life balance. But hey at least that 1.5% raise I was GIVEN should cover the costs. I felt I should have EARNED more after exceeding all expectations again but I guess you get what they give you since performance and attendance mean nothing apparently. Would've been cool to get a 30% compensation boost like CEO.

Also I must point out there has been zero follow-up to Bill's email from mid January. The latest ethics and culture survey asks nothing about RTO.

I am the only one from my team in this state. What can I do in the office that cannot be done from a remote location? Besides playing workspace roulette when trying to find a quiet area to handle 5-7 hours of calls per day. I've tried to look at this from different angles but I can't get past this idea that the property valuations have been blamed on us and because of that we are being required to RTO 5 days/week to justify the use of a building. They do not care about the time, money, and tax burden this is causing thousands of employees because when you're worth tens of millions these burdens don't influence you or your decisions.

People leaving adds more pressure on the people who stay. Vacant positions aren't being fulfilled as quickly because of this RTO decision. Talent goes out the door. We have to work more hours. We have to spend more time and money. We have to train and onboard new people and hope they don't abandon ship or get pulled to a different team. This is a lose-lose scenario for tens of thousands of us.

Just a rant!!

Earlier, 11 days used to do it but now 61% is 14 days. Makes no sense. My entire team is remote, I was hired remote but forcefully transitioned me to an office. I come here just to attend meetings and work alone with no in office interaction all while bearing additional cost of gas and parking

It feels like I'm paying for the privilege of having a job.

packed it up and move to either St Louis Missouri, Chicago Illinois, Detroit Michigan Memphis Tennessee Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Baltimore Maryland or Washington DC

But in US with $7 a gallon they demand driving around into office multiple times a day. Rich Americans can afford $200 more a month is the message.

How far is your commute? Did you put your kids in before and after care? How do you manage the schedule when both parents need to work and clock 8 hours? Any exceptions if kids have issues at school and you need to pick them up?