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Five days a week, almost the entire working force wakes up and embarks on a commute to a job they don’t really want to be at. For anyone in a decent-sized city, that commute usually sucks.
Luckily for me, my job is a six-minute walk away. There is no money spent on gas, no hellish rush hour commute, and no going to prison for murdering someone in a fit of road rage. It’s pretty great.
But nothing is perfect, and to demonstrate this, here are five reasons why it kinda sucks to be able to walk to work.
1. No real excuse for being late.
Earlier this week, one of our writers published a post highlighting 20 reasons/excuses people give for why they are late for work. All of them felt like they’d definitely work for most people. For me, though? Maybe one. There is no traffic to get caught in, no cop to pull me over, no car battery to die on me. So when I’m late, the only real reason is that I’m lazy and overslept. There’s no way to hide this fact. Any reason for me being late would likely involve a fake story about getting mugged on the way to work, but that’d only make me look like a pussy.
2. Nothing to talk about.
I don’t know where anyone else is from, but in D.C., bitching about traffic is the biggest form of water cooler talk that exists. It beats out the weather, whatever RGIII, Alex Ovechkin or Stephen Strasburg did the night before, and even what happened on Homeland. Considering the only congestion that I get on my commute is when I stop for a squirrel darting in front of me, I really just have to sit there in silence. Sometimes I wish that I could sit in traffic like all of the popular kids.
3. Lunch.
I’m poor and make shit for money, so I usually do the responsible thing and go home for lunch. But this decision makes me look like a social pariah. “Why isn’t he going out to eat lunch with us? Is he weird or something?” I’m not weird; I just don’t have money to blow and I have a fridge (somewhat) full of food just five minutes away. But fuck me, right?
4. Never truly “leaving” the office.
Have you ever driven by your office on the weekend, only to have it remind you that you have work in the morning, or that you have crap you’re behind on. It’s the worst. For me, this is an occurrence that happens anytime I go anywhere. Mentally, I never leave work. It’s always right around the corner, killing me slowly.
5. People know where you live.
This one isn’t as big of an issue because I’ve only been at my job for two months and I don’t think anyone hates me…yet. But it’s bound to happen, and when it does, they know exactly where I live. That is a little disconcerting to me.
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bubbasdriver
In sales because I was told "that's where all the money is." Have been here 6 months...have yet to find said money.
@nmcaff
I live 5 minutes away from where I work and I never have lunch with my coworkers. The last thing I want to do on my lunch hour is talk about work with the people I have to see 8 hours a day.
#6- Sweating through your work clothes and thus looking like a doofus whenever coming into the office.
1. I loved saving gas money when I could walk to work
2. I truly dislike most of my coworkers so I don’t care to go to lunch with them
3. Living downtown means never having to take cabs on the weekend.
As another DC person, the “leaving the office” one is huge. I used to live/work in Alexandria with about a 7 minute walk. I now live/work in Arlington/Sterling and although traffic on 66 is the bane of my existence, when I leave work I might as well be going to another planet. The disconnect is amazing.
I live .5 miles from work, I don’t know how long the walk is because I always drive.
#5: Everyone knows where I live, so everyone realizes just how lazy I actually am.
6. Having to walk through snow and on ice during the winter.