When commutes drive employees crazy
RACE AGAINST TIME Long hours of travel to and from work can affect employees’ health and overall productivity
to insomnia and a whole lot of other problems.
To assess how long commutes can effect people, a Shine. com survey of 300 mid-level corporate employees across the country revealed that driving through heavy traffic tired them out even before they started their workday.
Around 50% of those surveyed said that negotiating traffic jams gave them a headache and ruined the entire day. For 34%, however, some days were good and some bad – driving at times was a breeze and on other days it was a nightmare.
Health issues could be a matter of concern as 37% said their blood pressure levels rose after negotiating traffic; and they simply hated it. As many as 27.78% said that people using the Metro were not as stressed out as those who drove to work.
Employees who spent maximum hours travelling to work suggested that offices should change their timings from 8 am or 8.30 am to 4 pm or 4.30 pm to beat the regular office rush. Interestingly, several corporates have started doing this and have seen a dramatic increase in employee productivity.
As many as 53.42% said that the ideal time to reach office was around 8.30 am and that office should get over by 4.30 pm so as to enable employees to avoid the rush hour traffic.
A better solution was to live close to the workplace. As many as 43.46% said that in order to reach office bright, fresh and early, employees should try living close to the workplace and not spend too much time commuting to office. This would also mean less expenses on commutes.
The Shine.com survey found that a majority of people either drove to work or were driven (55.70%) and that 32.25% took the Metro while only 12.05% used the carpool. For easy commutes, respondents in a Shine.com survey said office timings could be moved forward to beat the traffic rush I take the Metro No, it’s bad all the time No, it’s ok, I can handle it and I love to drive