[Gllug] VACANCY: MySQL Database Architect (Reading, Berkshire, UK)

[Joel Bernstein]

2009/2/13 Stephen Nelson-Smith <sanelson at gmail.com>:
> Hi,
>
>> You're talking, conservatively, about an increase of 90 minutes
>> travelling time per day.
>
> How did you calculate that?
>
> Real example:
>
> I lived in Cricklewood, and travelled to Docklands.  Journey was about
> 50 mins door-to-door, so 100 mins a day.  The tube was packed, and I
> could rarely even read.
>
> Now let's take a job in Reading.  The job is 15 mins walk from the
> station, and the train journey itself takes 30 mins.  So
> notwithstanding the trip to Paddington from my old house, the commute
> is slightly shorter.  Now, I know from experience that it takes about
> 30 mins to get to paddington from my old house.  So ok, we've added 60
> mins a day.  However, the train journey gives me 60 mins comfortable
> travel on a not-crowded train, with a table, and even electricity.
> GPRS works for most of the journey.
>
> So what have I done?  I've given myself an hour's quality reading /
> studying time a day, and a decent payrise.  Not bad.

If you say so. I used to live in Golders Green, and worked in Soho. 10
mins walk to GG station (part of that walk across Hampstead Heath,
very nice start to the day), 18 mins to TCR tube, 5 mins walk at other
end. Total ~35 minutes door to door, ~70 mins total travel.

Compare that with the 40 minutes it takes by tube from GG to
Paddington, time to wait for and change trains, your half hour each
way to Reading, 15 mins each way transfer time in Reading, and you're
leaving home an hour earlier and arriving home an hour later. Even if
as you say this IS high quality me-time it's me-time you're bound to
spend every day whether you want to or not. I can't really understand
this as beneficial. You've still got your nasty London commute, only
this time it's bracketed by pricy travel to an outlying dormitory
town. I admire your ability to couch these in terms suggesting it's a
good deal for you, but I think it can only be a good deal if the
financial benefits outweigh the costs to your life.

My entire point, of which I suspect everybody else is getting pretty
bored, is that Reading ain't London, it doesn't quack like London, and
offering Reading jobs as if they're London ones is a crock of shit.

/joel
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