Work – it’s a necessary evil, but sometimes the pain starts before you even get to the office.
The commute is probably the worst part of every employee’s day, depending on how far they have to travel, and what mode of transport they use to do it. To find out just how much we’re affected by our commute, a survey of 2,000 commuters was carried out, which found some interesting, if somewhat depressing, discoveries.
The first thing found was that, on average, employees lose 29.6 minutes of work per week due to bad traffic on their commute. That obviously affects productivity and efficiency, and has a knock-on effect to the economy as a whole. In fact, it was calculated that bad traffic costs the UK economy a shocking £203,846,153 per week!
Being late for work can make us feel flustered and immediately puts most of us on the back foot; and on average, it takes us a good 34.2 minutes before we feel calm and in control again after getting in to the office significantly after our usual start time.
However, research also found that 32.3 per cent of us try to sneak into work without being noticed if we’re late – it saves having to tell the boss the ins and outs of how the train couldn’t run because the wrong type of leaves were on the track – while a snooty 43.2 per cent of people would actually report a colleague who continually arrived late for work.
However, more seriously, almost 13 per cent of people have missed a job interview because of bad traffic, which obviously doesn’t make the best first impression. And over a quarter of us experience ‘biker envy’ when motorcyclists cruise past us in traffic jams.
“There’s no better way to get around London than on a motorcycle, especially when the weather’s nice” says Bob from Kent who has insured his motorbike through Devitt for over 40 years “Not only is it enjoyable and quick, but you avoid the congestion charge, parking availability has improved dramatically in recent years and the views are better than those on the underground!”
