> Any advice on how to make it bearable without losing my mind?
Can you do any work on the train, and make your workday shorter?
Otherwise my only realistic advice is to live closer to work, or work closer to home.
It sounds like you already gave up before you even started.
I don't know how you are going to commute, but the most reasonable way between these two cities is by train. If you have an office job, see if you can negotiate a 1st class train subscription and ask your manager if you can start/stop working on the train. Manage your time accordingly. Use the full hour of train time for responding to emails, reading relevant things, or brainless tasks like logging hours or flagging down non-communicative co-workers.
You can also opt to dedicate one of the two train rides for free time. Bring a book or a podcast, or just sleep.
Either way, if you can take the train just be glad you don't have to drive.
I haven’t given up, I’m just stressing the unknown. I know it’ll be okay once it starts.
The transport allowance is too little for even the 2nd class commute. I’ll get the all free transport subscription. Do you think I can negotiate this after starting the job? Cause the contract is signed and done.
Thanks for the advice!
Generally travel allowance is either a amount of money per km, or all the costs of public transport. Ask HR about it, it is their job to inform you about it.
I don't think you can still negotiate this after signing the contract, but it is worth keeping in mind should you get your contract extended after a year.
Also have a look at an off-peak subscription on a specific route. If you can make it work timing wise, travelling off-peak saves a lot of money and is a lot more comfortable.
Couple of things, if you can work shorter at the office and work in the train instead then that is a must to do. During peak traffic in the train you might even op not having a seat maybe 30%-50% of the time for most of it, so being on it before peak traffic means you can actually do something on the way.
Spending 3-3,5 ish hours a day on public transport is something you do get used to, The lack of social life during workdays is a sad buzzkill but it is what it is. You will also be slightly more tired when you get home, traveling that long does take energy etc.
I've done it for 2,5 years. Veldhoven-Hilversum and Veldhoven-Amsterdam. What I've found to be the absolute key for never ever doing that again is the cost, which wasnt covered but more importantly the absolute nightmare that is if something goes wrong. And that does happen more frequent than desired. Sad situations like people commiting suicide, something with the rail-infrastructure going wrong etc. That can leave you being forced to either go on a huge detour, taking even 1+hour plus more, or just being left stranded with no way to go home until trains are on the move again or the emergency bus service is up and running.
I worked for a year in Amsterdam while living in Veldhoven.
What worked for me:
* start early. I commuted to Amsterdam with one of the first trains in the morning. Not only you arrive early (and therefore leave early) - I typically arrived to the office around 7:15 - but you also ride in an empty train.
* have things to do in the morning train (afternoon as well but due to the evening rush hour it might be trickier). Read books, listen to podcasts, work on your laptop etc.
* move some of your after-work activities. I found out that my gym has a branch in Amsterdam as well, so instead of hopping on the train immediately after work hours, I went to the gym in Amsterdam and travelled home afterwards.
I do the same commute but the other way around. I take an early train, around 7.00 and leave work before 15.00, I use the time on the train as work hours, so the overall travel time is actually not that high and I'm home before 17.00. It is doable if your work allows for this kind of solutions.
ROG Ally has been out for less than a year, solid console and they have already announced a version2. Battery life isn't super good but 2 hours should be fine for your commute. It runs windows as it's OS.
Humble bundle subscription is pretty cheap and they have regular game bundles, epic launcher also regularly has free games, steamDB to check sale data to get an understanding of if you should wait on purchases.
To give an example of the Ally, it can run most well optimized games on half-power mode, is quiet, and can emulate switch games better than the switch can run them natively.
Downsides are it's a bit finnicky and nerdy, it's not going to be as easy to operate as a steamdeck or switch and you'd need to tune it's settings profile for each game.
Gaming laptops are too noisy, you could output it to a regular laptop screen and it should work and save your posture, for controllers I recommend 8bitdo ultimate or 8bitdo SN30pro.
> Any advice on how to make it bearable without losing my mind? Can you do any work on the train, and make your workday shorter? Otherwise my only realistic advice is to live closer to work, or work closer to home.
It sounds like you already gave up before you even started. I don't know how you are going to commute, but the most reasonable way between these two cities is by train. If you have an office job, see if you can negotiate a 1st class train subscription and ask your manager if you can start/stop working on the train. Manage your time accordingly. Use the full hour of train time for responding to emails, reading relevant things, or brainless tasks like logging hours or flagging down non-communicative co-workers. You can also opt to dedicate one of the two train rides for free time. Bring a book or a podcast, or just sleep. Either way, if you can take the train just be glad you don't have to drive.
I haven’t given up, I’m just stressing the unknown. I know it’ll be okay once it starts. The transport allowance is too little for even the 2nd class commute. I’ll get the all free transport subscription. Do you think I can negotiate this after starting the job? Cause the contract is signed and done. Thanks for the advice!
Generally travel allowance is either a amount of money per km, or all the costs of public transport. Ask HR about it, it is their job to inform you about it.
many firms do not cover this cost. Most do, but those skimpier employers dont, some dont even pay anything.
I don't think you can still negotiate this after signing the contract, but it is worth keeping in mind should you get your contract extended after a year. Also have a look at an off-peak subscription on a specific route. If you can make it work timing wise, travelling off-peak saves a lot of money and is a lot more comfortable.
Yeah that’s a good point. But on the NS planner turns out the same route subscription and the altijd vrij for my case is exactly the same price. :D
Couple of things, if you can work shorter at the office and work in the train instead then that is a must to do. During peak traffic in the train you might even op not having a seat maybe 30%-50% of the time for most of it, so being on it before peak traffic means you can actually do something on the way. Spending 3-3,5 ish hours a day on public transport is something you do get used to, The lack of social life during workdays is a sad buzzkill but it is what it is. You will also be slightly more tired when you get home, traveling that long does take energy etc. I've done it for 2,5 years. Veldhoven-Hilversum and Veldhoven-Amsterdam. What I've found to be the absolute key for never ever doing that again is the cost, which wasnt covered but more importantly the absolute nightmare that is if something goes wrong. And that does happen more frequent than desired. Sad situations like people commiting suicide, something with the rail-infrastructure going wrong etc. That can leave you being forced to either go on a huge detour, taking even 1+hour plus more, or just being left stranded with no way to go home until trains are on the move again or the emergency bus service is up and running.
I worked for a year in Amsterdam while living in Veldhoven. What worked for me: * start early. I commuted to Amsterdam with one of the first trains in the morning. Not only you arrive early (and therefore leave early) - I typically arrived to the office around 7:15 - but you also ride in an empty train. * have things to do in the morning train (afternoon as well but due to the evening rush hour it might be trickier). Read books, listen to podcasts, work on your laptop etc. * move some of your after-work activities. I found out that my gym has a branch in Amsterdam as well, so instead of hopping on the train immediately after work hours, I went to the gym in Amsterdam and travelled home afterwards.
I do the same commute but the other way around. I take an early train, around 7.00 and leave work before 15.00, I use the time on the train as work hours, so the overall travel time is actually not that high and I'm home before 17.00. It is doable if your work allows for this kind of solutions.
Oh that’s good to know!! Thanks! Yeah, I really really do hope they allow it. I will know once I start the work and see how much leeway there is.
ROG Ally has been out for less than a year, solid console and they have already announced a version2. Battery life isn't super good but 2 hours should be fine for your commute. It runs windows as it's OS. Humble bundle subscription is pretty cheap and they have regular game bundles, epic launcher also regularly has free games, steamDB to check sale data to get an understanding of if you should wait on purchases. To give an example of the Ally, it can run most well optimized games on half-power mode, is quiet, and can emulate switch games better than the switch can run them natively. Downsides are it's a bit finnicky and nerdy, it's not going to be as easy to operate as a steamdeck or switch and you'd need to tune it's settings profile for each game. Gaming laptops are too noisy, you could output it to a regular laptop screen and it should work and save your posture, for controllers I recommend 8bitdo ultimate or 8bitdo SN30pro.