Posted on 02/22/2010 7:11:49 AM PST by GL of Sector 2814
JANESVILLE, Wis. – In the early dawn, after another week building cars, Michael Hanley leaves his job in Kansas. He quickly zips into Missouri, then heads up a ribbon of highway past grain silos and grazing deer, across the frozen fields of Iowa, over the Mississippi River and into the rolling hills of Wisconsin. Finally, he pulls into his driveway — 530 miles later.
It's one heck of a haul: more than 1,000 miles roundtrip, 16-plus hours of driving, every week.
"I like to say I gave up an eight-minute commute for an eight-hour commute," he says wearily, running a hand though salt-and-pepper hair as he watches his two sons play basketball for the first time this season.
After the aging General Motors plant where he worked for 23 years was idled about a year ago, Hanley faced a Hobson's choice: Stay with his family and search for an autoworker's salary ($28 an hour) in a county where more than 40 percent of its manufacturing jobs disappeared from 2006 to 2009. Or hang on to his GM paycheck and health insurance and follow the job, no matter where it leads.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
So I guess that keeps him from moving too hm? Like I said idiotic. And why shouldn't he pay for his wife's health problems?
Thinking even more, When the Alaskan pipeline was going in, the worker worked, I think 2 weeks on, and 1 week off. Because of the high cost of living in Fairbanks, the pipeline workers went straight to a plane and went home to their families in Houston and Dallas. Now thats a commute!!!!
.....Bob
Not realistically in this economy. I have a friend here in S.E. Michigan who lost his job with the GM Tech Center. He found another one in either Atlanta or North Carolina. Fortunately he kept the home and left the wife there while he rented an apartment because 6 months later the work dried up and he was laid off.
Had he permanently moved he would have taken a loss on selling the house and he and the wife would have been stuck in another state away from the entire family while once again being unemployed.......
Hmmm. Interesting point. You would think it would be cheaper to fly on the weekends..
Ya know, there’s a lot of jobs like that.
For a while I’d drive my wife to the airport early Monday morning, she’d fly about 500 miles, stay there most of the week, fly back and I’d pick her up Thursday evening. (I actually drove her to work a couple times; was amusing.) Such is the life of a traveling consultant. Another friend has been doing a similar 640 mile commute (each way) for years.
Guy in the lead article is also doing it weekly, just by ground instead of air. So he averages what amounts to a 50-mile-each-way commute; that’s not unusual, he’s just lumping it all into two drives per week. I did a 70+ mile commute (each way) daily for about a year.
You choose your lifestyle and deal with the requirements & consequences. Those with short commutes have less option in where to live. Those with long commutes are away from home more. Sorry, life is tough.
That’s what I’m doing ...
He can move, and, if you read the article, will move, after his kids finish their school year (and I’m guessing his wife finishes a year contract working for a school).
And, given the state of the Michigan economy, who says he can even get a different job where he is by taking a pay cut? A lot of times employers are reluctant to hire workers at big pay-cuts from their old job if they have other candidates with comparable qualifications that they would be giving a pay increase (has something to do with estimations of whether the new hire will keep looking for work to get back his or her old earnings rate).
It’s just a human interest story about the state of the economy.
My wife does the once a week commute to another state routine, but it’s easier for us: it’s a solution to an academic ‘two-body problem’, and she only has to do it 36 weeks out of the year, and be away an average of 4 days a week, some weekends I go to here place instead, and all our kids are grown (well, almost, we still have one who’s home from college most weekends thanks to a girlfriend who’s still in HS). Of course when I was on sabbatical, and instead of KS and OK we were spread between PA and OK, and I told a colleague at Penn about it I found out his family was normally split between PA and CA (the ‘bicoastal couple routine’), but that year between PA and Prague!
It’s a weird lifestyle made possible only by marginally free telecommunications: pay you ISP fees and uses Skype at no additional cost, or buy the right cell-phone plan and don’t pay any extra for calls to your loved ones.
Your opinion nothing more. People are moving all the time. The only ones who really have a hard time moving are those who exercised extraordinaily poor judgement and bought way too much house (financing lifestyle with debt) about 2 -3 years ago at the height of the bubble and are now upside down on the house.
once again being unemployed
Well it would appear that just MAYBE your friend should look into another line of work.
Not to mention the miles/points. My folks left this morning for a week vacation in Florida. Airline and hotels 100% paid for with loyalty rewards from the airline and hotels my Dad uses.
I live near Sacramento and work in Phoenix ... I go home maybe once a month ... once I know that the job is permanent I will make the move and Bye-bye Kalifornia
So this is really a choice on his part not a necessity. And we're supposed to feel sorry for him. In case you hadn't guessed I'm having a lot of trouble generating any tears over this.
And, given the state of the Michigan economy
He can't look for a job in another state?
Hope they don't land here. If Mexican engineers come here and they work as hard for as little as the cleanup crew, I'm toast!
I drive or fly round trip from St Pete Beach to Atlanta every week. The driving sucks, but the flying ain’t too bad.
He is, he's working midnights at a local Meijers stocking shelves.......
Hey, he's a hard worker, why don't you hire him?
That's just how it's done, son.
Most of that herd is American.
Including Myself.
I was curious, so I checked travelocity. The cheapest weekend flight was about $210. The article says his weekly gas cost is $180. So flying's not cheaper, but it is comparable. On the other hand, he wouldn't have a car for the week he spends there, which would be inconvenient at best.
No doubt he doesn’t want to disrupt his family’s lives, yank his kids to a new town and new school, etc. A lot of people face the same issue.
Read my FR profile (click my name below), the story called Greenland. And I did a 3 yeartour in Fairbanks, saw 70 below early one morning.
.....Bob
America has become a nation of wimps
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