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Its only money

February 7th, 2020 · Posted by Skuds in Life · No Comments · Life

The other day I came across a job. I wasn’t looking, it was one of those e-mails from LinkedIn that says “here’s a job you might be interested in” and I had a little look. It was a job that I could probably do, in my current field of risk management, in an industry that I used to work in. It was also an interesting challenge because it was a high-profile infrastructure project that I know from the news has had a lot of trouble with risk management.

Oh. And the salary was between about £75k and £90k which is significantly more than I get now, with a lot more holiday than I get now and a final salary pension scheme.

Did I apply for it? I did not. It may have paid well, but it is based in London. I think that literally you could not pay me enough to commute to London again. I did that for many years and could not go back to that. When I did it before it was two hours every day and that was because I worked right next to the mainline terminus and the train service was OK most days. Something that would also need a tube trip would mean 3 hours a day on a good day, and my understanding is that there are no good days on Southern any more.

I don’t think I would apply for that even if I was guaranteed to get the job because I have discovered that there is more to life than just accumulating cash. I would have to be not only skint, but up to my ears in debt to even consider commuting again. There is also the small matter of some loyalty and gratitude to my current employers for the patience they showed when I was sick for most of last year.

I don’t mind a bit of travel, even if that involves long days. I have done a few day trips to Glasgow, Hengelo, and Devon and that is fine, but when the daily routine involves waiting in crowds for delayed and cancelled trains, or working long hours just to miss the rush hour, so that you never get home before 8pm and often later than that you have to draw the line don’t you?

Maybe when I get my motorbike licence I would fancy having a bit of a commute because that is at least fun – but even then it would only be fun going to Brighton or Guildford but not through South and Central London.

I don’t feel that I have missed an opportunity. I feel that seeing that job advert has just helped me realise what is important to me and that I am really very happy where I am.

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