Am I crazy for considering a job with a 90 minute commute one way?

[ToKingdomCome]

Maybe doable if you get a Tesla with Full Self Driving to make the commute easier. At the same time, find some good podcasts and I could see it being a worth it if your workplace is that good.

How self driving is the Tesla axtually ?

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[abolt18]

How self driving is the Tesla axtually ?

My recent experience with a friend's brand new Tesla left a LOT to be desired. I found myself having to take over a lot because the car was struggling (failing) to make a turn or navigate anything abnormal.

 

[IMGASMD]

My recent experience with a friend's brand new Tesla left a LOT to be desired. I found myself having to take over a lot because the car was struggling (failing) to make a turn or navigate anything abnormal.

Hopefully OPs drive is mostly highway. One of my friend who has a Tesla for about 3 years, drove a Ionic 5 yesterday, said Teslas autopilot is way better than Hyundai.

One of my partner who also had it for years, said that when he sees people on highway without Tesla, he feels bad for them.

Obviously a lot of bias in both situations (both are Tesla owners), but as much as I dislike Elon, Tesla may still be miles ahead of competitors.

 

[Mehd School]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to pass on this position. Yes, it is basically a call only job. I would work post call as well but are generally relieved before 8am.


Thanks again

 

[Anesthesia_Guy]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to pass on this position. Yes, it is basically a call only job. I would work post call as well but are generally relieved before 8am.


Thanks again

Wise decision.

 

[cchoukal]

Wait, did you want to check with that guy, medicine2wallstreet, or whatever, to see what s/he thinks?

 

[sloh]

Wtf do you guys do if you take an Uber for 90 minutes, especially if it’s not just 1 straight shot with no stopping? With the exception of podcasts if you try to read, watch, or do anything productive while in the car you will experience motion sickness.

 

[Twiggidy]

The area that the hospital in is in a town of about 35000 people and is pretty rough. One maybe two good restaurants, ****ty schools, low education and average income. The area I live in has some of the best public schools in the country, affordable to live in, great restaurants shopping etc. Major metropolitan area 35 minutes away. I have three young children and I want them to grow up where i currently live.

The entire reason this job is available is because the town it's in is ****. If it was in a somewhat desirable area it would be filled immediately and probably pay $100k less per year.

This sounds familiar

 

[IlDestriero]

That’s a lot of time away from your partner and/or family. And then there’s the commute.
I could never do that. If you have to be there before 7 that means you’re up at what, 430?
It sounds like your partners will have to give up some of their easy call nights and post call days to you as well. I wouldn’t be doing that either.

 

[kazuma]

If you really can't move, that's a tough spot to be in, especially with the PSLF issue. My reflexive answer is no but I could barely tolerate the 30 minute commute at my last job, and part of the selection process for my current (and expected-to-be final) job was a commute under 15 minutes.

90 minutes each way is 3 hours of driving each day, or ~15 hours of unpaid time every week. If this $550K & 8 week vacation job is an average 50ish hour/week job, then it's really a 65 hour/week job. 550 / 44 / 65 = $192/hour

It's actually less than that, since your "home call" is going to be spent in a call room, hotel, or a van down by the river. How do you value that time? It's not zero.

If you could commute on good public transit and use that time to read or relax, maybe it'd be tolerable and I wouldn't mentally bill the time to the job.



If you moved closer to that hospital, the stuff you're close to now would only be 90 minutes away. Is there a reason why that "commute" is unthinkable, but the same commute to work isn't?

Or do you have family / spousal-job reasons to be anchored where you're at?

I have a 3 hr round trip commute on most days, sometimes upwards of 5hrs. I don’t work nights, weekends or holidays and I’m usually working anywhere between 6-9hrs per day because it’s office based work doing ASA1-2 kids and adults. However, if you include drive time into my wages I’m usually making anywhere from 320-450/hr. I hate the long commutes but I have to remind myself I’m making over 300/hr to drive eat snacks and listen to podcasts in my car vs making 200-300/hr doing cases in a hospital.

I’ve been considering a hospital job doing solo bread and butter cases and easy home call but I’d have to work significantly more days per month and make less per hour. (400-500k/yr with 6-8wks vacation respectively 1099 and 40-45hr weeks, 1full weekend call 5-6times per year and q10 overnight home call) We’d live closer to family but have much higher housing costs, less time off, and less money to contribute towards retirement. It’s a tough decision especially since I couldn’t go back to my current gig if I left as it took years to get into this position/build up the business.

 

[kazuma]

That’s a lot of time away from your partner and/or family. And then there’s the commute.
I could never do that. If you have to be there before 7 that means you’re up at what, 430?
It sounds like your partners will have to give up some of their easy call nights and post call days to you as well. I wouldn’t be doing that either.

That’s also one of the downsides of my current gig, my bedtime is usually somewhere around 630-8pm but I’m home by 1-3pm most days.

 

[dabears505]

I wonder what's worse for your health. Sitting in a car 5 hrs or working more hours.

 

[Shimmy8]

That’s also one of the downsides of my current gig, my bedtime is usually somewhere around 630-8pm but I’m home by 1-3pm most days.

3-5 hours on road and still home by 1-3pm and make $450/hr?

 

[kazuma]

3-5 hours on road and still home by 1-3pm and make $450/hr?

Yeah but we start as early as 0430 at some places. I have to leave my house by 0300 on average +\- 30min. For a 1 hr medicaid case I’m netting about $650 after billing and drugs/supplies. Sometimes I’m doing quick cases at 2 cases/hr which comes out to $860/hr. Cash pay rates in my area are usually >$1000/hr for the first hour then $15/min thereafter. This doesn’t include expenses gas/wear and tear on equipment and my vehicle.

 

[kidthor]

Yeah but we start as early as 0430 at some places. I have to leave my house by 0300 on average +\- 30min. For a 1 hr medicaid case I’m netting about $650 after billing and drugs/supplies. Sometimes I’m doing quick cases at 2 cases/hr which comes out to $860/hr. Cash pay rates in my area are usually >$1000/hr for the first hour then $15/min thereafter. This doesn’t include expenses gas/wear and tear on equipment and my vehicle.

WTF.

Why are they starting at 04:30? That is clearly a horrible utilization of resources.

 

[kazuma]

I wonder what's worse for your health. Sitting in a car 5 hrs or working more hours.

I wonder the same. Anesthesiologists in the hospital do a lot of sitting especially during long cases. I get headaches/neck/back pain but I had those when I worked in the hospital too. Sitting is an independent risk factor for early death/disability. The cumulative risk of getting into a fatal or debilitating crash is also crosses my mind. Gnarly weather in the winter going over mtn passes is part of the game as well. I spend all day keeping patients safe/alive and I need to have enough gas in the tank to do the same for myself on the commute to and from.

I’m really torn on going back to the hospital, the golden handcuffs are real. Fortunately we’ve lived reasonably and have a decent net work outside of our modest primary home. I don’t have a lot of expensive vehicles/boats/vacation homes that would require a high paying/high call demand hospital job. But the housing in the area I’m looking at would be moderate to high compared to where I’m currently living.

 

[kazuma]

WTF.

Why are they starting at 04:30? That is clearly a horrible utilization of resources.

Easier to keep kids NPO. It’s tough keeping little kids from sneaking food if you’re starting cases after noon. With teens and adults we start at 6-7am usually and are done between noon and 1 typically. A side benefit is avoiding urban traffic at these arrival and departure times. Starting later could add upwards of an hour of stop and go traffic in the evening.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Cannot fathom driving 3hrs per day. I refused to even look at homes that were more than a 15 minute drive to work.

Twice in my career, I’ve tried to convince myself that a 60 minute commute would be ok - and I was miserable both times. I literally live less than a mile from my job at this point, and it’s surprising how much better I feel without all that driving.

I can’t fathom a 90 minute commute, but maybe it’s not as bad if you’re not doing it 5x weekly.

 

[kazuma]

Twice in my career, I’ve tried to convince myself that a 60 minute commute would be ok - and I was miserable both times. I literally live less than a mile from my job at this point, and it’s surprising how much better I feel without all that driving.

I can’t fathom a 90 minute commute, but maybe it’s not as bad if you’re not doing it 5x weekly.

It’s ruthless 5 days in a row. I used to do that most weeks in years past and made bank (800-900k/yr) but it’s not sustainable long term. This past year I’ve only been working 10 days a month and make roughly 4-5k/day and most days are 10-12hrs long. So roughly 540k/yr working half the weekdays per month, no weekends, or holidays.

 

[Anesthesia_Guy]

I wonder what's worse for your health. Sitting in a car 5 hrs or working more hours.

Being a Bears fan.

 

[D P356]

Wtf do you guys do if you take an Uber for 90 minutes, especially if it’s not just 1 straight shot with no stopping? With the exception of podcasts if you try to read, watch, or do anything productive while in the car you will experience motion sickness.

Hold the book at eye level while sitting upright. I’ve found keeping the semicircular canals (two of the three if I had to guess) and field of view along the car’s vector and level plane will result in less motion sickness.

 

[PpfSuxTube]

You guys are nuts doing those commutes.

Commuting 5 hours to do office based peds dental? Are you attempting euthanasia on yourself or something?

 

[sloh]

Hold the book at eye level while sitting upright. I’ve found keeping the semicircular canals (two of the three if I had to guess) and field of view along the car’s vector and level plane will result in less motion sickness.

Arms don’t get tired?

 

[nimbus]

You guys are nuts doing those commutes.

Commuting 5 hours to do office based peds dental? Are you attempting euthanasia on yourself or something?

For perspective, that’s worse than commuting from NYC to Philadelphia or Cleveland to Pittsburgh.

 

[GravelRider]

I would much rather be sitting in an OR than sitting in a car listening to podcasts even if the hourly rate makes the podcast time equally as lucrative. These mega commutes sound insane to me.

 

[ToKingdomCome]

I’m gonna do Locums once a week. Drive is 3 hours one way and I stay the whole week. This probably is r so bad? I have a new car coming soon but maybe get a used SUV for the commute ?

 

[kazuma]

You guys are nuts doing those commutes.

Commuting 5 hours to do office based peds dental? Are you attempting euthanasia on yourself or something?

It’s rough sometimes if it’s consecutive days in a row but it’s only a 12hr day at most including the drive so taking overnight/in house call w busy OB, trauma, or sick NICU kids was far more tiring and disruptive to my home life/sleep schedule. I sleep in my own bed and get 7-8hrs of sleep every night. I’m definitely looking into other options for a much shorter commute even though I’ll make significantly less per hour.

 

[dabears505]

If you're staying the whole week, that's not bad at all

 

[kazuma]

I’m gonna do Locums once a week. Drive is 3 hours one way and I stay the whole week. This probably is r so bad? I have a new car coming soon but maybe get a used SUV for the commute ?

Not bad if you’re single and don’t mind living in hotels which is what I do if the drive is more that 2.5hrs one way. But that’s quite rare for me. Most of my commutes are 60-80min one way. I like to spend time w my fam, ski/MTB, workout, sauna, sleep in my own sleep 8 bed etc after work so the drive home is it worth it to me.

 

[ToKingdomCome]

Not bad if you’re single and don’t mind living in hotels which is what I do if the drive is more that 2.5hrs one way. But that’s quite rare for me. Most of my commutes are 60-80min one way. I like to spend time w my fam, ski/MTB, workout, sauna, sleep in my own sleep 8 bed etc after work so the drive home is it worth it to me.

Yup single. I’m just signed a Locums contract for one week a month

 

[kazuma]

Yup single. I’m just signed a Locums contract for one week a month

Nice, go get it while its good. I get texts or emails from recruiters in my area offering hourly rates that are almost as high as my current hourly wage. That’s quiet change from pre Covid years when they would offer 200-275 an hour.

 

[D P356]

Arms don’t get tired?

One will find a way to get it done.