Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

Commuters forgo salary to work near home.

Wednesday, March 5th, 2008

Is this a change of Business in Ireland as we know it.

I could never see the attraction of firms locating in central Dublin. High costs, congestion, expensive sarnies and coffee. Do they pay for expensive offices in city center Dublin to get the staff??

Hmmmmmmm

I though most employees were living in Navan, Cavan, Kinnegad, Drogheda, Dundalk, Naas, Newbridge, Wicklow, Gorey, Bray ….. basically everywhere except Dublin.

Looks like there is even more incentive for firms to locate outside the capital as survey today announced that most commuters from Wicklow would be willing to take a paycut to work closer to home. This means that all commuters would be willing to do so.

Commuters spend on average 2hrs per day on trains planes and automobiles. I guess the penny has actually dropped that the extra 10k for working in Dublin is not worth 10-15 hours a week.

I am going to start a bring the jobs to the people campaign encouraging employers to relocated to the leafy suburbs cutting stress, traffic congestion, costs and improving life for us all.

Irish firms up in smoke …..

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Cigarette

Did you know that the average smoker spends almost a full year of their working life having smoking breaks? That’s a lot of cigarettes. The average smoker takes three 15 minute breaks per day which equates to 195 hours per year. The introduction of the smoking ban has meant that many smokers now have to travel further from their desks (I guess the exercise will help).

Anyway this is a huge cost on employers. I do know of some employers who have started to monitor this more and put in measures to reduce smoke breaks. Many employers see them as negative and a breeding ground for gossip. Fellow non-smoker employee will also not be too happy with these finding as the will carry the additional workload.

Why do we smoke?

Could it be that 1 in 4 workers find their job stressful? A combination of increased working hours and commuting hours has seen stress levels rise in Ireland. Over a third of Irish workers are spending more time working and commuting than they used to. Well work life balance day will soon be upon us to resolve all this stress.