Working locally- Hiring Locally.  Quantifying the Advantages.

Everyone seems to agree, working locally or from home is preferable to slogging 30-40 miles per day each way for a long commute.

While employers (and even occasional employees) debate the value and preference of working from home versus working in an office, surely everyone agrees that a short commute or no commute at all is an optimal advantage.  (This, despite those who claim that they “need the 45 minutes each way each day in the car to gear up and wind down from/for their work environment”.  That smacks of New Englanders justifying suffering through below freezing temperatures because they “just love the change of seasons”! J )

I’ve had personal experience on both fronts.  There is nothing very CHARMING about scraping the ice off my car and needing an extra 30 minutes to warm it up before dragging myself to the office every morning, and often having to repeat the process for the drive home.

Now that I live in CA, I get it.  And having recently moved to San Clemente, I get it even more. As a professional recruiter, I’ve always heard people complaining about their daily commute to their daily grind, but I find the sentiment even more common in San Clemente.  And why not?

San Clemente is a special case. A special place.  Isolated at the bottom end of Orange County, buffered from San Diego by Camp Pendleton, and bordered on the west by the beautiful Pacific and to the east by beautiful open country and mountains, who would willingly opt to get on The 5 every day and battle their way up to Irvine to work?

One can easily make a case for it being worthwhile to take a significant cut in pay in order to work locally.  How much does your commute cost, at $4/per gallon for gasoline, plus the car payment, wear and tear on the vehicle, maintenance, the cost of dress cloths, eating lunch out vs. eating at home, daycare, etc.

Even the stingy Federal Government allows for 50 cents per mile as a travel deduction.  That means a 60 mile round trip commute costs at least $30 dollars PER DAY!  That’s $180 per month, over $2,000 per year, only considering the first item on our list above.  Add in Day Care, Lunch, Clothing, etc, and you could easily justify a $10,000 per year pay cut as a lateral move.

And on top of all that, one has to ask, what is my TIME worth?   Getting back 90 minutes per day, 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year, to spend with my family or simply do as I wish?  Priceless.

No wonder studies show that people who work local last longer in their jobs, are more productive, and happier in their careers compared to those slogging it off to Irvine (or LA!) every day.  Employers take note- Hire Local! You’ll have to hire less often and you’ll have a much more productive team as a result!

Mark Bassett is a professional recruiter for eNamix Inc. specializing in placing local talent with local businesses.  He can be reached at 949.395.7793 or via email mark@sanclementehacks.com