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For 14 years, Kerry Mellin commuted 40 miles to her job as a motion picture costumer at Nickelodeon Studios in Burbank, Calif. The trip from her home in Simi Valley took her east via Route 118, then south onto Interstate 5. Three turns later, she was there. On a good day, the drive took 75 minutes. “On bad traffic days, it was easily two hours,” she says. “The road rage was real. I felt trapped in my lane, and my sciatica was killing me.”
No productivity guru preaches the benefits of morning anger and back pain. But exactly how an odyssey such as Mellin’s affects the workday hasn’t been fully understood. New research from Dartmouth helps quantify the cost of commuting on performance. “Your commute predicts your day,” says Andrew Campbell, lead researcher of the study and a professor of computer science.
Before the pandemic, 275 information workers (45% of them were employed by tech companies) across the US were outfitted with fitness tracking devices; subjects were monitored around the clock for a year. Most of them, 94%, commuted by car, with trips averaging 40 to 60 minutes. The sensors tracked details such as heart rate and sleep, as well as environmental information like weather.
The data showed that a rough morning commute acts as a first falling domino, with ill effects felt down the line. “Commuting, especially if it’s not well-planned and predictable, raises stress levels,” says co-author Pino Audia, a professor of management and organizations at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. Stress, of course, has repercussions on mood and whether you’ll still be inclined to say hello to a co-worker you’ve already passed in the hall four times in a day.
The researchers found that commutes involving more physical activity, such as walking or bicycling, correlated with less stress and better performance at work. Performance was gauged by tracking dozens of behaviors both productive (helping co-workers, volunteering for assignments, skipping breaks to finish work) and counterproductive (leaving early, excessive breaks, working slowly). Participants self-reported, and 110 of the 275 were considered “low performers.” (There was no conclusion for why the correlation exists; the researchers’ focus was simply on measuring it.)
Another finding: No matter how a worker commuted, those who left their homes or offices at the same times each morning and afternoon and took the same route performed better than commuters who alternated departures and varied their routes. This dovetails with the Dartmouth team’s previous findings that higher performers have more consistent daily routines.
The researchers suggest that, if financially possible, people consider living close to the office or cutting down on a commute by working from home or from a satellite office. Living near the office “can be fun and exciting in your 20s and 30s, but as you get into your 40s or 50s, you think, ‘This is not the type of fun and setting I want anymore,’ ” says Chris Heller, chief real estate officer of OJO Labs, an online platform for buying and selling homes based in Austin. “Typically companies have their offices in business districts or downtown where it’s just more expensive to live.” If moving closer to work is too expensive, he says, try looking for a home on a public-transit line that’s a straight shot to the office, as opposed to one that requires you to, say, drive to a train station first. Transferring, as any subway rider knows, can be a major pain point.
Audia encourages commuters to analyze their patterns and think about how to be more consistent—which, of course, is easier said than done for busy workers juggling caretaking roles and the existential dread of having to, you know, go do the thing you’re paid to do. “Predictability probably has an impact on your perception of control and sense of what’s going to happen that day,” he says. A lot of research shows that the more control a worker has, the happier that worker will be.
Finding herself often annoyed and flustered, Mellin says she was ultimately “compelled to find an alternative” job to avoid her 40-mile adventures. She started a line of reusable grips called EazyHold for children and those with disabilities and ditched the commute. “I turned that road rage into a big-time motivator,” she says.
No, Porky, I don't need to walk or bike. I need an Abrams tank to flatten the Halfwit Grand Prix that gets in my way. Then I wanna ram it into your McMansions and wipe my ass with your doilies.
For 14 years, Kerry Mellin commuted 40 miles to her job as a motion picture costumer at Nickelodeon Studios in Burbank, Calif. The trip from her home in Simi Valley took her east via Route 118, then south onto Interstate 5. Three turns later, she was there. On a good day, the drive took 75 minutes. “On bad traffic days, it was easily two hours,” she says. “The road rage was real. I felt trapped in my lane, and my sciatica was killing me.”
No productivity guru preaches the benefits of morning anger and back pain. But exactly how an odyssey such as Mellin’s affects the workday hasn’t been fully understood. New research from Dartmouth helps quantify the cost of commuting on performance. “Your commute predicts your day,” says Andrew Campbell, lead researcher of the study and a professor of computer science.
Before the pandemic, 275 information workers (45% of them were employed by tech companies) across the US were outfitted with fitness tracking devices; subjects were monitored around the clock for a year. Most of them, 94%, commuted by car, with trips averaging 40 to 60 minutes. The sensors tracked details such as heart rate and sleep, as well as environmental information like weather.
The data showed that a rough morning commute acts as a first falling domino, with ill effects felt down the line. “Commuting, especially if it’s not well-planned and predictable, raises stress levels,” says co-author Pino Audia, a professor of management and organizations at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. Stress, of course, has repercussions on mood and whether you’ll still be inclined to say hello to a co-worker you’ve already passed in the hall four times in a day.
The researchers found that commutes involving more physical activity, such as walking or bicycling, correlated with less stress and better performance at work. Performance was gauged by tracking dozens of behaviors both productive (helping co-workers, volunteering for assignments, skipping breaks to finish work) and counterproductive (leaving early, excessive breaks, working slowly). Participants self-reported, and 110 of the 275 were considered “low performers.” (There was no conclusion for why the correlation exists; the researchers’ focus was simply on measuring it.)
Another finding: No matter how a worker commuted, those who left their homes or offices at the same times each morning and afternoon and took the same route performed better than commuters who alternated departures and varied their routes. This dovetails with the Dartmouth team’s previous findings that higher performers have more consistent daily routines.
The researchers suggest that, if financially possible, people consider living close to the office or cutting down on a commute by working from home or from a satellite office. Living near the office “can be fun and exciting in your 20s and 30s, but as you get into your 40s or 50s, you think, ‘This is not the type of fun and setting I want anymore,’ ” says Chris Heller, chief real estate officer of OJO Labs, an online platform for buying and selling homes based in Austin. “Typically companies have their offices in business districts or downtown where it’s just more expensive to live.” If moving closer to work is too expensive, he says, try looking for a home on a public-transit line that’s a straight shot to the office, as opposed to one that requires you to, say, drive to a train station first. Transferring, as any subway rider knows, can be a major pain point.
Audia encourages commuters to analyze their patterns and think about how to be more consistent—which, of course, is easier said than done for busy workers juggling caretaking roles and the existential dread of having to, you know, go do the thing you’re paid to do. “Predictability probably has an impact on your perception of control and sense of what’s going to happen that day,” he says. A lot of research shows that the more control a worker has, the happier that worker will be.
Finding herself often annoyed and flustered, Mellin says she was ultimately “compelled to find an alternative” job to avoid her 40-mile adventures. She started a line of reusable grips called EazyHold for children and those with disabilities and ditched the commute. “I turned that road rage into a big-time motivator,” she says.
No, Porky, I don't need to walk or bike. I need an Abrams tank to flatten the Halfwit Grand Prix that gets in my way. Then I wanna ram it into your McMansions and wipe my ass with your doilies.
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