Could an organisation enforce a maximum commute distance?

[andygates]

Long commutes are grim.  I'd be wary of hiring someone who had, say, a 2-hour commute daily because I'd expect them to be a zombie by the end of the week. 

Enforceable?  No.  But neither is "how you'd click with the team", which is a standard interview criterion.

[citoyen]

Never mind whether or not it's enforceable, would it even be legal to refuse to employ someone on grounds of the length of their commute?

I definitely wouldn't take someone on who lived 2 hours away, as you know there would be regular issues with time keeping.

Pish. My daily commute is the best part of two hours each way and I rarely have problems with timekeeping. I don't consider the length of my commute to be ideal but that's my problem and no one else's - definitely not a problem for my employer because I make sure it isn't. In fact, I'm usually one of the first in the office most days.

I'm normally the first in the office, though sometimes a chap who lives 2 hours away gets in before me. Boss has commented more than once about how the people who live closest are the worst timekeepers, here and other jobs.

Same here. I have a colleague who lives a 20-minute Tube journey from the office and he's always late - our working day starts at 10am and he's rarely in before 10.20 (I'm usually in by 9.30). It's not the length of journey that creates problems but the lack of self-discipline and personal organisation of the individual.

The long commute is not even especially tiring - I just get on the train, sit down and read the newspaper for the duration. Of course, it's a bit different if you're talking about people who drive that amount of time every day.

d.

[DuncanM]

I can't see how it would be enforcable as part of the interview process, but I also don't see how one would ever find out that would be the reason for them not employing one.
On the other hand, were one to be let go because you moved house - one should be able to sue providing one is able to perform ones duties as well as before...

I commuted over 2 hours each way before.  It wasn't fun.  But it wsn't that that caused me to be a zombie by friday afternoon, it was the 50 hour week... 

[Jaded]

With regard to it being legal:

I"d suggest that you'd have to show that it wasn't illegal. e.g. you weren't using distance to discriminate against groups of people. However I can't see (in normal employment situations) this being relevant in anything other than quite local situations (eliminating a certain housing area from your employment catchment, for example)

The question was about distance, not time. It is perfectly possibly to take 2 hours to travel a very short distance. However 2 hours of driving with the attendant concentration required, is not particularly conducive to best performance.

[Really Ancien]

I can see that in a County Council context there could be a possibilty of senior staff providing a bad example and generating charges of hypocrisy. I just checked out the timetables for the West Coast Mainline, you could get a train from Carlisle to Preston in 1hr 10 mins, a distance of about 100 miles. It's pretty easy to envisage a senior post being filled in Lancashire from someone in Cumbria and vice-versa. It's also possible to envisage them not moving, They'd have two hours undisturbed time a day to read briefings for a start. County Hall in Preston is just outside the railway station.

Damon.

[gordon taylor]

We are distracted by the time taken on a commute and the "worth" of an employee.

My point is: a two-hour commute will generally take more energy than a 20 minute commute - so if the organisation is committed to reducing its footprint, then shorter commutes are, by definition, greener than longer ones.

[Wowbagger]

In the Civil Service, anyone of Executive Officer grade or higher is considered to be a "Mobile Grade" and can be asked to work anywhere within a reasonable distance of their home, which ISTR is about 20 miles. If a transfer takes place in which travel to work would be greater than that distance, Crown Removal terms were allowable in which all kinds of expenses are payable to help with the move. This was in the late 1980s. I bet the rules have changed though - I worked with a guy who made a fortune out of a Crown Removal.

I think it's reasonable to expect people to work within easy travelling distance of home but it ought to be up to the government to set up a sensible system to enforce it. Carbon rationing would help.

[DuncanM]

My point is: a two-hour commute will generally take more energy than a 20 minute commute - so if the organisation is committed to reducing it's footprint, then shorter commutes are, by definition, greener than longer ones.

I am the counterpoint to that.
I commuted 60 miles by public transport in 2 hours for my last job.
I commute 38 miles by car in 1 hour for my current job.
The former is greener than the latter...

[BrianI]

What would happen if someones workplace relocated such that it'd be quite a commute in the morning?

[Wowbagger]

What would happen if someones workplace relocated such that it'd be quite a commute in the morning?

That would depend on agreements currently in place.

When I worked at the Southend HQ of Customs & Excise, there was always talk of us relocating to Liverpool, where there is another HQ at Queen's Dock. This was in the 1980s and 90s when unemployment in northern cities was massive. Although I can't remember precisely what would have happened, I think that the mobile grades (EO and above) would have been offered jobs in Liverpool and their removal expenses would have been paid if they had taken up the offer, but lower grades would have been made redundant and their jobs offered to Liverpudlians.

I think mobile grades who didn't want to move would have been offered redundancy. The terms in the Civil Service were bloody good. 

These days, of course, relocation in the private sector would be quite a trek - from Southend to Bombay or wherever - and probably very little compensation.

[David Martin]

Quite a few local authority and university posts (certainly I know UEA, Cambridge and Oxford do) require you to reside within a specific distance of your place of work.

Add the University of Dundee to that list. 25 miles in our case (unless there is good reason otherwise).

[Jaded]

What would happen if someones workplace relocated such that it'd be quite a commute in the morning?

Hopefully, at some point in the not too distant future, employers will take that kind of thing into consideration when considering relocation.