Well, I've got a little update to this dilemma I posted back in April.
My job did indeed end up moving to the terrible suburb back in May. I bought a used road bike and ended up doing the bike commute a whopping total of 5 times during the summer, though I like to tell myself that I would have done it more frequently if I hadn't been devoting all my free time to a DIY kitchen remodel (which is now completed). I hadn't really started looking for a new job at first, for the reasons expressed in my previous post, and I made a couple of attempts at carpooling with mixed results. Just recently with the winter weather I had thrown myself into job-hunting, though I'm not expecting quick results based on a variety of factors.
So here's the news.... today some issues at work came to a head and I ended up having a conversation with my boss that resulted in an agreement that I will be allowed to work from home ALL THE TIME and will be paid hourly instead of salary. The hourly rate is not yet set but the discussion is that it should approximate my salary if I work all the required hours. The reason for the change is that I was not billing enough, due to a combination of my own lack of motivation and a general lack of the type of work that I specialize in. The idea is that now I will be paid based on how much I actually work and won't be expected to do the work that is outside of my specialty and that I kind of suck at anyway.
I'm kind of blown away by this turn of events and I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it. I am SO HAPPY to not be car commuting, I could break out into song. I am likely to end up with less total pay, but I am having a hard time caring about that under the circumstances - it's hard to complain about getting paid for exactly the number of hours that you work, after all. I am SO HAPPY about the vision of leaving the cars in the garage (and selling a car! woohoo! neither of us will be using a car on a daily basis!), and being able to use my non-working time in the way I see fit instead of hanging around the office. My husband accurately concluded that I'm kind of being laid off but I DON'T CARE.
After a two-hour commute last night and one hour this morning, this has maybe made my YEAR.
Interested to hear what others think. Am I wrong to be excited about a likely, unknown reduction in pay?