Guest blog: Commuters: get happy! - By Melissa Addey - A full-time writer and the 2016 Writer in Residence for the British library

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Guest blog: Commuters: get happy! - By Melissa Addey - A full-time writer and the 2016 Writer in Residence for the British library

Commuting is bad for you. Really bad for you. If you commute you are more likely to be overweight, suffer from anxiety, stress, depression and social isolation. You are more likely to sleep badly and be exhausted, have high blood sugar (which could lead to diabetes), high blood pressure and cholesterol (which could lead to heart attacks) and experience neck and back pain. Oh, and you are 40% more likely to get divorced.

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Contribution from freelance writer: Why there is an increase in employees working from home in the United States - by Jenny Hart - based in the USA

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Over the last few years, there has been a substantial rise in flexible working hours and the number of employees working from home. This is a hotly debated topic as to if the pros of this outweigh the cons for organisations. As employees are becoming increasingly mindful of having a healthy work-life balance whilst still being dedicated to their careers, it is therefore important that companies are willing to offer the work flexibility and adapt to this modern outlook on working hours.

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Guest blog: 30 Powerful Time Management Tips That Really Work - By Andrew Boswell, who is a Programme Director with more than 40 years experience in IT and Telecoms.

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Guest blog: 30 Powerful Time Management Tips That Really Work - By Andrew Boswell, who is a Programme Director with more than 40 years experience in IT and Telecoms.

Don’t you just hate it when you have too much to do and you’re running out of time? I can help you boost your productivity. These time management tips will accelerate your performance, and you can start right now.

Whether you are a student, professional or home-maker, these tips will help you manage your time effectively.

1. Measure your use of time

Look back at yesterday. How much time did you spend doing key tasks? Where did the rest of the day go?

How many hours did you you spend travelling? Doing your emails? Attending meetings? Taking breaks? Dealing with interruptions? Doing key tasks? Or doing stuff that keeps you busy but is just a chore?

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Guest blog: Our ticketing system is structurally sexist - we need part-time tickets now - By Lianna Etkind, Public Transport Campaigner, Campaign for Better Transport→

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Guest blog: Our ticketing system is structurally sexist - we need part-time tickets now - By Lianna Etkind, Public Transport Campaigner, Campaign for Better Transport

The need for part-time and flexible season tickets has never been greater. Over eight million people are now working part-time, with many more working from home or one or more days a week.

But the country’s ticketing system has not kept pace, and is still stuck in an outdated model of five-day-a-week commuting. Whilst annual, monthly and weekly discounts are available, they are based on travelling five days a week.

Campaign for Better Transport’s Fair Fares Now campaign has been calling for cheaper, fairer and simpler train fares for years. So we welcomed the Conservative Party’s manifesto promise to introduce part-time season tickets, so that the millions of people who work part-time would be able to travel to work more cheaply. Over a year later though, and little progress has been made. Part-time commuters are still having to pay through the nose for 5-day a week season tickets they don’t use two days a week; or pay full whack for peak time daily fares. Part time workers get paid two thirds less than full time workers on average, and many must cope with the high cost of childcare. Why should we have to pay extra for travel too?

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Guest blog: Smarter working and better transport needed to beat the commuter blues - By Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC

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Guest blog: Smarter working and better transport needed to beat the commuter blues - By Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC

Travelling to work can be unbearable. Long commutes feel like wasted time, and clog up our transport networks. Commute Smart Week is a great opportunity to talk about how we can make the journey better, shorter, or even eliminate them.

As November bites, many of us will be commuting in the cold and the dark. Trees will have shed their leaves. You don’t have to live in the Pennines, where the first snows fell a month ago, in order to get the feeling that simply getting to work can itself be hard work. 
And things are not getting any easier. The average yearly commute has increased by 10 hours since 2010. One in seven employees are now commuting for more than two hours a day, up by 900,000 since last year. 

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