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[jadedprof]

On a good day it takes my SO one hour and 45 minutes each way. He usually leaves between 5:30 and 6 am and then gets back at about 7-7:30 pm. On a bad day it has taken him 3 hours crawling in city traffic to get home. He usually listens to NPR podcasts and audiobooks. We live in the city where I teach, but last year he stayed two nights a week in the city where he works. Neither of us was particularly happy with the time apart and so this year he is going to see if he can commute back and forth - 4 days a week. This will entail driving in one way and taking the train back the other so that he can work at least one way. We shall see if it works. If not, he plans to rent an apartment there again.

[wanna_writemore]

I have a 2 hour each way drive if I leave at six and get to work an hour early, otherwise it is three hours (a three and a half hour train trip each way either way). As my teaching is all clumped into a few days, I try not to go in any more than I have to, but I worry that my colleagues will think ill of me for not being in the office all the time (though unless they explicitly knock on my door they would have no way of knowing either way). Another member of staff only goes in two days a week, but she is the chair's wife, and so I imagine will get away with it either way. What have been your experiences? Are you looked down on if you minimise your on-campus days due to a long commute?

My impression in 2 different departments is that if you don't complain about it or make it an issue, and get everything done, it's not a problem.  I have heard complaints that a colleague was "never available" for meetings or to sign paperwork for the chair and that was a problem (at least potentially so).  I figure it's a privilege and a convenience for me to be able to work at home some of the time, so if there's a meeting on a day I don't normally go in, I just go without thinking much about it or saying anything.  It really depends on the culture of your department and university, though.