‘I’m utterly sick of it’: UK workers on the return of the commute
-Seven people talk about how the Covid pandemic has affected their perspective on travelling to work

“我真是受够了”：英国上班族在返程途中说
——7位受访者谈新冠疫情如何影响了他们对上班的看法
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处



(A packed platform at a London underground station in late June.)

（六月下旬，伦敦地铁站的站台上挤满了人。）
新闻：

As September approaches, employers are increasingly asking workers to come in, with many offices adopting hybrid systems after months of working from home – prompting mixed emotions. Commuting can be both expensive and polluting. UK workers pay more of their salary in commuting costs than their EU counterparts and, before the pandemic, two-thirds of people travelled to work by car. But despite the costs, which also include time, some value the commute for separating their home and work lives.

随着9月的临近，越来越多的雇主要求员工上班，许多办公室在实行“在家办公”模式几个月后，现在采用了混合工作制，这引发了复杂的情绪。通勤既昂贵又污染环境。英国员工的通勤费用占工资的比例高于欧盟同行，而且在疫情爆发前，三分之二的人开车上班。但是，尽管有成本（其中还包括时间成本），一些人还是重视通勤，因为他们能借此把家庭生活和工作生活分开。

Seven people speak about how their commutes and their perspectives on travelling to work have changed since the onset of the pandemic

7位受访者讲述了自疫情爆发以来，他们的通勤方式和对上班的看法发生了怎样的变化

1、‘I can’t keep doing this commute’

“我不能再这样通勤了”

Phil Harris, who travels in to London from Horsham in West Sussex, says the cost of train tickets has increased since the start of the pandemic and that he is “absolutely sick” of commuting. “The rail replacement weekends are harder to stomach when there has been so much time to fix things,” says the 54-year-old.

菲尔·哈里斯从西苏塞克斯的霍舍姆前往伦敦，他说，自疫情开始以来，火车票价格上涨了，他“完全厌倦了”通勤。54岁的他说：“当我们有那么多时间来（在家）解决问题的时候，（却还选择）周末换乘铁路是很难忍受的。”
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Before the pandemic Harris travelled on the 6.44am Southern train from Littlehaven to London Victoria, but the service is no longer running, which means walking farther to Horsham station. “My dilemma is that I don’t want to change jobs because I love what I do, but I can’t keep doing this commute,” says Harris, who works in tourism.

在大流行之前，哈里斯乘坐早上6点44分从利特尔海文开往伦敦维多利亚的南线列车，但该列车已经停运，这就意味着要走更远的路到霍尔舍姆车站。“我的困境是，我不想换工作，因为我喜欢我的工作，但我不能一直这样通勤，”哈里斯说，她在旅游行业工作。

Due to the low numbers of tourists, Harris now starts work at 10am and gets the 8.50 train from Horsham, arriving at London Victoria at 9.43. His weekly ticket costs £110, which is more expensive than before the pandemic when his employer would give him a season ticket loan of £100 a week for 40 weeks. “You would think working later would be cheaper, but with Southern rail those fares start on trains arriving into London after 10am. I’m utterly sick of it all,” he says.

由于游客数量少，哈里斯现在上午10点开始工作，乘坐8点50分的火车从霍舍姆出发，9点43分到达伦敦维多利亚。他每周的票价是110英镑，这比疫情前要贵——当时他的雇主会给他一笔为期40周，每周100英镑的季票贷款。“你可能会认为现在上班时间推迟了，路费会更便宜，但对于南线列车来说，上午10点以后到达伦敦的火车才会开始降低票价。我完全厌倦了这一切，”他说。
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


2、‘I don’t want to be on the tube in rush hour’

“我不想在高峰时间坐地铁”

Before the pandemic Tim Pitt’s job as a document controller on construction projects sometimes meant commuting for more than an hour each morning to sites across London. “I spent my entire working life taking tubes, trains and buses,” says the 56-year-old. “It’s quite stressful, getting to work and fighting for a seat.”

疫情爆发前，蒂姆·皮特在建筑项目中担任文档管理员，有时这意味着他每天早上要花一个多小时往返于伦敦各地的工地。“我的整个职业生涯都在乘坐地铁、火车和公交车，”56岁的他说。“上班还要抢座位，压力太大了。”

After that job ended with lockdown, he started working closer to home, doing cleaning shifts at his local Wetherspoon’s and later working at vaccination centres in Waltham Forest, north-east London. “It made me see how the commute starts the working day with stress,” he says, adding that walking to work means he can “relax and arrive fresh and ready for the day”.

在这份工作终结后，他开始在离家更近的地方工作，在当地的威瑟斯本餐厅轮班做清洁工作，后来又在伦敦东北部沃尔瑟姆森林的疫苗接种中心工作。他说：“这让我明白了通勤是如何让我带着压力开始一天的工作的。”他补充说，步行去上班意味着他可以“放松，精力充沛，为一天做好准备”。

Pitt, who is now looking for full-time work, says he would prioritise a job that does not involve taking the tube – particularly while Covid cases remain high. “I really don’t want to be on the tube in rush hour, even with my mask on, because a lot of people aren’t wearing masks. I’ve been double jabbed, but the tube is an incubator for the virus.”

皮特目前正在寻找一份全职工作，他表示，他会优先考虑一份不需要坐地铁的工作——尤其是在新增病例仍然居高不下的情况下。“我真的不想在高峰时间乘坐地铁，即使我戴着口罩，因为很多人都不戴口罩。我打了两针，但地铁车厢就是个病毒培养箱。”
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


3、‘Commuting gave me time to transition from being a mum to being a colleague’

“通勤让我有了从‘妈妈’变成‘同事’的（身份转换）时间。”

Christina Cage, a 38-year-old chartered accountant in Edinburgh, did not appreciate how important her commute was until she stopped doing it. “I came to realise that my commute was a time where I could transition from being a mum to becoming a colleague with a bit of space in between to myself,” says Cage, who has two young children. “Overnight it became a threshold of a door that didn’t close.

38岁的克里斯蒂娜·凯奇是爱丁堡的一名注册会计师，直到她不再上下班，她才意识到通勤的重要性。有两个孩子的凯奇说：“我开始意识到，在上下班的路上，我可以从母亲角色过渡到同事角色，给自己留一点空间。可一夜之间，它变成了‘一扇没有关上的门的门槛’（译注：指在家工作时，“妈妈”和“OL”之间的身份切换不过来，因为没有缓冲区）。

“It’s not because I like sitting in crowded spaces with strangers or in traffic – it’s because it’s the only time, especially if you’re a busy parent, that you get to have that headspace to look out the window, read a book, listen to music or cycle. You’ve got a gift in that time when you have to move from one physical location to another – I didn’t appreciate how necessary that was for my mental health.”

“这并不是因为我喜欢与陌生人坐在拥挤的空间或在交通工具中，而是因为这是唯一的（身份转换）时间，尤其是如果你是一个忙碌的父母，（在通勤时）你可以有一个头部活动空间看看窗外，读一本书，听音乐或骑自行车。当你必须从一个地方移动到另一个地方时，你就得到了一份‘礼物’——我以前没有意识到这对我的心理健康有多么必要。”

Cage says her office is discussing a hybrid-working pattern, and though she thinks it would be “quite stressful” to return to commuting every day, she is looking forward to commuting on some days. “In the lighter months of the year I sometimes cycle in, so that gives me the space and time to do some exercise I wouldn’t have done otherwise,” she adds.

凯奇说，她的办公室正在讨论一种混合工作模式，尽管她认为每天回到通勤状态会“相当有压力”，但她期待着能有几天通勤。她补充道：“在一年中天气较柔和的月份，我有时会骑车回家，这样我就有空间和时间做一些平时不会做的运动了。”

4、‘My salary has fallen and I can’t afford to commute’

“我的工资下降了，我负担不起通勤”

When Evie, a personal assistant in Essex, was job-hunting last summer after her contract ended, she realised salaries had been slashed. “It’s been really brutal. A lot of employers are no longer paying London weighting as people are working from home,” says the 50-year-old.

去年夏天，埃塞克斯的私人助理伊维在合同结束后找工作时，意识到薪水被削减了。“这真的很残酷。由于人们在家工作，许多雇主不再支付伦敦的加权工资（通勤补贴）了。

She thinks salaries need to be brought back to pre-Covid levels to reflect commuting costs. “Employers should say: ‘We started your contract when everyone was working at home – we’re going to want you back in the office, so we’re going to increase your salary to reflect that’,” she says.

她认为，工资需要恢复到疫情之前的水平，以反映通勤成本。她表示：“雇主应该说：‘我们在你的合同开始时，所有人都在家里工作——我们希望你回到办公室，因此我们将提高你的薪水，以反映这一变化。’”

Evie is on a significantly lower salary than she used to be, and is struggling financially now her employer wants her to start coming into the office in London twice a week. “My son’s just finished university and we’ve only got my income. I’d love to be able to go in two out of five days a week, but I can’t. I can’t afford to give [my boss] a third of my salary, and I’ll be going into the office for no reason. I’ll miss several hours of work by travelling in, just to say he sees my face,” she says, adding: “There’s never any mention of Covid.”

伊维现在的薪水比以前低了很多，经济上也很困难，她的雇主希望她开始每周去伦敦的办公室两次。“我儿子刚大学毕业，我们只有我的收入。我倒是希望一周五天能去两天，但我做不到。我无法（为满足老板的要求）而花掉三分之一的薪水，而且我去办公室也毫无理由。我会为了，比方说，只是让他看到我的脸而浪费掉几个小时的工作时间，”她说，并补充道：“他从来没有提到过疫情影响。”

5、‘Once I started cycling, the thought of getting the tube was unbearable’

“自从我开始骑自行车之后，一想到要乘地铁我就难以忍受。”

After changing jobs during the pandemic, the 36-year-old lawyer Anisha Kohli’s commute went from being a 20-minute walk to spending 45 minutes on the tube. “I just couldn’t bear it: the added expense, time taken and the stress of dealing with the commute during a pandemic, adding to the fact that half the stations were under maintenance,” she says. “On a lark, I ended up cycling home on a Santander bike one day. Within a week I bought myself a ridiculously adorable pink bike with a wicker basket and now cycle to work every day.”

在疫情期间换了工作后，36岁的律师阿尼莎·科利的通勤时间从步行20分钟变成了坐地铁45分钟。她说：“我简直无法忍受：流行病期间额外的费用、时间和通勤压力，再加上一半的车站都在维修。有一次出于试试看的心态，我骑着一辆桑坦德自行车回家。结果不到一个星期，我就给自己买了一辆带柳条篮子的可爱得可笑的粉色自行车，现在我每天都骑自行车去上班。”

Kohli, who has since completed a cycling course run by her local council, says an added incentive is that she is lucky enough to have a “dream cycle route” through Hyde Park and St James’s Park to her office in Kensington.

自那以后，科利已经完成了当地议会开设的自行车课程。她表示，另一个激励因素是，她足够幸运，拥有一条穿过海德公园和圣詹姆斯公园通往她在肯辛顿办公室的“梦幻自行车路线”。

“Once I started cycling, just the thought of getting the tube was unbearable, even if it’s raining or I’m super tired.” However, the one thing she is worried about as a cyclist is air pollution: “I live in the congestion zone, on a very busy street, and I feel the vehicle pollution intensely.”

“自从我开始骑车后，一想到要乘地铁我就受不了，哪怕天在下雨，或者我超级累。”然而，作为一名骑自行车的人，她最担心的是空气污染：“我住在拥堵区，在一条非常繁忙的街道上，我感到机动车污染非常严重。”

6、‘My commute used to produce a massive, unnecessary carbon footprint’

“过去我的通勤产生了大量不必要的碳排放”

Commuting for Chris Procter, a 47-year-old loss adjuster in Kent, used to mean spending anywhere between 45 and 90 minutes on the motorway. Now it involves a short walk into the living room. “At the end of the day, even after 17 months of working at home, I still sadly pop out of the front door before bursting back in to announce I am home,” says Procter. “My teenage kids kindly remind me it wasn’t funny on day one, but the dog still gets excited despite only seeing me seconds before.”

克里斯·普罗克特今年47岁，是肯特郡的一名损失理算员。过去，他上下班要在高速公路上花费45到90分钟。现在只需要走一小段路到客厅。“在一天结束的时候，即使在家工作了17个月，我仍然会悲伤地冲出前门，然后再冲进去宣布我回家了，”普洛斯特说。“我十几岁的孩子好心地提醒我，这种举动从第一天起就很无聊了，但我的狗还是很兴奋，尽管它几秒钟前还看到我来着。”

There are no viable public transport options in his area, and Procter has seen a huge benefit to his wellbeing from not having to drive. “I really value having more time in the morning. I sit and read before work and it chills me out. At lunchtime, I can go out and walk in the woods with the dog – we’re semi-rural here. Even if it’s raining, it’s a really nice break. I have more time with the kids. It’s lovely.”

在他所在的地区，没有可行的公共交通工具可供选择，并且普罗克特发现不用开车对他的健康有巨大的好处。“我真的很珍惜早上有更多的时间。上班前我会坐下来阅读，这会让我冷静下来。午餐时间，我可以带着狗去树林里散步——我们这里是市郊。即使下雨，这也是一个很好的休息。我有更多的时间和孩子们在一起。这种生活很可爱。”

In light of the climate crisis, Procter also thinks his commute, which used to produce “a massive, unnecessary carbon footprint” is “ethically questionable”. He said: “I don’t think I will fly again – and it seems stupid making those kind of decisions, but at the same time sitting in a car stuck on a motorway, day in, day out, polluting the planet, when there is a really good solution that we can use.”

考虑到气候危机，宝洁公司还认为，他的通勤方式曾经产生了“巨大的、不必要的碳排放”，在“道德上是有问题的”。他说：“我想我不会再坐飞机了——做这样的决定似乎很愚蠢，但与此同时，坐在一辆车里，日复一日地困在高速公路上，污染着地球，而现在有一个我们可以使用的真正好的解决方案了。”

7、‘Not travelling was transformational from a health perspective’

“从健康的角度来看，不出行是一种转变”

Tania used to regularly travel for more than six hours to meet partners in different UK cities for her job in international cultural relations. The 32-year-old, who used to live in Manchester but moved to Newcastle upon Tyne during lockdown, was “constantly exhausted”. As her office considers how employees can return, Tania has applied to be a home worker.

塔尼亚的工作是国际文化关系，她过去经常要花6个多小时在英国不同的城市与合作伙伴见面。这位32岁的她曾住在曼彻斯特，但在封锁期间搬到了泰恩河畔的纽卡斯尔，那段时期她“一直很疲惫”。由于塔尼亚的办公室考虑如何让员工回家工作，她申请了在家工作。

“Not traveling was transformational from a health perspective – weight and skin and all of that sort of stuff,” she says. “It’s the difference between getting up at 5:30 and getting home at 9pm, and getting up at 7 or 8, doing yoga, then maybe going for a lunchtime run.

她说：“从健康的角度来看，不出行是一种转变——体重和皮肤之类的东西。这就像是5点半起床然后晚上9点回家，与7点或8点起床，做瑜伽，然后午餐时间跑步之间的区别。

“I think my average exercise was like, twice a year when I was traveling, and now it’s about four times a week. Not to mention that I can make freshly cooked lunches and have a much better diet without consuming endless lattes and Pret lunches.”

“我想我出行上班时的平均锻炼频率是一年两次左右，而现在（在家工作后）大约是一周四次。更不用说，我还可以做新鲜烹饪的午餐，享用更好的饮食，而不是吃无休止的拿铁和便餐了。”