New work rule doubles employee's commute time home, refuses to let them leave 15 minutes early to avoid this: 'Are we being unreasonable?'

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Sep 18, 2026 9:45 AM EDT

If your commute was double what it normally is, would you still do it?

Commuting is not a fun part of our day to day lives. It can feel like it takes the joy out our days, even when it goes fast. You're not being compensated for the time spent, so you feel like you want it to be as  quick as possible. When it takes any longer than it usually does, your stress levels start to rise. You don't want to spend any more time on it than you have to. And when your boss does something about it, this can be a huge issue. You like to work with reasonable people, and when people aren't reasonable you start to get a little anxious. You would much rather have to make some sacrifices than to do something that you don't want to. That's what was starting to happen in this story and things go a little out of hand.

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  • A man leaves a conference room in an office
    via Jornada Produtora

    A man leaves a conference room in an office 

  • New rule at work is doubling our commute home.

    For context, I (F25) have been working at my current job for 2 years now. I'm in a small team with less than 10 people, and we all work 9am-4:30 pm with an unpaid 30 minute break.
    via solarjun
  • Four employees, including me, leave at 4:15 pm to catch a train home. The train comes at 4:25 pm, and it's around a 10 minute walk to the station. The next one comes at 5:05 pm. The four of us arrive to work at 8:50am to compensate for leaving early.
    via solarjun
  • A new employee joined a few months ago, and since then the managers have been a little more rigid about various rules they hadn't cared about before. When she joined and started leaving early with us, they mentioned wanting to do a staff meeting to discuss the early departures. That was supposedly resolved, and since then we have been leaving 15 mins early to catch our train.
    via solarjun
  • Recently, the manager brought it up again, and told us that in order to leave 15 minutes early, we would have to arrive to work by 8:45 am instead of 8:50am. To come by 8:45am, twe'd have to take the earlier train and which arrives at 8:15am meaning we'd lose an hour of sleep for 15 minutes. Our other option is to take the later train at 5:05. We would have to request formal accommodation with HR to change our schedule to 8:45 am to 4:15 pm.
    via solarjun
  • For context, our office is in a more remote part of the city. Our managers have cars but in our city most people do not drive so the lot of us rely on public transportation. The commute for most of us is already over an hour one way. If we are unable to leave work early, our commute home would take 2 hours+ including the wait for the train. Most employees at our company tend to leave a few minutes earlier than 4:30 pm also. We are also salaried employees.
    via solarjun
  • TLDR Are we being unreasonable for wanting to leave 15 mins early? I am trying to understand our boss's side of it but it feels like arbitrary corporate rules since they did not care before. It feels like something enforced out of spite for our new coworker.
    via solarjun

  • Commenters gave their takes on this story.

    bojeefus How about taking only a 15 min break instead of 30.
    via solarjun
  • A man leaves the office and walks down the street during his commute
    via Ross Sneddon

    A man leaves the office and walks down the street during his commute

  • Nobody likes to be micromanaged. We're all adults who have our own adult things to worry about and care about, and we don't need somebody constantly breathing down our neck to make sure things are done. We had enough of that in childhood and at school, and we hope we have proven ourselves trustworthy enough to be independent and in adulthood. Especially at work. If they hired you, presumably, they have some level of faith that you will be able to execute what they need you to execute. You're there for a reason, and you're helping them as much as they're helping you. But that doesn't stop some managers from treating their employees like children. Some people just have a hard time letting go of control, and they inflict that on everyone else. The question is, what do you do when you're facing this kind of treatment? 

    Do you just swallow it and move on, knowing that you're in the right? Or do you stand up for yourself and demand to be treated differently? This can be a delicate line to walk, especially at work, because you don't wanna ruffle any feathers unnecessarily. But you also have a right to demand that people treat you differently. You deserve respect. It hurts, especially hard when it's over trivial stuff, which it often is. You don't want to feel like every move. 

  • Amarita_Sen It's reasonable for them to want actual work for the time they are paying for. Another alternative you could suggest is shortening your hours (and pay). And stop worrying about what other people do or get away with.
    via solarjun
  • Careless-Nature-8347 And people wonder why burnout is such an issue... Ask and talk to them, but you have no legal protection on this one and they can be as unreasonable as they want. This is some corporate horseshit, though. Your boss wants to greatly diminish your quality of life for 5 minutes of work.
    via solarjun
  • FYI: I'm a VP of HR. I 100% stand by my opinion of this being absolute bulls. You just have no legal pull on this. (ETA: If you are in the US. I cannot think, offhand, of a country that would offer any sort of protection for this schedule adjustment but if you are outside of the US you can say where you are and see if anyone knows if there is something to help)
    via solarjun
  • jessewest84 They took our paid lunch away too. Over a month i got used to it. I have reasonable expectations of my employer. Amd they of me.
    via solarjun
  • The world isn't perfect. But i like my job enough to keep coming back. So I guess you'd have to make a decision. Is the job good enough to carry on. Or do you want a new job.
    via solarjun
  • Wickedocity Both sides are being reasonable in this case. Your manager should consult corporate and explain why the slight time difference greatly impacts employees quality of life due to train schedules and seek a policy exception. They should put it on corporate.
    via solarjun
  • JustMe39908 Is it legal in your area to have a 25 minute unpaid lunch? That would make up the missing 5 minutes. Or, can one day a week be a late day to make up the missing 20 minutes from the
    via solarjun
  • other 4 days? So, 8:50-4:15 on Tues-Fri and 8:50-4:40 on Monday. You would be a little early for the train Monday (or pick your day) but there is no perfection with public transit
    via solarjun
  • Commercial_Bad_0424 Get together and make a formal request to HR with whatever you all agree would be the better option. The employer may have been flying under the radar letting you leave early and something happened where they are being pushed to address it
    via solarjun
  • IOnly ReadTitles26 They are not wrong. You can't leave 15 minutes early if you only give them an extra 10 minute in the morning. 5 minuts a day. 5 days a week. 52 weeks in a year. That's over 20 hours by the end of the year that they pay you for no work. Now times that by everyone else that does this same little trick.
    via solarjun
  • Are you paid hourly? Ask if they could cut your hours by 30 minutes a week. Or ask if you can cut a few minutes every day and then one day a week you stay extra and take the later train.
    via solarjun

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boss antiwork workplace-stories toxic-workplace job bosses work coworkers working toxic-boss workplace bad bosses toxic-work-environment
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