Fake Commuting

Did you know that fake commuting is a thing now?

Apparently, you get in your car and drive aimlessly for a while and then pull up back at your home. You do this before you start your home-based work as it simulates the personal alone time you would have had had you driven to work. Does wonders for carbon emissions too, I bet.

Others do the same thing with a stiff walk or even a run. When I was a younger man we called those things ‘going for a walk’ or ‘jogging,’ but now it is fake commuting.

“Commuting was a great legitimate experience to set up a barrier between the outside world of work, family, [or] social life and demanding your attention,” explains clinical psychologist Dr. Jeannette Raymond. “‘Fake commute’ time is about setting up personal care boundaries — emotional oases and a guilt-free space [and] time to check in on themselves.” The real commute, she explains, created those boundaries artificially; now people have to do it for themselves in a world where those boundaries are increasingly blurred.”

Hmmmm. If I were a cynic I might think that sounded a lot like 1980s psycho-babble. But your mileage may vary, as we used to say.