At the moment my OH travels 250k per day driving to & from work in Victoria, he likes his job ~ he works for VIHA & has a pretty good hourly wage, 4 weeks holiday, sick pay, healthcare, plenty of work, is a regular employee rather than casual, good pension scheme & 10 EDO's per year (earned days off) he doesn't like the traveling, moreso in the winter when it's dark, icy & sometimes snowing. He gets up at 5:30am, leaves at 6am & gets back here between 6 & 7pm then goes to bed before 10pm so not a great quality of life for him. We have thought about moving closer but have 2 kids living at home & trying to put themselves through VIU, plus the house prices in Victoria are high so we'd probably have to trade living in a nice part of Nanaimo (yes, there are nice parts ) to a different type of area in Victoria.

He's been trying to find something else within the health service & has retrained as a Biomedical Technologist but with no luck so far.

2 1/2yrs ago (before VIHA) he put in a resume with a local company & they called him in for an interview this week ~ giving a whole new meaning to the expression 'Island time' & have offered him a job ... they will match his pay, offer healthcare benefits & are 10mins from our house, BUT they only offer 2 weeks holiday for yr1, 3 weeks for yr2 etc to a max of 4 weeks, plus it's a small business & the biggest bugbear for my OH is that they don't have a pension scheme (he's 48) ... or the 'safety' of working for VIHA.
If he stays with VIHA till Dec he will have a pension for life, if he takes this job he will get that money back ... sooooo what would you do?

They need to match not just his pay, but the equivalent in monthly pension contributions that he'd lose, IMO, otherwise he's financially considerably worse off (discounting the savings in gas and wear and tear on the car due to the shorter commute).

If it were me It'd come down to the security/stability the new company can offer - if there are any doubt about it then staying at the VIHA until something else comes along would be the best bet. Could he offer to start in the new year, in order to get the VIHA pension under his belt?

Yep, I think deep down he knows it's better to stay put, but 10mins V 2hrs twice a day is a big carrot to dangle ... he'd save $350 in gas but VIHA pays a similar amount into the pension scheme so swings & roundabouts there
As for offering to start in the new year, tis a thought ... I'm going to show him this later & hopefully give him something to ponder ~ thanks

Its a tough one. Id go for the improved quality of life myself if it seemed likely to be a fairly long term place to work, but I'd also do my best to get as close to an equivalent package from them. If he can put it off for a few months that would be the best case scenario I think.


None of which matters one iota, the important thing is really what he thinks, as he has to live with the decision.

Move closer to current employer

I agree with Gremmie.

Me too, there has got to be more to life than the size of your house, try wearing his shoes for a week ? I think you would want to move then.

I don't mind moving closer to Vic but have the kids to consider, plus 4yrs seniority in the school district for me. If the kids weren't still at home we'd probably already have moved.
Also I don't think I mentioned the size of our house so that isn't a consideration, although we do have a large dog, so an apartment wouldn't work.

He has no idea what to do at the mo, as you say, quality of life is why a lot of us come here so has to be considered

But if your hubby is going to save $$$$ on fuel & wear and tear on the car then you could put that extra money to your mortgage, I used to do 2 hrs each way and it was murder, I thought I had to do the drive to get the big bucks, but when I moved my whole life changed, those hours lost in traffic are lost forever, the more time you spend on the road the greater the risks ! if you and the kids had a choice I am sure you would pick your husband rather than a roadside statistic. IMO pick the move, maybe not all the way, maybe just to the outskirts of nimo, even if you cut 20min of his roadtime a day he will feel the difference

I had a long commute like that, about 1.5 hours each way, for a few months (12 or so years ago..got a job far away, bought a house on a new estate close to new employer but had to wait for the builders to finish building it).

I didn't really have much of a life in that time either, tbh, but staying at B&Bs near work every so often made all the difference.

If he's fed up with the driving but wants to hang on until December, it might be an option he could consider - stay at a B&B, hotel or crash on a buddy's couch for the night once or twice a week?

If I had a good Job with VIHA and was offered a job with a small company in the economic climate I would stick with VIHA every time, unless he hates the job, its ard to find great jobs these days ( so Im told )

Any chance you could over-dramatize the situation any further? It's a wonder there are any professional drivers that have a careers lasting more than a month or two.

he looses a couple of weeks vacation for a year or two, but gains an extra two hours a day with his family.

I can see moving closer to Victoria isnt really an option, so really the only question in my mind if how secure is this new local job likely to be.

The pension is nice, but as you say, the saving on gas pretty much covers it IF you can ring fence that money and not spend it on toys. The job secrurity is the thing, plus how secure is the one he has now too.

Oh sorry, I never picked up on the fact he was a professional driver, I thought he worked for VIHA ? do they have drivers ? i suppose they must have, for my sins I have a class 1 HGV and do way more miles than I want to from time to time and I am just saying that it aint fun out there when your tired and its dark, I try and keep my motoring to as little as possible these days but I remember what what its like, Its a fact that should be considered IMO..............