This is a story of a man who works in KL and lives in Cyberjaya. He spends around 3 hours each day commuting to work back and forth.
For the last 2 years, I’ve been commuting to my job in KL which takes me around 3 hours each day. I am required to be at work 5 days a week, and I just did the total calculation and found out that I am on the road for 60 hours a week. That’s more than a 40-hour work week and I feel hopeless at my situation.
I am a 42 year old married man, father of two young children aged 2 and 5 years old. I bought a property in Cyberjaya around 5 years ago when I got married. At that time I was working and renting in Cyber so the distance from my work to my house was just 15 minutes.
2 years ago, I lost my job and had to start looking for any opportunities to support my family.
I finally managed to get a fairly well paying job in my field, but the office is located in KL city center. Moving to KL would be unrealistic for one because I already own my house in Cyber and my wife has a job as an admin at the condo we live in. The extra income she brings in is helpful, and that it is just downstairs from our house works well for any emergency with the children.
My parents live at the same condo but on a different floor, making it easy for childcare and that we get to save a lot of money on day care. With my parents nearby we also get the advantage of having home cooked meals for our children and ourselves.
Traffic, a Nightmare
I take public transportation to work for a few reasons. Firstly it is cheaper than driving. The parking at my office building is ridiculously expensive and I do not get any travel expenses covered. The monthly parking pass is RM400 and that is not even including petrol and tolls, which would be around RM300. That would be an additional RM700 a month, just to drive there back and forth.
With public transport I pay a flat rate of RM50 per month for a monthly pass.
Secondly, if I were to drive there, I would either have to face the insane traffic during rush hour every day or stay late and leave after rush hour. If I were to drive, I wouldn’t be able to multitask during the transit like reading a book or listening to a podcast, or reviewing some work preparations.
If I were to leave later around 7pm or later, I would reach home around 9.30pm once my family has had dinner together and once my kids have already gone to bed.
Now, I leave at 5pm and by 6.30pm or 6.45pm I am able to be home in time for some family time. Ultimately, they are the reason and my motivation each day.
I know I don’t have many options right now, as my job has a good career trajectory with good opportunities ahead, but it feels hopeless that I’m stuck in this position.
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