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I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

salon.com

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Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#31

Post by geomark »

pestaa wrote: post #27
geomark wrote: post #14

Some years ago I worked at a large aerospace firm in the L.A. area. 20,000 people worked there and with that many people there are bound to be a few odd ones. Several lived in their cars in the parking lot. But the weirdest one was the guy who was living in the ceiling above his office. The story goes that one night a security guard noticed some movement in a hallway and went to investigate. He saw some wet footprint…

What a sad way to waste your life. I'm sure he had other options considering he worked in an office at a "large aerospace firm," right?

I didn't know the guy but I heard he was an engineer and engineers were paid fairly well at that company so he should have had other options. Maybe he got taken to the cleaners in a divorce and was unable to afford a place to live. That was the issue with one of the guys who was living in his car in the parking lot.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#32

Post by barrkel »

waps wrote: post #28
melling wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps says Koreatown and Venice Beach are 15 miles apart. Some time late in the 21st Century or early 22nd Century humans will realize that great mass transit can really make life more enjoyable, and that'll be a 15 minute commute. It's pretty amazing how bad things have to get before people wake up.

Having commuted to work in Brussels, a city often described as having great mass transit (and when it's not busy, that's absolutely true) Here's my observations : 1) despite not paying for itself (the state pays hundreds of millions yearly to make up for the losses of the public transport system) it's a little bit more expensive, per kilometer, than taking a car (train + metro vs gas). Even for longer distances, plan…

little bit more expensive, per kilometer, than taking a car (train + metro vs gas)

The TCO of a wholly-owned personal transportation vehicle is substantially more than the cost of fuel. It's hard to come out ahead, financially, unless you're a semi-decent mechanic, don't mind buying old machinery, and don't value your spare time very highly. Something bombproof and frugal, like a C90 underbone, could do well. A car, not so much.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#33

Post by DanBC »

bigtunacan wrote: post #29
pestaa wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad way to waste your life. I'm sure he had other options considering he worked in an office at a "large aerospace firm," right?

I really don't get this attitude. It's not for everyone, but it's a great way to save money. Do this for awhile and you can save up to purchase a home outright or at least have a sizable down payment. I interviewed for a job in Chicago with a company where one of the employees lived in the office. Unlike the Salon article, this employee openly asked if he could live in the office to save himself the cost of rent. The…

> this employee openly asked if he could live in the office to save himself the cost of rent. The employer had no issue with.

I'd be interested how it affects insurance.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#34

Post by Retric »

waps wrote: post #28
melling wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps says Koreatown and Venice Beach are 15 miles apart. Some time late in the 21st Century or early 22nd Century humans will realize that great mass transit can really make life more enjoyable, and that'll be a 15 minute commute. It's pretty amazing how bad things have to get before people wake up.

Having commuted to work in Brussels, a city often described as having great mass transit (and when it's not busy, that's absolutely true) Here's my observations : 1) despite not paying for itself (the state pays hundreds of millions yearly to make up for the losses of the public transport system) it's a little bit more expensive, per kilometer, than taking a car (train + metro vs gas). Even for longer distances, plan…

Cars are terrible at scaling. The core problem is roads take a lot of surface area so adding traffic lanes reduces density which forces longer commutes. Add to that you need parking at both ends which reduces density further. http://streets.mn/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/car-vs-bike-vs-...

They are also worse for the environment and kill lot's of people.

PS: Cars also have huge direct and indirect subsides, consider who pays for your parking space while at work? Hypothetically in a major city ~2 * 100$ parking spaces + ~100$ insurance = ~300$ a month or 15$ per workday day even if your car, gas, and roads where free.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#35

Post by c22 »

barrkel wrote: post #32
waps wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having commuted to work in Brussels, a city often described as having great mass transit (and when it's not busy, that's absolutely true) Here's my observations : 1) despite not paying for itself (the state pays hundreds of millions yearly to make up for the losses of the public transport system) it's a little bit more expensive, per kilometer, than taking a car (train + metro vs gas). Even for longer distances, plan…

little bit more expensive, per kilometer, than taking a car (train + metro vs gas) The TCO of a wholly-owned personal transportation vehicle is substantially more than the cost of fuel. It's hard to come out ahead, financially, unless you're a semi-decent mechanic, don't mind buying old machinery, and don't value your spare time very highly. Something bombproof and frugal, like a C90 underbone, could do well. A car,…

Also the costs the state incurs for the train include things like laying and maintaining miles of tracks, you'd have to roll road maintenance into your auto's tco to make a comparison.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#36

Post by bigtunacan »

DanBC wrote: post #33
bigtunacan wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't get this attitude. It's not for everyone, but it's a great way to save money. Do this for awhile and you can save up to purchase a home outright or at least have a sizable down payment. I interviewed for a job in Chicago with a company where one of the employees lived in the office. Unlike the Salon article, this employee openly asked if he could live in the office to save himself the cost of rent. The…

> this employee openly asked if he could live in the office to save himself the cost of rent. The employer had no issue with. I'd be interested how it affects insurance.

That's a good question, but I wasn't privy to that level of detail. In that instance though it was good for the employee and he didn't have to worry about hiding anything.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#37

Post by hedgehog »

jacalata wrote: post #26
dghughes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like something Japanese people would do since apparently the commutes in Japan are horrifying long. Those capsule hotels in Japan have been around for quite awhile. I've thought of creating an apartment building of pod apartments it seems to be a Millenials thing to couch surf or share apartments.

Seattle has aPodments - http://apodment.com/

The name is misleading, they're just very small apartments with a design carefully chosen to minimize regulatory constraints & tax burden. They go for about $600 a month.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#38

Post by pavel_lishin »

lotharbot wrote: post #30
peter303 wrote: post #19

This was not rare in college. One school had a 364/24 library and students took over a study correl with their books and a few belongings. Others lived in closets or cars. I think the janitors knew but did not care. I did this a few times myself when there were gaps between residences and I run out of placed to crash.

When I was in grad school, one of the other grad students lived in his office. We all looked the other way when he shifted the desks around (leaving a couple of the other grad student desks kind of cramped) to make room for a sofa. "Yeah, that'll be real comfortable to... sit on... while doing math. That's what it's for!" I'm pretty sure all of the faculty and staff in our department knew about it too.

I think there's a difference between doing this in your office, and an office you share with others.

If I needed to stay late to study, or grade assignments, or whatnot, I would be pretty annoyed if my office-mate asked me to leave because it was his bed-time.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#39

Post by noir_lord »

geomark wrote: post #31
pestaa wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad way to waste your life. I'm sure he had other options considering he worked in an office at a "large aerospace firm," right?

I didn't know the guy but I heard he was an engineer and engineers were paid fairly well at that company so he should have had other options. Maybe he got taken to the cleaners in a divorce and was unable to afford a place to live. That was the issue with one of the guys who was living in his car in the parking lot.

Glad we don't have Alimony here,not that I plan on getting married anyway.

Re: I secretly lived in my office for 500 days

#40

Post by sliverstorm »

bigtunacan wrote: post #29
pestaa wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a sad way to waste your life. I'm sure he had other options considering he worked in an office at a "large aerospace firm," right?

I really don't get this attitude. It's not for everyone, but it's a great way to save money. Do this for awhile and you can save up to purchase a home outright or at least have a sizable down payment. I interviewed for a job in Chicago with a company where one of the employees lived in the office. Unlike the Salon article, this employee openly asked if he could live in the office to save himself the cost of rent. The…

I think it boils down to "work now, play later" vs. "work now, play now" philosophies.

On the one hand you have the people who give 100% of their day to work, with the goal of building up F-U money and never working again.

On the other hand you have the people who make less & save less and plan on working longer, but take more of their day for themselves.

I don't think I can say either philosophy is wrong, but they definitely don't see eye-to-eye. They have different value systems.

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