Advice plz from those who work away.

[EternalOptimist]

working away is SH 1 TE.
You will lose contact with your kids and your missus. But absence makes the heart grow fonder. You will come up with compensation strategies, and you will have money.
You will have to live in some right sh 1 t holes, you will have a miserable cold existance. but its for your family.

Other people have had a different experience(ask Pogle) but thats mine

[rootsnall]

Don't do it if you have any choice in the matter, therefore don't do it. I just had my first taste of working away for 5 years or so and a previously rock solid happy marriage had it's first wobbles. It's not worth it. The kids were also fretting. It's works for some but I suspect it is just that you can get used to almost any existence, no matter how tulip it is.

[Mr Crosby]

If you dont mind getting divorced then go for it.

[Ruse]

It's not as bad as all that, honest. I am living away in Leeds right now on a 6 month contract, my home and family are 30 miles outside London. Having to leave on a Sunday evening is not great but it's amazing what you get used to. On the plus side you can get back a lot of time, I previously commuted to The Wicked Wharf and it sometimes took 2 hours each way. Now I have a 10 min drive each way.

With Skype you can see and talk to your kids as much as you like, in fact mine usually just wander off after about 10 mins to do something more intersting

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I've been doing it for 11 years and I think it's fine. I have a young child who I do miss as well as missing er indoors, but I think it's fine - I am missing out on some stuff, but it has enabled the three of us to have a month's holiday - something that would have been trickier as a permie.

Edit: I don't live in commuting distance of our tuliphole of a capital city - and I've never been unfortunate enough to get a gig there.

[darmstadt]

I think over the last 10 years I've slept more in hotel beds (in numerous countries) than I have my own. Occasionally I get a bit peeved but then I look at my invoices and it ain't too bad. What I do find is that the missus complains when I'm at home and then complains when I'm away working, its a no-win lose situation

[Manic]

So a mixed bag then. Last 6 months I've been WFH so 6 months in the smoke is not bad, hopefully the one after might be a WFH gig.

[TykeMerc]

So a mixed bag then. Last 6 months I've been WFH so 6 months in the smoke is not bad, hopefully the one after might be a WFH gig.

It's certainly a mixed bag.

You can wind up missing events from your childrens lives, have to deal with your wife complaining that you're not there to help (and loads of other reasons) and of course cope with the mutual isolation.

Don't count on getting work from home contracts, they're nice when they pop up, but are inevitably few and far between when you need them.

So long as you understand the drawbacks it's workable, but be aware lots of us that have done the working away gigs are also divorced.

[Scary]

I'd rather get a 3 bed semi somewhere dull in zone 6 or on a quick rail route to central London and put the living in a barn in the country dream on hold whilst saving cash.

[Lockhouse]

I rented in the Wharf for 6 months a couple of years back. I got a one bed flat on a complex with a gym and pool so I could chill out in the evenings plus it was a 10 minute walk to work and also right next door to the riverbus stop. My commute was almost two hours each way but I'd been doing it for 4 years and needed a break. Yes I missed the missus and kids but I wasn't getting in each evening falling asleep in my dinner.

I wouldn't recommend staying in a hotel - you end up eating crap and drinking too much.