Research by the University of the West of England shows that commuters use free Wi-Fi provision on their journey to and from work to ‘catch up’ with work emails, paving the way for the commute to be counted as work. A total of 5000 passengers were surveyed on Chiltern Railways many of whom said that they consider their commute as time to ‘catch up’ with work, before or after their traditional working day. An article in Personnel Today highlighted that some commuters had commented that they would “rely on that time” or that it was “really important to my sanity” to be able to use travel time to deal with work issues or the commute acted as a “buffer” between the office and work where they could “clear the decks for the day” so they could relax at home.

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