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I’m a mom and a government attorney. I’m working in a role that substantively is my absolute dream job, plus it’s very flexible with PTO/great benefits such as health insurance/no billables so I feel very lucky to have it. However, the location of the office is becoming an issue now that I have little ones. I work remotely from my team from an satellite office three days a week, two from home. It takes me 1.5 hours to get into the office the days that I am in, and the travel is costly (eats up a quarter of my take home pay per month, being as it is government, I don’t make much to begin with and live in a vhcol area). The office I work from has very few people around to strike up a conversation with and overall zero culture. There have been whole days where I haven’t seen anyone else in the office at all.
It seems crazy to consider leaving. I worked so hard to get the role I have, I love what I do and it will be difficult, probably impossible, to find a job I like as much. However, all the extra hours away from my children to be spent in traveling to and sitting in what is essentially an empty, windowless office are weighing on my mind. I feel very torn between being so proud of where I have gotten but also feeing like the overall stress of the commute/the office culture isn’t worth staying. Help me law moms!