Sure, but when I cycle commuted I had no choice. I was in the Navy. You don't get sick days off - at least not the kind where you can call the boss and plead a case of puny. Unless you need an ambulance, you're expected to report as usual and go to sick call - and the docs there have little pity for sick enlisted men, less so for sick Corpsmen. In six years I took one afternoon off, after having my wisdom teeth pulled, and that was in my final year of duty. I was back at work the next morning.

It's not a matter of toughness. It's a matter of avoiding disciplinary action that can cost you a stripe or end you up in the brig. Doesn't mean I didn't get sick. There were some days where my patients would have been better off without me at work.

But my cycle commutes varied from 20-30 miles r/t when I was in my 20s. A 50 mile commute would have made me reconsider. I'd probably move closer, take public transportation or get a car. Or a different job.


Mailmen are overrated nowadays. The USPS work ethic has taken a steep nose dive since the mid-2000s (due in part to the extreme financial burden imposed by the government - but that's a bone for another chew). The past few years we're lucky to get our mail delivered at all even in the best weather. We get mostly under-trained, poorly motivated temps who expect us retrieve our own packages from the back of their trucks. Sometimes they falsify delivery efforts and just leave the mail at the post office and expect us to pick it up. In bad weather they don't show up at all. Postmasters nationwide are aware of the problem but can't do much about it. If the government wanted to undermine the USPS to prove private industry deliverers like UPS and FedEx were "better", mission accomplished. Sad, because my family included several old school postal employees from an era when they had a strong work ethic.