I too did a period of extreme commuting, although I'm rather glad it wasn't daily. The below response is partly to do with commuting, although more in response to:
Examples such as Ben's above have become increasingly common as young professionals are expected to be highly mobile
During my university days I got a part-time job with a company in Swansea, looking after their local IT. I was aware there was an outsourced IT function for the (fairly small) group it was part of, but I was told to have nothing to do with it and that they were happier with local support, if part-time.
At the time I finished university, a shuffle-up in the group meant IT was being moved in-house and that my skills would be welcomed for the group. I was offered a full time position, but was told my desk would be in Sheffield! However, I wasn't expected to move and was told the company would pay for my travel and put me up in the company lodge, which I shared with some of the directors as necessary. If the lodge was full, I'd be sorted out with a hotel. I retained access to a hot-desk in Swansea as I'd spend some weeks there. A third site I was responsible for in Grimsby didn't keep a desk for me although that was a fairly easy day commute from Sheffield.
So for a good year and a half, most weeks I was leaving Swansea early on the Monday morning and travelling to Sheffield, arriving around 1/2pm. I'd work through until Friday early afternoon then would do the same trip back, usually getting home around 6/7pm. (This was the period in which I developed my deep-rooted hatred of Voyagers - I still attempt to avoid them like the plague today)
Having no family to worry about, the constraints of being away didn't really bother me too much - in fact, I think I quite enjoyed it at the start. At the time I was living in a house-share with people I knew from uni, most of whom were staying on to do PhDs. However, after a year or so of this, by which point I mostly had the lodge just to myself, I was starting to feel fairly isolated in that I didn't really see anyone during the week apart from colleagues.
This carried on for another 6 months, and due to another group shuffle (and a review of spending on travel) I was moved away from a group role and I was re-contracted with the Sheffield site. So I moved up north, although I moved to Chesterfield as an old school friend was just starting a job in Mansfield and I flat-shared with her.
After another year and a half, when the group sold the Sheffield business, I was moved once again back to a group role, based again in Swansea, to where I moved once more. :roll: