From interns to CEOs, supercommuting has long been a way to make work fit life. But one millennial nurse is pushing the trend to the extreme.
Courtney El Refai may call Sweden home, but every six weeks the 32-year-old commutes some 5,300 miles away to work at a San Francisco hospital as a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse.
While some may call it crazy, El Refai said it’s all worth it for her dream job. Making over $100 an hour on a per diem schedule, she only has to work four, eight-hour shifts every four weeks. By stacking those shifts—working at the end of one schedule and the beginning of the next—she can knock out her hours in just a few days, spending about 10 days in California before heading home.
“The commute is absolutely outrageous, but imagine having six weeks off after working 10 days on a repeated pattern,” she said in a TikTok video that’s racked up over 500,000 views.
Because the cost of living is lower in Sweden than the Bay Area, she said her paychecks cover her bills—plus the $450 roundtrip plane ride to and from work, she told Business Insider. Moreover, since her husband and daughter made the move to Europe in December, she says she’s been enjoying an enhanced work-life balance.
“It basically feels like I am a stay-at-home mom, but I’m still a working mom…” El Refai said. “That is something no 9-to-5 job will ever give me.”
RTO and ‘job-hugging’ may fuel a rise in supercommuting
Supercommuters—typically described as people who travel more than 90 minutes for work—aren’t new. But as workers weigh stability, family, and cost of living against the daily grind, the phenomenon is only growing.
During the pandemic, many people moved to cheaper, more spacious areas. However, with return-to-office mandates in full swing, some are unwilling—or unable to uproot their families again. Instead, they’ve accepted long commutes by train, plane, or car. Research from British train travel company Trainline found that the number of people in the U.K. spending more than three hours commuting doubled since before the pandemic.
Meanwhile, a tighter job market has made workers more cautious about quitting—what some call “job hugging.” That reluctance to change roles can also keep people tethered to a faraway office, even if it means grueling travel.
For El Refai, the trade-off is worth it. And judging by the traction her videos are getting, she doesn’t believe she’s alone: “I think that there are a lot more people doing it than the average person realizes.”
Fortune reached out to El Refai for further comment.
