Dilemma of Business Travel

Reasons in favor of business travel:

1. Breaks the monotony of the office where one is chained to a desk day after day.
2. Perqs of dinner out on the company's dime.
3. Meeting some of the actual human beings behind "the client" moniker.
4. Enjoying the company of colleagues and getting to know them better.
5. Being a team player, fulfilling a needed role as part of my job.

Reasons against business travel:

1. Inevitably arriving at the destination late, starved, having a big dinner (see #2 above) just before bed, with no time or brainpower left to review the next day's presentation.
2. Inevitably not sleeping well because of late dinner (see prior), overly soft bed, overly stuffed pillows, and the current hotel trend to supply a fat comforter and no blanket so the choice is roasting under the overstuffed comforter or lying like a cold corpse under a sole skimpy sheet. (have not mentioned the new threat of picking up bed bugs...)
3. All the usual herding and prodding at airports, then being squished into tiny airline seats with neither elbow nor leg room and the Russian roulette chance of getting a sniffling/hacking cellmate seatmate for the duration of the flight.
4. Client typically letting slip at the very end of the presentation that the work they want done has some jaw-droppingly impossible deadline that, if accepted, will make your and your colleagues' lives miserable anyway.

I should note that #2 of "reasons against" is, yours truly, the Sensitive Traveler's nightmare and does not apply to everyone. I am the Princess and the Pea. One of the colleagues I traveled with stood with us at Chicago O'Hare last evening in 20-degree weather with no coat, quite indifferent to the cold, and she slept like a baby through the night, too. I had my hat, gloves, coat, boots, a sweater and a coat and I was shivering. I'm the canary in the coal mine, the squeaky wheel - must have food! must have water! must have heat! no, not too much heat! must find a bathroom! must have caffeine! no, not too much caffeine! It's not easy. It would truly work okay, much better, if there were only a little more time allowed, but usually the presentations are still being worked on until the last minute. (sigh) Which is why I don't get out of the office much, I guess.

Comments

[maria]

Oh I hear you.... as a fellow Sensitive Traveler. At least I didn't have to travel on business, which would have made it all the worse, for the reasons you already listed. :)

[marja-leena]

Same here, as another Sensitive Traveler! It all sounds too achingly familiar, even on non-business, which is why I don't travel as much as I'd like to.

[dale]

Ach, this blasted fashion of the comforter, and those horribly soft beds! I sometimes end up sleeping on the floor, in hotels.

[Jean]

Yes, I identify with all of this. I'm really glad, looking back, that I once had a job that took me all over the world - I doubt very much if I would otherwise have seen so many countries. But I had a really hard time with it at the time, often feeling utterly physically and emotionally shattered, and I'm happy that I don't have to do it now, or only very occasionally. I have yet to meet anyone who much enjoyed business travel, including those who are not so sensitive.

[Leslee]

I had a job in my 20s where I traveled in the US every couple of weeks (several cities in California, Denver...) and loved seeing these places. Some of that travel was tough, but I almost always had extra time off to enjoy myself on those trips, and recover, that made up for the hard parts. Plus, of course, I was younger and more resilient and it was exciting. Now, having very little control to take care of myself as I need to on these trips makes travel like I just did very hard on me. I'm still recovering, have a stiff neck and sore eyes 24 hours later. Gotta wonder if it's worth it.