Business Travel

Take it from one who has spent far too many hours locked in metal capsules hurtling across the globe.  Business travel is not glamorous.  It is not fun.  It most certainly does not pay enough.

In this technological age that allows for video conferencing and instantaneous data exchange, it is bizarre that Australian managers are repeatedly sent to distant places like Frankfurt, Istanbul and Dublin for meetings that are of lesser duration than the time spent travelling to get to them.

The tyranny of distance is extreme when travelling long haul for business.  After 24 to 30 hours travel you are deposited into a city that is just stirring from slumber.  Your own body clock tells you it is time to hit the sack but you must battle through a day that should be night.

Forget about ‘kicking on’ that evening with colleagues or conference delegates.  At the earliest possible opportunity you will embrace the stiff white sheets of your hotel bed.

Day two will commence earlier than it should and could quite possibly be spent at a conference within the confines of the hotel.  The fortunate might take a brisk walk to a meeting venue.

Meanwhile back at home, your email inbox is overflowing, envelopes are jamming under your door and colleagues are making snide comments about your ‘holiday’.

Those with partners and children especially feel the isolation and loneliness of a foreign city.  There is no comfort in the knowledge that chaos is reigning at home; the morning routine is shot, there’s no bread or milk and it will be take-away for dinner.

After a couple of days the long haul business traveller hops back on the plane to spend another 20 hours or more flying into the sun.  Maybe it is the fight against gravitational forces or the three phases of enforced ‘night’ but the human body ends up quite battered moving west to east.

Even business travel within Australia is a chore.  Same-day travel typically starts at 4.00 am.  A one-day return trip from Sydney to Melbourne usually involves around eight hours of travel.  No matter how necessary the trip, it will still end up a very long day.

It must be recognised that managers who undertake regular business travel are under enormous stress.  Time, physical and emotional effects take their toll on their health and wellbeing.  Business travel should be viewed as an occupational hazard.

Business travellers are a lucrative segment of the airline travel market.  The major airlines cater for the market with their ‘business class’ service and ever more salubrious airport lounges.

More comfortable seating, increased staff to passenger ratios and priority for boarding and disembarking are prerequisites for business travel.  Business travellers are working.  Anything that makes their working day more comfortable and more productive is an investment.

Finally, for those whose employment afflicts them with the curse of long haul travel, a business class ticket and lounge membership are must-have items.  As actor Michael Douglas used to say “don’t leave home without them”.