07-16-2006, 03:34 PM
I hope I don't come across as insensitive for posting about what many would regard as a perk in the presence of the unemployed, but anyway...
For those of you in employment, what's been your experience of business travel? I don't mean those for whom travel is the defining feature of their job, e.g. Lonely Planet guidebook writers, freelance salespeople etc. I mean people like me who work 9-17 in offices for whom a couple of nights away is a real break from routine.
In my office the amount of travel required of people varies enormously. On the one hand there are the Research scientists who (if you believe the hype) are constantly swanning around the world to present results at conferences. Ironically, the climate-change researchers are said to clock up the most air miles: in other words they are contributing to the very problem that they are researching! Whereas in Development, where I've worked since joining the office five years ago, it's a bit haphazard who gets to go on business trips. Some people, even if they don't speak a word of a foreign language, just happen to fall into projects where they get to go on all-expenses-paid trips abroad where they can network to their hearts' content. I, on the other hand, despite attending French and German conversation classes at lunchtime, have never travelled further afield than London (and that was back when we were based in Bracknell, Berks, so it was an even shorter trip than from Exeter).
It's all the more galling that I've twice had my hopes raised that I was in line for a business trip. The first time this happened happened quite early on. In November of my first year in the job, just before I did my five-week residential meteorology course, my line manager B said he'd like to consider me for a conference in Portland, Oregon the following May. He made it sound a cert, so much so that I went as far as mentioning it to my parents and in some of the Christmas cards I sent that year. Then when I was back in the office after Christmas, I asked B to confirm the date of the Portland trip, and he looked embarrassed and said, "But we decided who was going to Portland long ago! Not you!" - apparently the decision had been made during my meteorology course but no-one had had the decency to inform me.
By this time I had a new line manager T, with B becoming my second review manager. It was T to whom I decided to disclose my Asperger's. I mention this here because one for T's recommendations for "reasonable adjustments" was that I be excluded from business trips as I didn't prevent a favourable impression - a recommendation supported by B. I was hurt and objected to being marginalised. B said: "You don't learn to swim by jumping in at the deep end", to which I said, "No, but you don't learn to swim by staying away from water either!"
The second time I had my hopes raised happened a year later. In my annual review with my second review manager (still B) I'd put down "to gain international experience" in the career aspirations box, and B said he would definitely consider me for a forthcoming conference in Toulouse. I heard nothing more until I overheard that one of my room-mates (who, incidentally, didn't speak French) had been chosen, or to be precise I overheard her booking her flights. On further investigation I learned that B had no authority to make such a promise. He had a bit of a reputation for promising first and checking the budget restraints afterwards. I was livid, as much as with myself for falling for it as with the boss.
Back in my present existence, I've recently had an assessment by a rep from KeyLearning (http://www.key4learning.com), among whose recommendations is that I be moved to a new post within the office. So I've been having discussions with HR's diversity advisor about my skills and interests. I have mentioned the business trips issue, albeit tentatively, because I don't want to come across as grasping, childish, whatever. Conventional wisdom would dictate that it's better to go for a job that's enjoyable on a day-to-day basis rather than a less enjoyable job with the odd freebie trip thrown in from time to time. Indeed, if I wasn't enjoying my day-to-day job, and hence not performing to full capacity, chances are I'd be even less likely to be considered for any jolly junkets - sorry, business trips.
And then there are the colleagues who assure me that business trips are no big deal really, nothing to get envious about, that at the end of the day they are about work, not holidays - which brings me back to the title of this thread!
I suppose my attitude towards business travel is coloured by my recent experiences of leisure travel:
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/v...2&start=20
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/v...79&start=5
I can't help but think it must be so great to travel with people you already know and have something in common with, even if it's only your work. And it must be great to know people outside of the workplace who can understand your job.
For those of you in employment, what's been your experience of business travel? I don't mean those for whom travel is the defining feature of their job, e.g. Lonely Planet guidebook writers, freelance salespeople etc. I mean people like me who work 9-17 in offices for whom a couple of nights away is a real break from routine.
In my office the amount of travel required of people varies enormously. On the one hand there are the Research scientists who (if you believe the hype) are constantly swanning around the world to present results at conferences. Ironically, the climate-change researchers are said to clock up the most air miles: in other words they are contributing to the very problem that they are researching! Whereas in Development, where I've worked since joining the office five years ago, it's a bit haphazard who gets to go on business trips. Some people, even if they don't speak a word of a foreign language, just happen to fall into projects where they get to go on all-expenses-paid trips abroad where they can network to their hearts' content. I, on the other hand, despite attending French and German conversation classes at lunchtime, have never travelled further afield than London (and that was back when we were based in Bracknell, Berks, so it was an even shorter trip than from Exeter).
It's all the more galling that I've twice had my hopes raised that I was in line for a business trip. The first time this happened happened quite early on. In November of my first year in the job, just before I did my five-week residential meteorology course, my line manager B said he'd like to consider me for a conference in Portland, Oregon the following May. He made it sound a cert, so much so that I went as far as mentioning it to my parents and in some of the Christmas cards I sent that year. Then when I was back in the office after Christmas, I asked B to confirm the date of the Portland trip, and he looked embarrassed and said, "But we decided who was going to Portland long ago! Not you!" - apparently the decision had been made during my meteorology course but no-one had had the decency to inform me.
By this time I had a new line manager T, with B becoming my second review manager. It was T to whom I decided to disclose my Asperger's. I mention this here because one for T's recommendations for "reasonable adjustments" was that I be excluded from business trips as I didn't prevent a favourable impression - a recommendation supported by B. I was hurt and objected to being marginalised. B said: "You don't learn to swim by jumping in at the deep end", to which I said, "No, but you don't learn to swim by staying away from water either!"
The second time I had my hopes raised happened a year later. In my annual review with my second review manager (still B) I'd put down "to gain international experience" in the career aspirations box, and B said he would definitely consider me for a forthcoming conference in Toulouse. I heard nothing more until I overheard that one of my room-mates (who, incidentally, didn't speak French) had been chosen, or to be precise I overheard her booking her flights. On further investigation I learned that B had no authority to make such a promise. He had a bit of a reputation for promising first and checking the budget restraints afterwards. I was livid, as much as with myself for falling for it as with the boss.
Back in my present existence, I've recently had an assessment by a rep from KeyLearning (http://www.key4learning.com), among whose recommendations is that I be moved to a new post within the office. So I've been having discussions with HR's diversity advisor about my skills and interests. I have mentioned the business trips issue, albeit tentatively, because I don't want to come across as grasping, childish, whatever. Conventional wisdom would dictate that it's better to go for a job that's enjoyable on a day-to-day basis rather than a less enjoyable job with the odd freebie trip thrown in from time to time. Indeed, if I wasn't enjoying my day-to-day job, and hence not performing to full capacity, chances are I'd be even less likely to be considered for any jolly junkets - sorry, business trips.
And then there are the colleagues who assure me that business trips are no big deal really, nothing to get envious about, that at the end of the day they are about work, not holidays - which brings me back to the title of this thread!
I suppose my attitude towards business travel is coloured by my recent experiences of leisure travel:
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/v...2&start=20
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/v...79&start=5
I can't help but think it must be so great to travel with people you already know and have something in common with, even if it's only your work. And it must be great to know people outside of the workplace who can understand your job.