Eric P. Butts

Career Coach. Management Consultant. Writer. Marketer. Accountant.

  • Home
  • About
  • Useful Resources
  • Articles
  • Products
    • Free! Member-Only Content Library
    • Success Factory Coaching Application
    • Excel Bootcamp
    • Breakthrough Resume Writing
    • Copywriting Services
    • Corporate Ladder University (Book)
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer
  • Login
You are here: Home / Corporate Ladder University / How The First Rule of Fight Club Helped Me Cope With So Much Business Travel

July 29, 2013 by Eric Butts Leave a Comment

How The First Rule of Fight Club Helped Me Cope With So Much Business Travel

People who travel for business have it made…at least that’s what my wife would have you believe, and I have a sneaking suspicion she’s not alone in thinking that. What I didn’t realize until recently is just how far from the truth people’s perceptions are. Not long before we made the move to California we went as a family to the gym and decided we would put the kids in the babysitting room for a little so we could go and sit in the hot tub. It was great. My wife loved it, going on about how long it had been since she’d been in a hot tub but what followed made me do a double take. She said, “you must do this all the time.”

Uh…what?

What people think you're doing on business trips
What my wife thinks I’m doing when I travel for work


Not exactly….Now I’m not going to lie. I’ve had some quality meals while on the road but most of the time those meals celebrated working some absurd amount of hours over multiple months of a project and always involved spending more hours after work with people I already spent too much time with already.

Flaunting the good times makes things even worse for you if you’re implementing tighter budgets at home. Somehow “I didn’t pay for it” doesn’t work as well as you might think to reduce the dirty looks you get when your significant other who doesn’t travel for work thinks you live the high life 4 days/week.

It took a few times trying to share a couple of bright spots on a couple of lengthy projects before I realized what I had to do…I had to start applying the first rule of fight club to my work trips.

If your spouse stays home with raise the children full-time, this rule applies double for you.

You do NOT talk about fun on work trips.

If either of those children happen to be in the “terrible two” phase, the only things you should be saying are “thank you” and “how can I help?”

As funny as it sounds, everyone’s happier when everyone’s equally miserable. Go figure.

Filed Under: Corporate Ladder University, Management Consulting Tagged With: business travel, travel

About Eric Butts

I’m a management consultant, MBA and CPA who has a passion for helping others in their career pursuits. Grab my FREE cheatsheet on 12 simple habits of highly successful consultants.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured Posts

Watch Out For The Bobblehead Manager

Stop Taking Crap Majors in College

Why All Your Years of Experience Mean Nothing

5 Ways You Should NOT Work From Home

Why You Need To Be On LinkedIn

Popular Posts

  • 5 Reasons You Should Be Proud to Ask Dumb Questions at Work
  • What Does It Mean to Have a Sense of Urgency
  • Always Stay Close to the Gatekeepers
  • Why Are There Still So Few Black CPAs?
  • What's the Difference Between FP&A and Accounting?
  • 3 Reasons Average Students Become Good Accountants
  • One Thing You Should Never Do on Linkedin
  • How to Handle Double Standards in the Workplace
  • How to Pass the CPA Exam Without Breaking the Bank
  • Masters in Accounting Isn't The Sweet Treat Some Students Think

Recent Posts

  • Do you want safety or excellence in your career?
  • A job searcher’s worst enemy
  • Are you falling for one of these career killing lies?
  • How to job search like a man
  • The one blog post that saved this consultant’s job

Stay in Touch

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Disclaimer

© 2012–2019 Eric P. Butts