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You are here: Home / Archives for 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

April 2, 2013 by Eric Butts 2 Comments

7 Ways You Know You Travel Too Much For Work

30k feet

When you talk to people that work in client service type of jobs, they will always tell you travel is part of the job and if you don’t like to travel, you should choose a different career.  I agree with that for the most part, but there’s such a thing as traveling too much. If you find yourself nodding your head to any of the below symptoms, you can safely say you travel WAY too much for work:

  1. The dry cleaner guy in a city you don’t even live meets you at your car with your clothes: I don’t know of any drive thru dry cleaning service but this was pretty close. I was riding into the client site with one of my colleagues and we pulled up to the dry cleaners to pick up his shirts for the week. As soon as we pulled up, the guy comes out with shirts in hand, which is even more impressive because it’s not like we drive the same car every week. Now that’s what I call customer service.
  2. The rental car shuttle driver knows your schedule a bit too well: I had a stretch where I traveled to Boston so much that if I skipped a week, the rental car shuttle driver would make a comment like “we missed you last week. Getting to know the people that work at the rental car lot isn’t a bad idea either when you’re looking for a different car which may not be on the menu.
  3. The airport parking shuttle driver asks if you’re parked in your usual spot: This happens just about every week. My wife got a chance to see this in action and couldn’t stop laughing. First on the way out one shuttle driver says “Oh, this must be a personal travel this week. You have your family with you.” On the way back another shuttle driver asks, “The usual spot, sir?” Yup…usual spot. Always the same spot.
  4. You’re on a first name basis with ALL of the hotel staff: Getting to know the hotel staff is always smart – they can help you get rooms when the reservation system says no or help you get your company’s rate when technically all of the rooms for that rate are already sold out. Not having to show your ID and credit card every time you check in adds a nice touch as well. I have to admit I still miss my friends from my favorite hotel in Waltham, MA that I stayed at for 2 years! But we all have to move on sometimes.
  5. You only have a barber in the city where you work: I used to have a barber shop in the town where I live and then they all split up and I figured why bother. I never went there anyway because I was always on the road and the little time I had at home I didn’t want to spend getting a haircut.
  6. When you get home, your daughter says “I’m so glad you came over”: Click here to read the back story to what happened to me but if your child thinks you’re just “coming over” when you get home, you may want to try to spend some more time there…
  7. Your son imitates you by doing this: this picture speaks for itself…
sign you travel too much

What do you think? Do you have other ways you know you’ve been on the road too long? Let me know in the comments below.

Filed Under: Management Consulting, Travel Tagged With: humor, travel

August 25, 2012 by Eric Butts Leave a Comment

5 Ways To Make Management Consultant Travel Work For Your Family

consultant travel can be good
photo credit: Susana Fernandez

You ever met a management consultant or some other crazy person who travels 300+ days per year? It kind of makes you wonder how they have time to have a life. Yes, some of us do have lives outside of the job. The thing you have to get comfortable with if you’re going into a job which requires this time of travel is “having a life” has to look a little different than the life what your friends working industry jobs experience. When you have a family where one of the parents is on the road four days every week, it’s no easy task for anyone involved. There are some things, though, that make the time apart a bit more bearable. I’ll give you five quick tips now in no particular order.

The Parent Who Isn’t a Consultant Stays Home Full-time

This may not always be realistic, but when you have young children as I do, it significantly reduces stress to know that your other half is the one looking after your kids. There are some good daycare programs out there and probably some better nannies, but nobody loves your babies like you do. When your mind isn’t stressed about home, you’re also more productive at work. Win-win. Additionally, if you are in a profession where your assignments are project-based with small, gaps of downtime during the year, it allows the family to take advantage of impromptu vacations. If you roll off of a project unexpectedly, you can have a mini vacation or “staycation” if you’d rather spend your time off getting reacquainted with your bed.

The Parent Who is The Consultant Takes the Kids to School and Picks Them Up on Fridays

If you’re able to work from home on Fridays, do whatever you can to drop the kids off at school or pick them up. It doesn’t take much effort and it means the world to them. You’ll also find that it means the world to you. There’s nothing like having your precious little one running to you with open arms. It never gets old.

Video Chat With The Family as Much as Possible

Even if it’s just for 15 min in the morning or 15 min before bed, I promise you this will make your whole day. In fact, it will make EVERYONE’s day. It gives you that recharge you need to feel like you can withstand (almost) anything work can throw at you. If I had to order this list, this one would probably be at the top.

Take Turns With Your Other Half Doing Your Own Things for Fun

The parent responsible for the day-to-day care of the children most likely is taxed from the week and feels like he/she needs a bit of a reprieve when you get home…give it to him/her. It doesn’t need to be an all day event, just an hour or two will provide plenty of relief. It’s an unwritten rule at my house that bedtime and first line of defense from the kids in the mornings are my job. That gives my wife at least another hour buffer to get rest somewhat peacefully. You can also offer to watch the kids while your significant other decompresses with a workout or something else where they don’t have to listen to 3-foot dictators barking orders at the top of their lungs.  Just making the offer goes a long way in boosting morale. While you need to look out for your other half, taking care of yourself is equally important. Being on the road for work has some perks, but it’s still work. Make sure you take some time to read, go to the gym, hit a few golf balls, or whatever is you do to unwind. It’ll help keep you balanced.

Do Family Errands

Time is precious so once you’ve had your fun, do the family errands together. It may take a little longer to get done, but what else you were going to do? You’ve already done something fun for yourself and you shouldn’t be working, so there’s really no excuse, right? I realize you might not always want to chase the little monsters up and down the aisles of Costco on a Sunday morning, but they’re yours and you love them, and they miss you, so make it happen.

 

Even if it’s one of these kind of days…

Push through even if it’s one of these kinds of days

Filed Under: Management Consulting, Parenting, Travel Tagged With: business travel, consulting, management consulting, travel

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