What they DON'T tell you about business travel

I know, I know, I've been shockingly lax in posting lately. I blame it all on business travel (ok, and, maybe, too, on the dating - but let's stick to the subject). There's nothing like several weeks of darting around the east coast to remind you of some of the unspoken pitfalls of business travel. Here's my list of the things they never tell you to expect (and yet always seem to happen!)

1. You and your outfits need to be ready for anything. Because the truth is, you never know when you'll be all dressed up for a business meeting in the morning and end up taking a surprise tour of a remote environmental campus in the afternoon with nothing to change into in your suitcase, let alone in your rental car. Be prepared, girls. 'Cause those shoes are never going to be the same.
   
   
    
   
2. You will eventually sleep in the shirt you're wearing. There's probably a guy (maybe his name is Miguel) in your office who demands that everyone jam whatever they need to bring into a carry-on bag. Laptop, suit, projector, foam core, whatever. Make it work. Because once you give that bag up to the airline, it's all over. It could get lost. Or you could get stuck. When the flight gets canceled, they don't return your suitcase. You're left to sweat it out (separated from your deodorant, toothbrush, and jammies) until you hit your destination city. I used to make fun of that guy. Now, I'm a believer.


3. You will eventually sleep in someplace that's too scary to fall asleep in. The hotel reservation will fall through. Something will be overbooked. The car will break down. And, you'll find yourself first Googling and then just wandering around looking for shelter. If you're in any kind of company town on a weeknight, the options will not be pretty. All the "decent" hotels (Holiday Inns, Hiltons, Marriotts) will have been long-since booked by corporate travel agents. Your choices are quickly going to dwindle to the Super 8s and Comfort Inns of the world. Or, worse, as we recently found on a trip to the center of PA - an Econolodge. A "motel" with no irons or hairdryers and room doors that open into the parking lot of a gas station:
   
   




4. There are new things that you'll want to learn. Like how to treat your clothes for bed bugs (just in case). How to iron a dress with no iron. What you can lean against the door when the lock is bent and fragile looking.


5. New York can be an impossible place to get to. Especially if you're flying into LaGuardia. Here are two words you do not want to hear: Ground stop. Happens in NYC all the time. The three beastly airports there get overwhelmed and weather gets messy and they just close up shop. No flights in or out. Good luck rearranging your plans. And enjoy your time on the runway.


6. You should always pack band-aids. Eventually that slimy shower curtain will blow in and touch your shoulder while you're shaving your knees and you will slip. Disaster. (Thank goodness people don't wear nylons anymore - remember those with shaving cuts??)


7. Even if you think you don't get car sick, staring at the laptop at 78 mph will get to you. Yeah, you'll blame it on the fruit and nut mix (potato chips) you picked up at the travel center (gas station), but we know better - even the most put-together business person gets a little woozy when trying to balance a flaming hot laptop on her legs while referencing the notes jammed under the emergency brake and typing into those pesky PowerPoint text fields. Work in the car is somewhere between unsatisfactory and impossible.


8. Work starts at 5. See above. You will get nothing done during the day and end up staring down the email gauntlet over room service (or - depending on your team - after half a bottle of wine and a big Italian dinner).


9. Prop planes are not the same as real planes. Rather, they are a roller coaster ride upgraded with a chemical toilet. And, the sick bags tucked in behind the Skymall are not kitsch, they're a highly, highly relevant service item.


10. You should take granola bars (or wear elastic pants). I cannot resist the Pringles in the mini bar. Or the tuna flight at Barrel 135. Or that pesky, pesky cheese croissant at all the airport Au Bon Pains. Bah. Business travel is a constant temptation of convenience and emotional eating. Pack some responsible meal substitutes in your satchel or bring your fat jeans for the flight home. (Seriously, though, go with the granola bars. Elastic pants are just ugly.)
    


11. You will spend infinitely more time in transit than at work. 20 hours on the road. 2 hours in the meeting. It's just the way it works. This is particularly true if you get lost on the subway on your way to Brooklyn. And then, too, if you get lost walking from the subway to the office.


12. There's nothing like business travel to make you hate men. I see this at every airport gate: The women are lugging bulging carryons, handbags, and various satchels. The men have a single white shirt in a dry cleaning bag and their slim briefcase. Bah!


13. It's probably why online bill-pay was created. You will lose track of your life. Forget which kennel your dog is on. Miss your mother's birthday. And generally end up with nothing in the refridgerator, a past-due cable bill and three weeks of laundry. Just roll with it.


14. If the travel is a disaster, the meeting will be a smash success. I don't know what that's true. It just is.


15. (If there is a corollary to #14, I have no proof of it yet. Travel is always a disaster. That's what makes you happy to be home.)

Comments

[meme]

Great post for a business owner like myself. I would love to share this on my blog www.Informher.com for women business owners looking for expert advice.

[Natalie MacNeil]

Every one of these points resonate with me. I love the pictures from point #1 when you had to wear the business meeting outfit on the surprise tour.

I was in China a couple years ago and right after a meeting, our group was taken on a tour of this ancient temple. Of course all the women were in heels! Well, the temple was at the bottom of an enormous hill which we had to walk down thousands of steps to get to. Then we had to climb back up to the top. At the end of the day my feet were so sore and blistered, all I could do in the evening was soak them in a tub of warm water.

[Molly]

I feel like this describes the world of advertising and film. All my finance friends go to fancy hotels, have car services and basically get the royal treatment. But the guys carrying one suitcase thing does get annoying. Although at least women don't have to wear suits in the heat.

[Keith Gregory]

That bathroom looks way cool- love the vintage tile.

I am sure, however, that some of its in person charm was lost in your iphone picture:-)

[UK Dissertation Help]

Blogs are so interactive where we get lots of informative on any topics nice job keep it up !!

[Carol Margolis]

Re #13 and online bill-pay ... I couldn't live without all of the online tools that are available now. I get all bday cards ready at one time and they get sent on the person's bday. If something isn't on my calendar (ALL airlines, hotels and car rentals need to have a feature to update our calendars), it doesn't get done. Oh, and I can watch my dog online when he's boarded at doggy-day-care. I couldn't travel each week like I do without all of the online tools.
Carol www.smartwomentravelers.com

[Dirk Singer]

Ah now you see I kind of like the prop planes. Bizarrely I find something serene in the hum of the propellers...and there's usually more room too!

[Dirk Singer]

Ah now you see I kind of like the prop planes. Bizarrely I find something serene in the hum of the propellers...and there's usually more room too!

[Samir]

Leigh, first off, great photos. And, lovely dress. Hiking gear it's not, but it does contribute some to the great photos.

Travel is full of the unexpected, and while it does make us appreciate home, you have to wonder at some level if our regular "home" existence is not a bit too planned and predictable. Maybe this is why we go completely nuts when something unexpected happens, because no one expects the unexpected anymore. We go around expecting everything to work out exactly the way we planned. Hardly an evolutionary step up in the greater scheme of things, I think.

Food issues are one of the most common I hear of, and they are very valid. You certainly need to be very careful about what you eat and where you eat it. The same holds true for regular life too, but most of us are such creatures of habit that we never venture towards anything new in the food arena when we're nesting anyway, so it never comes up until we travel.

I've found that it helps me immensely to have a 'Third World Stomach'. If you make sure you season yourself with a healthy dose of street food on the dangerous culinary streets of Bombay, or any other similarly 'exotic' and urbanely mad locales, your sytem is usually protected against most minor food upsets and inconveniences. Again, a protected existence can have its drawbacks, and if there's one thing I would love to find a way to package and market, it would be the 'Instant-Third-World-Stomach'. I could make millions! But alas, it can only be aquired by careful and dangerous training and experiences in the culinary trenches, far removed from "approved food preparation procedures". Very unfortunate, because I think everyone should have one.

Glad to hear that your meetings went well, that's some consolation, and about the rest you now have some interesting stories to share. No advertiser should be without their stories. Thanks for a wonderful post.

Samir

[Kelli]

A few weeks ago, we were in a 'remote area' of the states filming and Internet access was spotty at best. The hotel claimed to have wireless (but the "I accept" button on the policy DID NOT EXIST! It taunted me daily) and the lamp (yes, the lamp) had a plug that you were supposed to be able to use for internet, but it was a phone line. I still tried to cram my ethernet cord into the hole twice out of frustration.
I ended up calling the office and reading my copy over the phone (OK, out of stubbornness, I really didn't have time to type all that into an iPhone!)

[Nicole]

This is by far one of your best posts yet! As a fellow business traveler, I feel your pain.

[A. Parker]

Sounds like an amazing trip...ha.

One of my worst "motel" experiences was in an Econo Lodge that my family was stuck in when our reservations were messed up. I didn't sleep at all. I was 12 and still remember the trauma.

The carry-on bag is so important. I went to the Dominican Republic for over a week and the airlines lost my luggage. I was stuck in a third world country with no food or clothes, and had to communicate with the airlines in broken Spanish. Carry-on bags have a whole new importance in my life.

Glad the meeting went well! And hey, you now a great, cringe-worthy, funny after the fact (might take a while?) entry.

[Steve Hall]

Point 14. Always, always true! It always was when I was flying 80,000 miles a year doing pitch after pitch after pitch. It's like some weird guaranteed rule.

but I've never gone on a hike in a white dress and red heels:)

[Andreas Nurbo]

From my experience in international flying at least.
Be among the first on the plain so you can put all your stuff in the overhead compartment.
There are suitcases made espescially for the overhead compartment on the airplanes. Use one of those. Also a shoppingbag are allowed as a carryon don't know why. A reason to be first on flights so you can get more space to fill with your stuff. Get a seat next to emergency exit, more room for the legs.
Use online checkin if you can otherwise use the checkin machines if there are any. Can save a lot of time.

And you cant be to careful about the food.
What I've learnt from my parents visits to about 70+ countries, don't eat exotic food in the country your visiting. McDonalds is usually a safe bet. Don't eat anything that has been rinsed in water if your in South America, Africa or Asia etc. No clean water and/or different germs in it that your stomach ain't accustom to. Bottled sparkling water all the way. Coke also works, is the same everywhere.
Some examples from high rated restaurants.
Know two guys that almost died from eating at a, by the hosts, recommended restaurant in Austria.
A whole business travel group spent a week in the respective hotel bathrooms after eating at a Korean restaurant in Japan that the Japanese hosts took them too.
So be careful of the food, death ain't a bad trip that can be made a success ;).

PS
And about point 3. Doesn't matter if its low class if you can sleep there.
A friend woke up from a huge ass spider climbing on her when staying at a high class hotel in Japan. I think it was some form of tarantula. Try explaining that you want the spider removed to the non english speaking guy you met when your standing in a hallway at 4 am.