Do you miss travelling for work?
Discussion
Don't miss it at all. When and if things return to normal, I would be happy to WFH full time.
Cuts out the BS office politics, women 8itching about pointless stuff, meetings that run on and on with no clear agenda, crap canteen food.
Would be happy to drive the car just to enjoy it rather than being part of a long commute.
Cuts out the BS office politics, women 8itching about pointless stuff, meetings that run on and on with no clear agenda, crap canteen food.
Would be happy to drive the car just to enjoy it rather than being part of a long commute.
50% of the time I think I miss not travelling and then 50% of the time I love not travelling!
A few years ago I was talking about frequent business travel with a colleague who's been doing it a lot longer than me. I was expressing my pleasure about how I'd just achieved three gold cards in parallel from three different airline programmes and we chatted about the benefits and how to retain them. He then gave me a bit of advice from his decades of experience … "it's nice to get these benefits, but it feels great when you loose them". His point was frequent travel has such an impact on your life that while some perks are good, after a few years you'd rather just have your life back.
The current situation might be forcing me to look through that window and I wonder if I'm getting to that stage!
A few years ago I was talking about frequent business travel with a colleague who's been doing it a lot longer than me. I was expressing my pleasure about how I'd just achieved three gold cards in parallel from three different airline programmes and we chatted about the benefits and how to retain them. He then gave me a bit of advice from his decades of experience … "it's nice to get these benefits, but it feels great when you loose them". His point was frequent travel has such an impact on your life that while some perks are good, after a few years you'd rather just have your life back.
The current situation might be forcing me to look through that window and I wonder if I'm getting to that stage!
vaud said:
R33FAL said:
Wonder how things will change on business travel going forward.
Companies start to realise a couple of zoom calls could replace a £10k+ expense each time you have a trip to the west coast.
Will probably be a long time before thing go back to "normal", if ever.
Agree 100%Companies start to realise a couple of zoom calls could replace a £10k+ expense each time you have a trip to the west coast.
Will probably be a long time before thing go back to "normal", if ever.
For example our Board meetings were all in London. We've now had two via Teams. We're also having a weekly SMT again by Teams and each Division is having meetings also via Teams. Admittedly its annoying when one or two people have really dodgy WiFi but that's their issue rather than the infrastructure.
I've been missing it terribly.
From 2004 to 2017 I covered North America and then in 2013 added India as well.
I had an apartment in Germany while my wife looked after home in the UK.
Used to go off for 4 or 5 weeks from the UK with every trip covering the USA, India and the German Office.
Miss many friends and colleagues, miss the travel, miss the air miles, miss the hotel points, miss the statuses and generally having a good time at someone else's expense.
Miss the occasional side trip to Japan, Australia, Singapore, Brazil etc.
Its been nearly 3 years and I'm only now starting to accept that its all over.
Been interesting getting to know my wife again.
From 2004 to 2017 I covered North America and then in 2013 added India as well.
I had an apartment in Germany while my wife looked after home in the UK.
Used to go off for 4 or 5 weeks from the UK with every trip covering the USA, India and the German Office.
Miss many friends and colleagues, miss the travel, miss the air miles, miss the hotel points, miss the statuses and generally having a good time at someone else's expense.
Miss the occasional side trip to Japan, Australia, Singapore, Brazil etc.
Its been nearly 3 years and I'm only now starting to accept that its all over.
Been interesting getting to know my wife again.
I've done a lot via Skype for Business recently - we're migrating to Teams later this year - and Zoom is very much banned for business use!
But I'm not convinced by the arguments that most things can be done via home working / conferencing apps. If you have something to sell, the personal relationship is almost as important as the product you're selling. That's something difficult to build over Skype / Zoom etc.
You also lose engagement if you are 100% remote working - one or two days in the office per week builds teams and encourages conversation. I only visit the office once every few weeks, but just having that coffee with someone means it's easier to pick up a phone / Skype call with them if you need their help. You also get instant results as you can sit with someone at their desk and get stuff fixed on the spot.
I'm an advocate for increased home working, but it's by no means a permanent and full time replacement for keeping a proportion of your week in the office.
But I'm not convinced by the arguments that most things can be done via home working / conferencing apps. If you have something to sell, the personal relationship is almost as important as the product you're selling. That's something difficult to build over Skype / Zoom etc.
You also lose engagement if you are 100% remote working - one or two days in the office per week builds teams and encourages conversation. I only visit the office once every few weeks, but just having that coffee with someone means it's easier to pick up a phone / Skype call with them if you need their help. You also get instant results as you can sit with someone at their desk and get stuff fixed on the spot.
I'm an advocate for increased home working, but it's by no means a permanent and full time replacement for keeping a proportion of your week in the office.
Travel quite a bit with work, look after global construction projects for a large corporate, I'm not missing travel at all.
It's a PITA nowday's and the inside of one hotel is much the same as another. It may sound ungrateful as I've seen some wonderful places over my career but if anything this whole Covid thing has made me realise that I'm going to invest more time and effort avoiding these trips in future!
It's a PITA nowday's and the inside of one hotel is much the same as another. It may sound ungrateful as I've seen some wonderful places over my career but if anything this whole Covid thing has made me realise that I'm going to invest more time and effort avoiding these trips in future!
I'm not missing it in the slightest. Spending all of the work week (and often half of the weekend) traveling is something I have to do, rather than want to do. Working from home is very much a compromise, so once this cloud lifts I'll be back to doing 4-5 flights per week minimum (sometimes 4 per day).
I love being at home - I'm absolutely making the most of it.
I love being at home - I'm absolutely making the most of it.
so called said:
TurnedEmo said:
I've done a lot via Skype for Business recently - we're migrating to Teams later this year - and Zoom is very much banned for business use!
.
Team is very good, just started using it last week..
I've used Skype, Webex, Uber and Zoom over the years and find zoom very good.
I think we will end up traveling less after this, but it is still an essential part of business life
Swerni said:
Why ban Zoom?
I've used Skype, Webex, Uber and Zoom over the years and find zoom very good.
I think we will end up traveling less after this, but it is still an essential part of business life
The business has some security concerns about Zoom, to the extent that they sent out an email to all users a couple of weeks ago making it clear that you were not to use it on a company device.I've used Skype, Webex, Uber and Zoom over the years and find zoom very good.
I think we will end up traveling less after this, but it is still an essential part of business life
Swerni said:
Why ban Zoom?
I've used Skype, Webex, Uber and Zoom over the years and find zoom very good.
I think we will end up traveling less after this, but it is still an essential part of business life
There are / were some security issues with Zoom.I've used Skype, Webex, Uber and Zoom over the years and find zoom very good.
I think we will end up traveling less after this, but it is still an essential part of business life
It was only a week ago that you needed a password to join a call - before that it was just the meeting ID - so there was a craze called zoom bombing - of just trying random 8 digit numbers until you joined someones meeting - and as a number = an account - you can then come back & join future meetings.
The browser use its OK, but there are concerns with the installed app.
Then you hear that the UK government are using it for pretty much all their calls......
TurnedEmo said:
Swerni said:
Why ban Zoom?
I've used Skype, Webex, Uber and Zoom over the years and find zoom very good.
I think we will end up traveling less after this, but it is still an essential part of business life
The business has some security concerns about Zoom, to the extent that they sent out an email to all users a couple of weeks ago making it clear that you were not to use it on a company device.I've used Skype, Webex, Uber and Zoom over the years and find zoom very good.
I think we will end up traveling less after this, but it is still an essential part of business life
You just set a password on the meeting and put that in the invite.
It's also pretty obvious for the majority of calls if a random stranger appears.
Do you work for a tech company?
Not at all. We’ve got guys stuck all over the show due to covid. A mate is in Eritrea, he’s been given an additional $15 on his per diem to make up for it.....
WFH is actually proving I don’t need to be based in the office at all so can avoid the hassles of living where I do. Hope my boss sees it the same way!
WFH is actually proving I don’t need to be based in the office at all so can avoid the hassles of living where I do. Hope my boss sees it the same way!
shirt said:
WFH is actually proving I don’t need to be based in the office at all so can avoid the hassles of living where I do. Hope my boss sees it the same way!
It's going to be interesting to see if it becomes a systematic change in attitude - for a few years I was able to do alternate weeks in the office - then with a change of boss I had to go back to Mon-Thur in the office & Fri at home.Makes quite a difference to your lifestyle - I have a ski apartment with good internet connectivity - so only travelling alternate weeks made a big difference - I'm hoping I can return to the same next winter
Don't really miss travelling that much as they have changed the rules so you don't get much free time, used to be if you had a 2 day expo or similar you would get a day each side to travel down whereas now you're expected to get there same day and leave as soon as it's done.
I'm also missing the commute a bit as it helps break down the day, it's really boring doing a 9-5 at home.
In regards to Zoom our work was advised not to use it for any R&D or other sensitive calls due to how it's routed through China and doesn't have end to end encryption so was very disappointing to see the government using it, was hoping someone would zoom bomb them to drive the point home.
I'm also missing the commute a bit as it helps break down the day, it's really boring doing a 9-5 at home.
In regards to Zoom our work was advised not to use it for any R&D or other sensitive calls due to how it's routed through China and doesn't have end to end encryption so was very disappointing to see the government using it, was hoping someone would zoom bomb them to drive the point home.
untakenname said:
Don't really miss travelling that much as they have changed the rules so you don't get much free time, used to be if you had a 2 day expo or similar you would get a day each side to travel down whereas now you're expected to get there same day and leave as soon as it's done.
Actually, that's something I do really miss now I think about it - either exhibiting or attending shows. I had 2 lined up to exhibit at during this shutdown.Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff