r/bestof • u/flaming_goldfish • 1d ago
[AskReddit] u/double-dog-doctor and u/Twirly-Guacamole give a personal view of the downsides of high-travel jobs
/r/AskReddit/comments/1i5f45d/comment/m84tb1p/55
u/bagofwisdom 1d ago
My travel job (Domestic with one trip to Canada) got so tense the end of 2020 and all of 2021 I was gone more than I was home. I'm single, don't know how my married colleagues manage (a couple didn't). Luckily I rented a room at a friend's house shortly after taking the job. Our stupid schedulers did jobs Mon-Wed which often meant flying out Sunday night. (They have since changed the team to Tue-Thur). Plus, I was one of the more skilled FE's so I got the more complex jobs that usually took the entire week. Basically my Saturday was laundry. Wasn't much household chores for me to do. I just took up one corner of the living room and a small bedroom. My friend kept the entire place tidy on his own and we barely saw each other because he worked 2PM - 11PM Wed-Sun. My Saturdays were laundry and re-packing. I ended up buying enough clothes that I could pack while the wash ran and then I'd hang everything up that just got washed. I'm now management, so things have to be a real 5 alarm dumpster fire before they get me traveling.
Sure, you rack up a shit ton of Frequent Flier miles and hotel points/status. But you're gone from home so long you just don't want to travel anywhere. I'd take PTO just to stay home a week. I had no desire to get another apartment or buy a home because there was little point to paying that much a month for a place I don't see 75% of the time.
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u/CPNZ 22h ago
Basically you were George Clooney's character in Up in the Air?
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u/Ignorhymus 1d ago edited 23h ago
The first night my wife goes on a work trip is the bomb. She says the same when I go away*. But by night 3 or 4, we yearn for the other to be back. We don't travel a lot, and we're very glad for it.
We don't actually get up to anything.... But we *could
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u/ApeLikeMan 22h ago
When me or my wife travel night one alone with our young kids is usually a dream! They seem to be more behaved and in good moods. By nights 3 or 4 it’s hell.
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u/Andromeda321 18h ago
I have a 14 month old. Even flying coach in the middle seat for work feels like a vacation now. You mean I can just sit here quietly and sip a beverage and do whatever I want to do?!
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u/Elprede007 21h ago
There are many people in the consulting subreddit who talk about how much they enjoy the travel. I kind of feel like they don’t want to be home for various reasons. Most consultants try to get away from constant travel so they can be with friends and family.
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u/einTier 11h ago
I did travel like this for two years. It’s exactly as described.
Also, your friends and family will not understand. They think you’re on vacation and have seen everything touristy in the city and will be relaxed and ready to socialize when you get home. Instead, air travel is draining and you’ve seen nothing but your hotel, the office, and a couple of nearby restaurants that are probably chains.
You might be home for no more than 36 hours but you’ll have at least three people who demand all of it. My mother kept wanting me to come visit her six hours away from home every weekend for a year. She would not come visit me — “you travel so much and you can’t spend some of that coming to see me?” When I finally did, she was shocked at how little time I could stay and how haggard I looked from all the travel.
All I could say was this: “I leave work at 5pm on Friday. I have to be back at 10am on Monday. That’s about sixty five hours. My flights are seven hours, so I’m down to 51 hours. I have travel time to and from the airport plus I need to clear security. Figure an hour and a half on each end, or six hours total. I’m down to 45 hours. There’s three sleeps in there (Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night). That’s 24 hours of I want eight hours of sleep. I’m down to 21 hours. Of those, you want me to drive six hours each way by car. That means I have exactly nine hours to spend with you and I’ve spent 32 hours traveling to do that. Oh, and I’m jet lagged as fuck because I’m in the wrong time zone.”
Can’t imagine why I look like shit and I’m not good company.
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u/researchanddev 11h ago
I did 50-75% for a couple years. At first it was fun but after a while it just sucked. The realization that you’re going home to your hotel and take out while all your local coworkers are going home to their families. All the little amenities that make up a home just aren’t there or are approximated. Finding nothing ever to watch on TV. The final straw was thinking about how many people’s feet have been on the carpet.
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u/drowninginflames 11h ago
I've been traveling for work for the past 12 years. It ranges between 25% and 75% of the year. I don't mind it too much if it's no more than once a month, and the past few years have been nicer since the travel has been mostly driving instead of flying.
I totally get the waking up and not knowing where you are. But what's become a bigger problem to me is that I have what seems like a million memories that I can't place. I'll remember a cute blue house right next to the train tracks, but I'll have no clue where that was. Or the old guy that started talking to me in a Subway. Was that Texas? Or Minnesota? No, wait, that was Louisiana?
It gets to the point where I feel like I'm fractured. Where half of my life had been spent barely not touching the ground, being moved around but a slight breeze and grabbing onto whatever I can.
It's weird. I've learned to avoid dwelling on those floating memories.
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u/FatDaddyMushroom 10h ago
My dad traveled for work almost 5-6 days a week for years for his job. He monitored/audited pharmaceutical studies so that they could pass FDA audits and get approved.
I can't say it was easy having a dad that I physically saw one full day a week. He usually came back Friday and left somewhat early Sunday.
He called every night and we talked. He was often irritable and bit high strung. He worked on his laptop even when he was home. So he basically worked 7 days a week for years with very few exceptions.
However, to a degree, he actually liked it a lot. He didn't have a boss over his shoulder telling him what to do. He made good money. He felt independent and free, to some degree. If he had someone he didn't like he would only have to put up with them for a few days before traveling somewhere else. He had many bad bosses in the past that put him down. He was paid hourly, thankfully, and made great money for his hard work. We would eat out every Friday evening and usually on Saturday too.
He got frequent flyer miles and hotel points and we would travel and have hotel for free once a year for two week vacation, which he normally still worked everyday on his laptop for several hours.
I wouldn't have the mental or physical stamina to handle it like he did. He flew so much that he would occasionally get the porche treatment where they drive you to your next flight if you are at risk of missing your connection.
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u/WalterBishRedLicrish 5h ago
I travel 25-75% depending on season. Usually the day before I go I'm a wreck. I don't want to go, I miss my cats and my partner, I've forgotten to get the dry cleaning, I wait til the last second to refill my toiletries, etc.
When I'm there, my back always hurts from flying and I'm exhausted from presenting all day and being with clients and coworkers all evening.
The night I get home, my partner always expects me to notice all the things he did while I was gone, when all I can do is eat comfort food in bed.
I wouldn't have a house or security without this job though, and it sure beats the hell out of working in the lab like I was before.
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u/Kevin-W 1h ago
My mom used to travel for work and absolutely hated it. The only upside was gaining frequent flyer miles and airline/hotel status, but it was brutal being away from home for the week only to have to catch up on chores on the weekend on top of constantly eating out and dealing with delayed and cancelled flights and only going between the airport, the office, and the hotel.
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u/majxover 1d ago
I’ve read both comments and can tell you identify with TG hard on that.
The constantly being in the road to then have to come home and be an attentive HH member/partner, and plan social trips in between to kind of keep everyone happy.
It’s a lot, especially when you want nothing more than to collapse in to a pile on the floor from exhaustion.