One of the most critical untaught skills for young professionals
How to travel for work and why it's not as obvious as it sounds
I didn’t realize until recently that traveling for work is a skill that no one really teaches you. In this day and age of hybrid work, work travel seems more omnipresent than ever. And ultimately, it feels like a topic that hardly ever gets the attention it deserves.
When I graduated from college and started in consulting, I remember distinctly that my start class was actually taught quite a lot on the topic of work travel. The older consultants taught us how to do expenses, explained the expense policy, advised us not to use corporate cards (instead, to earn the points on a personal card), and even gave us advice on how to book flights. I don’t think any of my peers who started work in other industries were given this level of guidance on how to travel for work.
Grateful as I am for that foundational training, I’ve gradually realized that there’s so much more to work travel. Particularly over the past few years, as I’ve traveled a lot, I’ve learned a few things that have become part of my modus operandi.
First off, maximize your time at your destination.
In my current role, this means thinking through which days of the week I’ll be at the office, whom I’ll be able to meet on those days, and which meetings are most important to do in person. Even if I’m flying out to the office for a specific project, I’ll try to squeeze in a few other catchups with people in small pockets of downtime.
I also think about the days of the week when I’ll be in transit and try to avoid days when I have critical meetings. Sometimes this means that I end up traveling during personal hours (i.e. weekends or evenings), though I generally won’t work while in transit under those circumstances.
My goal in doing this optimization is to make the most of my time on the ground. I am also mindful that even though I am traveling for work and people will understand why I am offline while in transit, it is ultimately still disruptive and minimizing any impact on others is important.
When planning for a travel week, I’ll also reshuffle my focus blocks so that I can spend time on airplanes working on deep focus tasks that don’t require a strong internet connection. For tasks that are very reliant on the internet, I’ll prioritize time to tackle those tasks before or after the travel.
Remember that time equals money.
Under some circumstances, your travel budget may be so tight that this principle/reminder won’t apply. However, hopefully in most cases, you’ll have some set of options, ranging from extremely budget friendly to not-so-budget-friendly. In the moments when you have a choice between two flights or two hotels, I recommend thinking about this from your employer’s shoes.
You want to be financially prudent but you also want to solve for your own time. If you’re traveling on the company’s dime, then the time you have available to do work matters a lot. If you save money and book a further hotel and spend more time in transit to/from the office, that might be a net worse outcome for the company. Likewise, if you pick a worse timed flight and you end up exhausted during your precious one or two days in the office, that’s also not a great outcome. If in doubt, this is a good matter to consult your manager or other mentors at work on.
Socialize and build relationships – but feel free to do so in moderation.
There’s nothing that beats getting to know someone better in person, over a cup of coffee or at a happy hour. And building a deeper relationship generally makes day-to-day work more enjoyable, fun, and smooth.
I used to feel that when I traveled for work, I needed to pack my schedule to the brim to make the most of it. However, in reality, this often led to feeling overstimulated and exhausted. It took away time that I needed to do my work and stay on top of things, and meant that after I got home at the end of my trip, I needed to play catchup.
I’ve learned to rotate and prioritize the socializing that I do on work trips. If it’s an onsite, I attend all of the events but I may not stay until the end of everything. If it’s a trip where I have more control of the schedule, I’ll generally pick one evening to do a team social event and then leave the other evenings empty for myself.
Which brings me to my next point:
Evenings are still mine, even when on a work trip.
Outside of a team social or other organized work events, I try not to spend my evenings doing work things while on work trips. It can be nice to plan for one or two personal catch ups while I’m in town for work, but no more than that. Any more than that leads to a packed schedule, and again, often leaves me feeling overwhelmed (albeit with a full heart).
I’ve learned over time that perhaps the best part of a work trip is the time it can leave for solo reflection. I’ve learned to revel in the quiet of an evening out on the town by myself, where I get to pick what I want to eat for dinner, read a book or catch up on personal emails while I eat, and enjoy a solo stroll back to my hotel afterwards. I could write a whole separate post on the beauty of solo travel, but this is one of the best ways to get a little taste of it.
All in all, work travel can be pretty great if you set boundaries for yourself and figure out the right balance. It can be tempting to go all-in and absolutely overwhelm yourself, but that often doesn’t lead to better outcomes.
And of course, there’s a few other basics that I’ll reiterate, which will help your work travel go smoothly:
Keep up with your regular work as much as possible – traveling for work isn’t an excuse to let things fall through the cracks. If you’re at an onsite that’s taking you completely away from your regular work, then share that in advance with others and plan for it the same way you’d plan for being out of office.
Read and follow the expense policy. It’s no fun to end up out of pocket for something that you thought would be covered. You also don’t want to be known by finance for being that person who violates the policies and tries to get exceptions to things. Read the policy. Stick to it. If you’re trying to do something a little extra, cover it yourself. (You’re already getting a free trip!)
Make it a multiplier on productivity. Don’t be afraid to suggest work travel when you feel that it makes sense for advancing your work productivity. But also, if it’ll hinder your productivity, you should feel empowered to speak up about that as well. Most of the time, if you work in a hybrid environment, there is flexibility around travel timelines.
Earn the points! I could also go on for hours about this, but most of the time, you can still earn points on your airline and also potentially for your hotel. Keep an eye out, put in your membership numbers and start earning.