“Wow, it must be awesome to get to so many cool places for
work!”
Most of my colleagues will be familiar with this refrain
from friends, family and others who hear about our globe-trotting antics. It
is, in many ways, a unique privilege to be able to travel so often. Unlike
other business travellers, academics, especially those doing fieldwork, often
travel off of the beaten track, venturing beyond the usual tourist and commercial
hubs. They frequently have the opportunity to spend extended periods in a new
place, allowing free time to explore a destination in depth and to interact
with local people in ways that other travellers might not. It’s also a
privilege in terms of having these experiences covered by the tax-payer (although
it should be noted that many trips are funded from charitable and other private
funds). I’ve been fortunate enough to travel all over the world to further my
work on dinosaurs and this has allowed me to push my research programme forwards
(both personally and through close collaborations), and enabled me to
experience amazing places, sites with both cultural and natural wonders, which I would
never have seen otherwise. It has also had the benefit of fostering close
friendships with international colleagues who, although rarely seen in person,
have remained good friends for life.
Travel is an essential part of my work – dinosaur fossils
are found from Alaska to Antarctica and are large, fragile, difficult to
transport, financially valuable, politically sensitive, and often known from
examples found in a single location. Hence, travelling to other museum
collections is essential in order to check and re-check the raw anatomical data
on which the subject is based. Although digitization holds the promise of
delivering virtual libraries of this material, which will reduce the need for
future travel, this goal still lies years into the future, due to the time and
money needed to carry out this work. Moreover, finding novel specimens requires
fieldwork, going to the source, which often involves finding new or poorly
explored places with the potential to yield useful material. In addition to
these research requirements, academics frequently travel to conferences in
order to share information, network and advance collaborative work. Finally, we
are also expected to travel for more ‘corporate’ reasons, relating to
institutional reputation, training, corporate partnerships, etc.
Although the pros of work-related travel are obvious in
terms of its direct and indirect benefits, there are numerous cons, which
have to be weighed against the more obvious gains of international travel.
These might not be obvious in some cases, and others might be dismissed as
whinging, but many of these can have significant impacts on travellers. As I’ve
had a couple of years with frequent long-haul trips, for a variety of reasons,
this seems like a good time to reflect on some of the cons. The following is
from a personal perspective but would apply equally to many of my friends and
colleagues.
1. Life at home. In order to maximise work time while away,
it’s often necessary to do long-haul flights at weekends, so that you can
arrive alert enough to make the most of the working week (after all, the
colleagues you’re visiting will reasonably want to work their regular hours and
can’t be expected to work late or at weekends just to accommodate you). However,
this means giving up your own free time to enable you to work more effectively.
In addition, you can’t usually pop back for a weekend if on an extended trip.
For example, my recent two-week trip to Argentina ate into three weekends (two
dedicated to travel, one mid-trip). Over the past two years, I’ve sacrificed
around 25% of my weekends to work-related travel, while either in transit or during the body
of a trip. That’s 25% of my opportunities to hang out with my partner, family
and friends, to indulge in my own interests, or to catch up on domestic chores
(amazingly, academics try to have lives outside of work too), as well as the
weekdays I’m away too. I don’t receive any compensation for the personal time I
routinely give up to make my work trips more effective, either financially or in terms
of time off in lieu. There’s just an assumption that this is how it works.
Luckily, my partner is supportive and understanding of my obligation to travel –
and it is an obligation, as it
directly impacts the goals set by my bosses – and I don’t have kids or pets to
pine for, but it can still be frustrating and wearing, and sometimes lead to
straining of relationships as well as extended periods away from home.
2. Life at work. Work trips are planned to engage in
activities that can be done only in
the place that you’re travelling to, whether that is because you’re looking at unique
material, doing fieldwork or meeting with colleagues. Nevertheless, the fact
that you are working elsewhere does not mean that your work obligations back
home decrease or that you're on some kind of vacation. While travelling you are frequently expected to meet deadlines,
answer queries and manage teams, who might be in very different time zones and have
issues with varied levels of complexity and priority. In some cases, it is vital
to deal with urgent issues arising, but even at its most reasonable this
requirement makes every working day longer, as early mornings or evenings are
used to continue working ‘back home’ while you are already working full-time during
the day. In some cases, these requests can be ignored, but a constant stream of
emails starting with “I know you’re away, but …” for day-to-day, low priority issues
adds psychological burden. Moreover, anything that can’t be dealt with while
travelling builds up throughout this period, so that a small mountain of work usually
awaits your return. It can take several days, or even weeks, to get back into a
regular routine after such a trip.
3. Mental health. Although work travel is professionally
enriching and is often fun, it can take a severe toll on mental health and
well-being. Extended time away from home puts strain on individuals and
relationships, as well as intruding on a multitude of other personal issues.
Moreover, the act of travelling itself can be stressful, for many reasons, such
as the frustrations and setbacks caused by trip logistics, not only when things
go wrong (delays, changes of plan, mistakes made) but also when things go right
(airports and train stations are not relaxing environments). There is the need
to adapt to an unfamiliar place, where the culture and language may be very different,
which adds more complexity to accomplishing even the most minor of tasks. For example,
finding out how to take the right bus, get lunch or find laundry can become
daunting or overly time-consuming in some circumstances. In addition, there is pressure on every trip to
deliver on those work-related goals: if these aren’t accomplished this adds other types of
stress, associated with frustration, failure and negative judgements from bosses and funders. Fieldwork applies yet another
layer to this, in terms of working in potentially hazardous environments while
carrying out procedures that can be dangerous. Taking responsibility for the
safety, logistics and behaviour of others on such trips heaps yet another burden on
fieldwork leaders. Finally, but perhaps most importantly, many research trips
are conducted alone. Loneliness can become a big source of stress, especially
when things start to go wrong. On returning, it's often assumed that you must have
had an excellent time while away, and it can be hard to admit that you were
miserable the entire time.
4. Physical health. Any form of travelling increases risks
to physical health. These range from the trivial, like catching the coughs and
colds that ricochet around airplanes and conference venues, through to severe
illness or injury. Travelling can be very uncomfortable, as anyone over a
certain height or weight will tell you as they squeeze into an economy seat for
a 12-hour flight. During my travels, I’ve suffered a variety of ailments
including: falls and minor injuries during fieldwork; innumerable stomach bugs;
delirium and fever; days of mind-numbing tiredness due to jet-lag; numerous cricked backs
and necks from hours of uncomfortable travel; and a ruptured spleen (caused by
falling awkwardly on a crowded plane). Although we can obviously take leave to
get over illnesses and injuries once back home, things like discomfort and
jet-lag are not taken into account, meaning that recovery from extended
journeys can take much longer than it should. Moreover, it's often very difficult to eat healthily while travelling, due to the lack oif fridges and cooking equipment, and it's usually difficult to maintain regular exercise routines. Again, this might sound trivial, but two weeks of eating out with no access to a gym can really leave you feeling rough and have you piling on the pounds.
5. Financial cost. I’ve sometimes paid out of my own pocket
to attend a conference or visit a museum – funds are not always available for
all of the work that we want to do. However, even when funds are provided
there’s usually at least some personal financial cost involved. For obvious
reasons, institutions reimburse you for expenditure you can prove – but you
can’t always get receipts for everything. This is particularly challenging for
small purchases like public transport costs, breakfasts and lunches, where
small establishments might not offer receipts (this is particularly common in
more remote areas). This might not sound like a big deal, as we’d be spending
our own money on such things back at home, but consider that: 1) we’re spending our own money to
facilitate work; and 2) it might cost us more to do things like eat breakfast out than
when we cater for ourselves at home. Moreover, and for understandable reasons,
all of our work travel is done as economically as possible, to make the most of
the resources available (and to avoid accusations of largesse at public expense). However, if you want to travel more comfortably, this has
to come out of your own resources – for example, on long-haul flights I often
pay to upgrade, as I find economy seats too uncomfortable and
impossible to sleep or work in (I literally can’t open a laptop or sleep when in an
economy seat). Upgrading makes me more effective on arrival, allows me to
recover faster on my return and enables me to make better use of what is
technically work time while I’m trapped inside a metal tube, in addition to providing me with a more comfortable experience. However, every
time I do this I’m using my own resources to subsidise my employer, so that I
can work more effectively on their behalf. Finally, currency exchange rates can
fluctuate markedly during the course of a project (or even during the course of
a trip) meaning that grants might fall short of what’s needed (forcing you to
top them up to make them work). It can also mean that you can lose out if your
expenses are reimbursed at poorer rates than those at which they were incurred. (Incidentally,
I’m also subsidising my employer by using my own equipment, such as field
tools, field clothing, laptops and cameras, on these trips).
So, in summary, although I’ve enjoyed an awful lot of my
work travel, most of this enjoyment is, to a least some extent, qualified by
all of the above. And, frankly, I’ve detested some of the trips I’ve needed to
make as they were stressful, unpleasant and unproductive (and the ruptured
spleen put me out of action for several months).
More positively, there are numerous strategies that can be
put in place to deal with many of these issues, although their effectiveness
and applicability will vary from person to person. Perhaps the simplest thing
is to make sure your travel is well planned. Budget the time you need (neither
too much nor too little) and try and make your trip as efficient as possible by
extracting the most use out of the time as you can. Research your destination
in advance to find out how to get started there, the basics of getting around,
the kinds of everyday things you might need to take, and the range of things to
do there that can help keep you occupied outside of work. Seek advice from
others doing similar trips and see if you can buddy up with fellow travellers
to share the experience, as sharing the positives and negatives of travel can
be mutually beneficial. If travelling alone get out of the hotel and look
around if possible, otherwise make sure you have plenty of entertainment or
ways of staying in touch with home during those long solitary evenings and
weekends. Take pressure off of your work load back at home by making it clear
that you’re unavailable and by delegating tasks if you can: let colleagues know
that you can’t be expected to double-up on your regular work load while away.
Finally, you should approach your institutions for support, if needed, in terms
of trying to strike a better work/life balance or finding strategies that make
travel more comfortable while enhancing its effectiveness. Seeing the world as
you do your job is definitely a privilege, but it’s also something that should
not have a negative impact on your life out of work.
