Business Travel and Wives

[fintstone]

Most trips that I have done were like that...but others (like attending symposiums/meetings over several days), I had much more free time than I ever would at home where a 12hr day and a 2hr commute left little time to play. Most functions started late and ended early. I looked at each trip separately based on the circumstances.

My wife and I were in DC on 911 (I was visiting the Pentagon). I was scheduled to go home that day and it was her first day there. We were stuck there for a week (no flights) and shared her room (she was booked for the week). It was good to be together in such an uncertain time...and we enjoyed each other's company more than any time I could remember.

It was to be my last military trip and my terminal leave to retire from the military was to start immediately upon my return, but we knew that the world had changed. I was a stoploss and stayed quite a while longer.

[Cloggie]

Most of my work assignments require me to be onsite for multiple weeks at a time....it's a condition of me taking the assignment that I take my wife with me and if there is an extended work function in the evening, I have the option to have her join us.

It cost me a marriage and a family to have extended absences and so I refuse to do it.

Usually the company offers me the option to fly home every few weeks, but between the fact that I hate airports, airplanes, border control, taxis, hotels and restaurants that option is usually not in my top 100,000 things to do.

I just tell them it is cheaper for them to NOT fly me home, offset with an adequate per diem to cover some sort of rental condo or similar.

Wife is extremely good about it, she just finds the local Chinese community and usually has a rip roaring time, plus, since we try to find accommodation close to the work site, I usually get hot lunches and if necessary a back and shoulder massage at lunch time.

D.

[monoflo]

Bottom line
Depends on the autonomy of the trip.

Conferences -tradeshows-etc never worked for us.
but my normal trips which entailed sales calls --technical but still calls offered nice opportunities for her to explore new places. Often she'd do some day tours and we'd hit some nice places she'd discovered in the evening.

Been retired for awhile so things might be different now --but we had a heck of a time when she tagged along.

[stinkindiesel]

Seems every time my wife wants to go along, business plans change at the last minute making it a real pain.

I did have a sales associate in Belgium for a while who loved to play tour guide. My wife and his would always enjoy a European trip visiting customers in UK, France, Italy, and Germany.

Gary

[gacook]

Originally Posted by PorscheGAL

I, commonly, go with my husband on business trips. He works the entire time and I get to visit a new city. I don't mind sight seeing alone or getting reservations for 1 to try a great place.

This. If I'm going somewhere unique, I always invite the wife. She understands I'm there for work but she's a grownup and doesn't need me holding her hand during the day. She can go do whatever she wants.

[Macroni]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Anyone else get this?

You have to do a business trip and the spouse is like "ohhh, I'd like to go there, can I come?"


Grrr.

My wife is polar opposite..... I try to get her to come and she resists... "all you will be doing is working".....


please Milan, Zurich.... I will figure how to make it work.....

[berettafan]

Never had a travel kind of job. Kinda jealous of those who get to visit new places for work.

Not ghettos though!

[stomachmonkey]

All good isight.

Most of my trips are firefighting.

I'm there to do a very specific function.

Or it's an event where my presence is required to "make nice" with others.

I have very little down time.

If it were a trip abroad and I could bookend weekends then sure.

It just frustrates me that after 30 years she hasn't figured it out and part of it is me, it makes me feel guilty that I can't take her which stresses me because I want to make her happy.

[NutmegCarrera]

We are prepping for a trade show in Geneva in April.
I've always wanted to have my wife come - but at the end of the trade show.
She isn't the type to go it alone in a new city.
I have colleagues (customers) who have brought their wives during the show. They are always amazed at the "up and out early", followed by the "back at hotel for 15 minutes to drop your stuff from the day", and back out for dinner with customers - only to be in for the night around midnight (best case scenario).
We do one in Miami on alternating years.
She has had no interest in coming along to any of them.

If roles were reversed, you wouldn't have to ask me twice. But we have complimentary personality types....

[A930Rocket]

Thanks for the tip, Mr. Bot!

Don’t forget to edit your post next week and slip in a link. 🙄

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Thanks for the tip, Mr. Bot!

Don’t forget to edit your post next week and slip in a link. 🙄

In just 80K more posts ... he will pass fint ....

Has the 'stone gone AWOL ... or just elsewhere?

I'll notice soon enough.

BUMPing fer Bots post here !

[id10t]

My only work trips have been conferences, and wife has joined me for all (Boston) or part (Tampa so only 2 hour drive) of them.

If expectations are clear and things are agreeable why not?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Interesting thread back from the dead. I haven’t seen Fint around here for months.

I’ve brought my wife along a few times, it depends on the trip. My youngest is 15 and on the cusp of getting a car so she’ll have a lot more flexibility to travel with me soon. It makes for a cheap trip when your airfare and hotel is paid, and you just have to pony up a little extra for a second plane ticket. Most of my trips are now solo to customers and suppliers so I have a lot of flexibility with schedule.

[jcwade]

My wife had to go to Cambridge, England for a weeklong staff meeting.
I took a week of vacation and tagged along.

I had a great time wandering around London, seeing things she might not be interested in, like the Imperial War Museum or the Greenwich Observatory, or I rented a car and drove from Cambridge while she was stuck in meetings all day long.

After the meetings and in her free time we would explore Cambridge.

[speedster911]

Depends on the trip. I traveled six days a week for many years. Different state every day - my wife understood it was a grind. I also worked for a company that had its own plane, try doing multiple states in one day!! She also understood that the last thing I wanted to do when I was home was to go out to dinner or entertain at home. It was the price we were willing to pay to get to our end goal.

When I did have an opportunity for an extended visit and there were social events tied into client business, she came with me and we had fun. Frankly, it allowed her to take some of the burden off of me in interfacing with spouses of my clients or coworkers. It also allowed her to put a face with a name when I was doing the unbearable travel and told her stories when I got home.

Bottom line, I think it depends on your spouse, your relationship with them and what control you have of your business and travel schedule.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by id10t

My only work trips have been conferences, and wife has joined me for all (Boston) or part (Tampa so only 2 hour drive) of them.

If expectations are clear and things are agreeable why not?

My first visit to CA was a Networking Conference as a young pup ... drove down the PCH on that Thursday ... San Diego...

All work an no play

Got food sick at a high $$ seafood place near Welfleet ... my first trip to the House of Blues ... Harvard Square...

Bay Networks wanted my input on their Router design for that one

But mostly ... work trips were a hoot ... work hard then play hard

Don't miss it...

[rattlsnak]

I tag along on my wife's business trips all the time. I don't care that she's busy all day/night. I just use the free hotel room to go sightseeing on my own and then sex her up when she comes back to the room after she's had several cocktails with her team.

[red-beard]

Mrs. Beard and I did a joint business trip (it is "our" business). And it was PERFECT!

We had a 1.5 drive for the hotel to the site, each way. No time for lunch. Dinner was late at the hotel. And then back to the room to do more work.

Part of what we were doing was writing a manual for our customer for a solar energy system we built for an offshore platform. Me in English and her translating it to Spanish, and dumbing it down for PEMEX, with the help of our customer.

She got to see what most of my business trips were like, working 10-12 hours a day. No we don't go out for fancy dinners or go get drunk each night.

We did do a convention in Mexico City together and she did get to experience a "fun" trip.

[billybek]

My significant other is travelling more and more for work these days. When I retire, I will become the male equivalent of PorscheGal. I have never had a problem travelling by myself.
Having the accommodations paid for makes it much more affordable to see interesting places.

[unclebilly]

Yup, that’s me. I’ve been to Europe 8 times in the past year and the UK about 6… and the US several times too. I cancelled my trip to both Europe and the UK the week after next because it’s becoming a problem. I was supposed to be away 4 of 5 weeks between November and the first week of December…

I just got home from a family trip to Moab this morning at 5:00 (drove through the night) so I could get farm stuff done this weekend before heading away for work again on Tuesday…