Business Travel and Wives
 

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?"

No, you can't come. I'm not going for fun. I'm going for WORK.

That means my days are full and dinners out with the team.

Whatya gonna do, sit in the hotel by yourself all day?

There is no time for us to go site seeing or anything else.

I'm flying in, doing my **** and flying out.

And they get all pouty about it.

Grrr.

There's a saying in the film biz "It's location, not vacation". Even though you're shooting in Hawaii they want you in and out as quickly as possible. Less costs for hotel and per diem, 6 and 7 day work weeks and 12-14 hour days.

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.

Complete sidetrack: Thanks for the Hoka tip. Did the trick. Much appreciated!

actually, I've had the missus travel with me and we did have time to do stuff together.

For a while my wife would go to Chicago every December for a RSNA conference. I tagged along and had a blast hitting the Italian deli/bakery for breakfast, the Museum of Science and Industry during the day, and the river district for Blues clubs in the evening. I saw her a few times and we actually had dinner and saw Les Paul play at the House of Blues. Make a plan, execute the plan.

It didn't totally suck.

Went to RSNA 23 years in a row until COVID. We must be in the same industry. But never took my wife as my days were always packed from early morning until late night.

Never during regular site work (6/10s minimum) but, on long site stints maybe for a week if I had negotiated a break.

Site survey trips were easier as she could go off site seeing and then we’d have evenings either with or without customer reps and teammates. Those were regular hr workdays and no weekends.

Back when I was married the mrs. came with me to conferences. I had a good friend in the industry and my wife would hang out with his wife during the day then we'd do the town at night. But never on a regular business trip. Heck, I've flown to London on a Sunday night, work Monday and fly home Monday night.

I traveled for work every week for almost 30 years. My wife came with me only a handful of times. She and our son came along together just once. Each time it was a driving trip, no flying. It was fun except I had to listen to their music rather than an audiobook or podcast. Anyway, she never fought with me about my business travel except when I had to leave on a Sunday.

Yep, she is a RT specializing in mammography but as imaging manager she planned, organized, and built out 3 modernized hospital imaging centers over the years. Several friends are radiologists or physicists and it was like old home week in Chicago for RSNA. I was just the eye candy and smiled a lot. :D

Oh boy! My wife thinks business travel/meals are fun. Then we have a holiday party at a client and she hates it.

Hmmmm.

It’s work. Sometimes you gotta take one for the team.

I'm in life insurance sales and the carrier conventions I earn every year (almost always to the Caribbean region) invite spouses. I get 1099'ed for Mrs. Lee's airfare only. Everything else is covered. As for my daily drives into the field, Mrs. Lee wouldn't go with me for anything in the world. It's mostly very rough ghetto and today I was in one of the worst ever. Not something for the wife to tag along.

"Spousing" a work trip is awesome. Mrs mjohnson had an actinide chemistry conference in Tours, FR - kiddo (20 months at the time) and I tagged along. "Bye mum! We'll be at some castles and the brasserie". The next week was to some electron-welder-maker in Munich... "Bye mum! We'll be a the Augustiner".

I'm trying to steer mrs mjohnson into some sort of official business at a naval base north of Glasgow this summer. Or maybe Cape Canaveral/Kennedy. Just please, no, not ever again Amarillo (the charm does wear off of even as charming a place as that...)

Of course, mrs mjohnson might have other opinions on this and might rather travel alone ;)

Seems that we have more than a couple of chemists here. Ever been to the Pittsburgh Conference?

It depends on the trip.

Aren't business trips an opportunity to spend time with a strange woman?

No.

My dad was an Air Force pilot. He was gone all the time on TDY for 7 to 10 days. When we lived in Hawaii, he would come home and plop on the couch too relax and say it was a tough trip to Pago Pago or Christmas Island. We never had much sympathy. Then a lot of the pilots wifes got together a trip. Mom and 7 other officers wives set up a cruise to Japan from Hawaii. They crossed the international date line, had all that silliness, spent several days in Japan and cruised home. Dad played Mr. mom for two weeks.

I had a chance to go with my wife on some of her business trips, but it was usually to some location like Lincoln NE in February. Nope, not interested.

Why not if you have time in your schedule to spend time with her on a business trip? Especially if in an exotic location where you could never afford to take her otherwise. I took mine to two different symposiums in Hawaii where I would have sat in my room alone at night and watched TV otherwise. In fact, I took some additional vacation time and we did some fun things while there after the symposium ended...as my plane ticket was already paid for (only had to buy her ticket and pay the additional nights at the hotel).

Tried it a few times but never really worked out. When I am traveling I am minded toward the job, and really nothing else. For me I was having to switch from husband to employee to husband and back. It really messed with my rhythm.