I’ve got a business trip coming up to the UK. I booked a 4 day trip: travel all day Tuesday, work Wednesday & Thursday, travel home all day Friday. My boss told me I can’t spend two work days traveling and that I would need to either fly out on Sunday of Fly home on Saturday. We went back and forth a little bit, and he said the higher-ups would not approve the travel schedule as booked. I told him the policy was unfair, and that I wan’t going to travel on my own time for business.
Has anyone else encountered this policy? It seems grossly unfair.
I only have to travel on my own time if the meeting, whatever, starts Monday morning. Otherwise for a Tuesday meeting I would expect to fly out on Monday, not Sunday.
Your boss is willing to pay for the extra hotel room and stuff for you to be gone from home for an extra two days (Sunday night, Monday night, and Tuesday night for a meeting on Wed and Thur, and then Thur night and Friday night)? Seriously? Is he made of money? And he expects you to be away from your family for a week for…really no reason?
No, I always travelled on company time, and so did everyone else. They even compensated out-of-town contractors for the gas they burned making special trips to the office.
My firm recently changed policy so that we no longer can bill to clients for our travel time. I think it’s a bit absurd in that we are required to have a certain number of billable hours per year, and now we lose out on those when we’re forced to travel because the time goes into an administrative account.
However, we are still paid for the time we travel. I can’t imagine being told we have to travel and not get paid for it. I think your assessment of being unfair is correct.
Travel time is always on the company dime, unless I (of my own volition) decide to travel on a weekend. Even then, I could take comp time to make up for it.
At any place I have ever worked, any time in transit for company business outside of the normal, daily commute is recorded as company time.
I’m going to assume you are salaried, but if I’m wrong and you happen to be an hourly-paid employee, your employer has to pay you for work-related travel time.
If you’re salaried, there’s probably not much you can do. I’m flying out Sunday afternoon for a conference that starts Monday morning, and that’s pretty typical. If I were traveling on a weekday I’d probably work on the plane, but I’m less likely to do that while traveling on a Sunday.
I’ve always been similar to Anaamika, if I’m going to be away on a Monday I often travel on a Sunday, but that’s usually because Monday will have a defined, early, start point. If not, I’d travel Monday first thing. For the rest of the week, I’d travel on work time, or at least start on work time, but expect to arrive late - say, leave the office around 3 for a flight at 5 lasting a couple of hours, not expecting to be in my hotel room till 9ish.
The way back is almost always on non-work time, though - leaving the site at normal work finishing, then travel late. Most of my travel will be within Europe so far.
However, for an inter-continental flight (assuming you’re coming from the US?) I do think they’re being unreasonable. Strikes me that this is a business trip, not a holiday, and for them to expect you to use up one of your only off days to do it is very poor. A late evening arrival is one thing, but losing a day of our own time is not on. Do you have an option to refuse to do the trip?
I’ve only had to travel for work once, for training. I had to be there for two days, and I was required to travel during work hours, flying out on Monday, training Tuesday and Wednesday, and then I took PTO to stay a couple extra days to visit family. I intended on flying back on Sunday, on my own time, but they wouldn’t allow it. I had to fly back on Monday. I’m an hourly employee, and I was allotted eight hours of travel time each way.
I would absolutely not require any of the account reps who work for me to do this. When the reps fly out of town for site visits, they are instructed to do their damnedest to schedule the meetings Tuesday-Wednesday -Thursday so they don’t have sacrifice their weekends.
Now, sometimes people DO choose to travel on their own time. But that’s only when it’s a particularly nice destination. When we have the yearly company-wide sales conference in Vegas (read: every other year, and always a bad idea), there’s always somebody who flies out Friday night rather than Monday morning and pays for the first two days of their hotel room themselves. I’m a bit ambivalent about that.
:: coughing ::
I have made note of your impudence and will be taking my revenge on whoever is assigned to be your scapegoat this week.
Sounds like horseshit to me. We’re not talking about your normal, everyday commute (for which you are expected to spend your own time and money). He and the higher-ups understand it’s inappropriate to make you spend your own money for the airfare, I don’t know why they would think it’s appropriate to make you spend your own time.
I’m a federal employee. I’ve traveled out of town on business before. Used a fleet vehicle, fuel was paid for by my employer. Received compensatory time off for traveling outside of my normal work hours.
That makes sense, since you’re an hourly employee. They didn’t want to have to pay you for all that travel time on Sunday (which they’d have to do) and then pay you for a full week’s work, which would run into overtime before the end of the week.
I travel a bit for work (about one trip a month on average) and this policy is absurd. Nobody here would stand for it. The only time I would be traveling on the weekend is if I have to be somewhere Monday morning.
I’m self employed. I just got back from 5 days in NOLA, all on my own time. Ninety percent of the time I was stumbling down Bourbon Street, but still . . .
I do my current job strictly for the money. But back when I was a sales rep, I had a spirited discussion with the guy who ran the newstand by my apartment. He didn’t believe me when I said I looked forward to the beginning of every work week; he insisted that nobody really likes their job. But I did. I’d have enjoyed freelance writing if not for the financial insecurity.
So, what are you expected to be doing on Friday? Since they are forcing you to sit there, spend a half hour checking your mail and go sight seeing for the rest.
For me, it is travel the natural time, which in your case would be returning Friday.
I have traveled on Sunday nights for training that began first thing Monday morning, and have occasionally had other company travel bleed into normal non-working hours. I take comp time to cover that. I’m a salaried employee at a Fortune 500 company.
