Flirting while traveling on business?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Is this just common practice for traveling spouses to flirt with anything that walks by? I’ve seen married men and women with children who respect their respective spouses turn into horny bastards who lear at and hot on anything that moves?

I’m single myself, but travel with many of my co-workers who have repeatedly cheated on their spouses either physical or emotional. Wedding rings are slipped off (if they wear them out at all) and girls with fiances or long term relationships are going all out and lying about their status.

How common is this? Am I just surrounding myself with assholes?

I really feel for the poor suckers at home thinking they are the “only one”.

2

well, there is a percentage of people that think flirting/fucking on a business trip is “legal.” Dunno what that percentage is. Me, I usually view a business trip as a chance to order both french fries and onion rings from room service and read a book in peace instead of acting “instantly single” and going out on the prowl.

3

Funny that, China Guy. I usually can’t wait to put my feet up, order a tuna sandwich from room service and see what I can find on the BBC…crossing fingers for some good ol’ American re-runs…missing my dogs, but loving not have to smooch myself up in the bed to make room.

BUT, working with a team of men who travel, and I am often the sole woman, I do see a lot of wandering eyes. A lot of comments made about girls walking by. A bit of bad behavior now and then, but mostly harmless. Do I worry when my spouse travels? Of course. I worry about him a lot. But I don’t worry about him putting something where it doesn’t belong. I am not worried about my spouse straying…mostly because I know how much we respect each other, but also because he knows how much it bothers me when I get oogled at when I am out and about.

4

And spoil a perfectly good opportunity to get the whole bed to myself. Not a chance.

5

I bartend at a tourist/convention bar, applejamie, and I can assure you that it happens every day, all day long. I’ve had more men wearing wedding rings hit on me than I care to think about; I’ve been given room numbers, asked to “go to dinner when they’re in town,” asked to “show them the town,” etc., etc., and that’s not even including all the guys who just like to flirt with me/say lewd things/act like morons b/c they’re away from home and responsibility.

And it isn’t just me, or just men; married women will hit on my male coworkers so baldly that it’s almost laughable. Mr. Levins, who also bartends, has had many women hit on him as well…and it isn’t just a “oh, I want to flirt with you” thing either. It’s, “So when do you get out of work? Here’s my hotel room number,” type of thing.

So no, unfortunately, you don’t have a monopoly on asshole coworkers. Lots of people–probably more than most people suspect–have the “what happens away from home stays there” kind of mentality when it comes to traveling.

Oh, the stories I could tell their spouses…:wink:

6

You know it. With the ad reps I have to hang out with from time to time there’s one rule:

“Blow jobs and on the road don’t count.”

Weasels.

7

I used to travel at times with one or more of a group of four males, all married, who unanimously would take off their wedding rings as soon as they got to the airport, and never put them on again until the plane landed upon their return. They were two people in sales and marketing, one electrical engineer, and one programmer. And while I would sit back at the hotel and do work, they would sneak out at night to strip clubs, and regale each other with their wild stories the next morning - trying not to say anything in front of me, but typically so full of themselves that they couldn’t help it. I was the only one not hung over when we would meet the client, so I would lead things off, and eventually took over those trips. Then I promptly “fired” them all from the project (not from their jobs, however. I just didn’t want to work with people like that any more).

I know for a fact that a few married people at my company, whilst on long assignments in “the East”, would hire “maids”, which were essentially live-in prostitutes that cost about $20 a day. And they cleaned the house and cooked as well. I know one person who actually divorced his wife and tried to marry his “maid”, but then found out that - surprise! - she actually found him repulsive and was, really, a hooker.

All of the rest of the males I’ve been with have been uniformly honorable and faithful to their spouses while on trips, AFAIK. Except for those in seriously troubled marriages, of which I do know of a few who have flirted up a storm or gone to hookers while away from home.

Although I travel a lot, I very rarely sit in airport or hotel bars, as I just don’t like the company and the noise (the loud, braying false laugh of salesmen, the loud tittering laugh of saleswomen, and the continuously blaring TV showing ESPN.) Sometimes I will if I really want a drink, however, and even one as ugly as I have been hit upon. Of course, I would not be interested in males at all, but once, and only once, I was propositioned by a visiting lady professor from Sweden who invited me back to her room to use her jacuzzi. :eek: I politely declined, as I simply don’t cheat (I was with my Ex SO then).

Una

8

Ugh, the rugby team I used to root for (and some of whose members I dated) had a stated policy: “What goes on the road, stays on the road.” Not all of the guys cared–they weren’t going to flirt, much less screw around, no matter that their teammates would take it to the grave. But a number of them did take advantage of this generous policy.

Traveling on business, or anywhere else, I just wouldn’t do it. I try to keep to a policy where I am never saying or doing anything where I’d feel guilty, uncomfortable, or apologetic if my husband were to walk in that very moment. That extends to not bitching about him to my coworkers or telling marital secrets to my friends. If I wouldn’t say it/do it with him in the room, I won’t say it or do it with him not there. Even if he’s 700 miles away. I don’t want to be the kind of partner who wears two faces.

This obviously rules out flirting.