Sure, if they’re hot!
Or, if they’re the same gender as me, around my age, and have similar interests.
I have heard of my peers doing everything from going out clubbing to skinny dipping on their business trips.
When I was in college I worked a promo job for Coke and was required to sahre a room with my team leader. It was okay but I got a little nuts from constantly being around someone else.
At my marketing job I got roped into sharing a room with a coworker that I didn’t get along very well with - she also snored. It was either that or don’t go to the conference.
Since then, I worked for another company that always shares rooms, and usually puts you up with a stranger so you “get to know other people and become lifelong friends.”
I will NOT do it every again.
Shared once, a team-building conference. hated it, I am not a TV guy and I smoke cigars. Luckily my company doesn’t make me travel much and they don’t require us to share.
I would not travel if sharing was required.
I did recently for the first time in ages. Our clients were worthy but poor folks in a developing country. For some reason, they were picking up the tab for accommodation. It didn’t feel right to get them to pay for two rooms for a transit stay. It would have been insulting to them pay for our own rooms (or for work to pay).
I did reconsider my stance when my colleague produced the box of matches he carries for the bathroom when rooms are to be shared.
I work as flightcrew for an aviation company so we spend a bit of time away from home.
During initial training we were required to share a room. Well actually, they gave us a two bedroom apartment between two people, so it’s more like sharing a small house. That was fine, for a short time. Once we were trained and in the company properly, we each get our own hotel room when away. We get an allowance per night that (more than adequately) covers our expenses. If, for some reason, they require us to share a room, our allowance is increased. They have never asked me to share a room.
I was on a trip away recently and the new base manager had, against company policy, booked a single room for two of the crew who are a couple. He’d just assumed that since they were together, they’d want a room together. Not so. In their opinion, a typical hotel room is just too small a space to be able to comfortably share with someone else, particularly when you are there for work rather than pleasure. I guess some people appreciate their space and privacy, even if they live together.
The only companies that make you share a room on a buisness trip are bullshit IT consulting firms. The kind that brag about 20% growth because they hired 5 people last year.
If it’s that important for me to travel, it’s important enough for someone to cough up the dough for an extra hotel room.
Man, you’d hate working for the state, then. The corrections system always makes employees share rooms when they’re going to training seminars and the like. Since Hubby is one of the higher-ups, he doesn’t have to do that any more, and always gets his own room.
I just wanted to make one more comment, because something occured to me. This thread really does show how spoiled we are in modern times. Back in the 1800s, entire families shared houses not much bigger than a normal hotel room, and usually shared the beds. Back then, hotel (or inn) rooms were almost always doubles, and you’d end up sharing it with strangers.
In many foreign countries, the same conditions still exist.
The last time I shared a room on a trip(~11 years ago) I gave one of the other guys a bloody nose.
Never shared a room since, never been asked to.
Enjoy,
Steven
It surprises me that so many companies find this an acceptable practice, considering the possibility of sexual harrassment or other types of litigation that could arise. Seems like a lawsuit just waiting to happen.
My company requires sharing by the same gender and work schedule. If you are scheduled to be onsite early in the morning and your same-gender partner is scheduled in the evening, then they don’t require sharing. However, if you’re both guys who are working at night, you’ll room together.
I hate it. I always have to warn my roommate on my things.
[ol][li]I snore.[]I’ve been told I talk in my sleep – in three languages.[]I like the room so cold that even in our summers you should probably be fully dressed and underneath a heavy blanket.[]I can’t stand most of what’s on TV.[]I prefer to listen to merengue and salsa, so sorry for the trumpets and drums.[/ol][/li]
I’m tough to live with. Like Obsidian, my private life and my professional life are almost completely separate, which is a fundamental part of keeping my sanity about me. I come to work put together and ready to go, but I have my things I need in my private life to remain functional. I hate it when the wall between comes down.
I have to say that most of you sound way to particular. I don’t travel much (being a grad student) but I would expect to share a room with one of the other female grad students if I went to a conference or something. I would have no problem with. If you can’t trust the people you work with not to take your stuff, how do you work with them on a daily basis? It the other person snore, likes weird music or gets up at five, I don’t see that as a big deal. Granted I haven’t slept in a room by myself since I was 17 and I actually have trouble sleeping in a room by myself now, but still, I can not imagine pitching a fit about it, spending my own money (unless I wanted to go with my boyfriend) or quiting over it. Give me break.
I’m with you. Some of the comments here strike me as borderline bizarre.
When I was a student, sure I shared rooms. Heck, I did the everyone crashing in one room thing.
But not now. I’m a professional. Business travel sucks. I don’t like going to suburbs of some city and being stuck with one car for 4 people. I don’t like having to eat out at the Olive Garden because of the person in the group who can’t handle anything else more interesting.
When I get back to my room after 8 hours of kissing someone’s ass, I do not want to have to deal with a stranger.
So we can assume that you’ll always share your bedroom with your room mates? That you’ll always do so? I don’t mean your SO, I mean your pals, your room mates, because you’ll never live alone, right?
Are you serious? How is sharing a hotel room with a co-worker for a few nights comparable to sharing your personal bedroom?
Well, as a student you can be expected to be subject to that kind of inconvenience, as you’re paying them for their services. As an adult working for an employer at-will who is paying me for my services, I expect to be treated as an adult and that includes respecting my privacy. If an employer asked me to share a room, I would pay for my own if going on the trip were that important. Otherwise I would tell them I do not plan to attend.
Huh? I do live alone at the moment, but like Misnomer said, I’m not seeing the analogy. If I were traveling with a roommate or a friend or a random colleague or acquaintance, yes, I’m having a hard time imagining a situation where I wouldn’t voluntarily share a room with them. Heck, I usually stay in hostels and share a room with a bunch of complete strangers when I travel. Will that do?
In any case, I didn’t say that not wanting to share a room with a co-worker is bizarre in itself, I said some of the comments were bizarre.
I think this really depends on what field this person is in. As a graduate student in science, I do get paid to do the work and attending at conferences is part of my work. I’m paid a per diem, travel, registration, etc. It’s just that if sharing a room is a possibility, it’s assumed that you will. It sounds like the rest of the travel experience is pretty much the same as ‘business travel’, so from this side it’s hard to see what the big deal is about sharing.
Sharing a hotel room is not the same as sharing an office or workspace. An employer can dictate working conditions in the office but I think travel lodging is a different issue, and a bit closer to an employer trying to dictate your living arrangement for a temporary period of time. I wouldn’t give my employer a say in the house or apartment I choose or my roommates (or lack thereof), so I wouldn’t expect them to dictate my sharing of a hotel room. There are many, many reasons to request one’s own room, not all of which are selfish or have anything at all to do with saving or spending money. Many people might have medical issues best attended to in privacy, and for many of us business travel doesn’t excuse us from other work. Having a room to ourselves gives us a place to work after hours to accomplish the other things required of us.
The point is though, an employee should not be made to feel bad about requesting a room to themselves.