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The sad, sick life of the business traveller

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I was forever a 100K traveler until a couple of years ago when my traveling was reduced to around 50K. Believe me I love to travel but the reduction in travel has made me happier and more pleasant to be around. For those in there thirties I understand their joy with travel but as you get older it becomes work.


Perhaps the frequent traveler is "in the 1%" because he travels so much. Look up causation/correlation.

guest-njimjne in reply to guest-njmimel

A had a friend who traveled internationally frequently for a few years and loved it. It is great for a few years, if the travel is not to the same cities. And older sales persons ought to be given a break.
I loved travelling and sight seeing until TSA became a great pain in the hole.


I travel every week for my job as a consultant, and over the past 3 years every location I've worked in has been a between a 3-9 hour flight from my home airport. I absolutely thrive in the travel environment. As a 30-something female, my mental and physical health have never been better and I am grateful for all of the different places I have been able to visit. By traveling, I have learned so much and feel that I have a greater appreciation for different peoples' points of view. Instead of complaining about having to travel, embrace the opportunity you have been given to explore different places on your company's dime!

guest-njeemoo in reply to guest-njmwjso

You saved me having to write the same thing. I too consider my travel a privilege. I am intentional about the time I spend with my family, and through my eyes I hope I can teach my children to explore and engage with the world in a positive way, whether by way of learning or by way of the times we get to travel together


It's one's choice to be healthy or not. I travel every week (from NYC to Denver); go to the gym four times a week, eat healthy and have lost forty pounds, my BP and Cholesterol are normal and I am in the best shape that I have been for a while.


I wish someone would have proof read this article..... SMH "finds three types of consequence: physiological, psychological and emotional, and social."


Towards the endless search for status.. which these days lets you board just before the last dozen or so shmoes that have never flown before. But hey silver, gold, platinum, and the illuminati level... onwards and upwards and always twirling twirling twirling towards freedom. At least I can give impressions to my "friends" on Facebook of my "better" life than they have.

capt mohanram

Business travel is certainly not fun. Mercifully, I am out of the rat race now.
For years I used to get up at four in the morning and catch the morning flight to Delhi from home (Mumbai, later Bangalore), attend meetings, take a night 9 PM flight back and reach home after midnight. I have been asked to go to Ulsan, Korea at twelve hours notice to meet up with top officials of Hyundai Shipyard. I stayed there for two days, collected bid documents for a Drill Ship, flew back to Mumbai and sat in the office preparing a tender for the Oil and Natural Gases Commission. I was half dead by the time I was through.
My boss, the CMD of MDL, never bothered about the toll it was taking on me. My weight, Cholesterol and BP all went sky high. I was also unaware of what the crazy travel routine was doing to my health.
Now I am semi-retired. Mercifully my health is back t normal. If I go abroad on work, I plan to reach a day early and take a day off after my return. I refuse to take the abuse of my system any more. It is just not worth it.
Captain Mohan Ram


Am I supposed to feel bad about those who travel to the potential detriment of their physiological, psychological, and social well-being?

There has not been one trip I took in which more than 90% of the business travellers weren't white, male, clean-shaven, rimless-wearing, 50 year-olds.

I do not feel the least amount of concern unless they start showing that it could be a genuine problem affecting many business people, not just in the category above.

Why don't they send more women of equal seniority on trips? Oh wait.

Colebri in reply to guest-njmmwlm

I am thinking you must be traveling on different airlines than I am. Or perhaps you have erroneously assumed that all those non-white and/or non-male seat mates of yours couldn't be business travelers, but are on board purely for pleasure? Perhaps you need to look in a mirror and question where the bias actually resides?

Diogo Silvano

I always bring my running shoes and use the hotels' gyms. When dinning out I look for healthier options, fresher dishes. There are apps to stay in touch and tricks to "cheat" jetlags. Thus the impacts can be drastically reduced. I think the problem of many business travellers is that they escape from their own problems going into those trips, away from their "real worlds".


Ok for tge business man an their two flights every month... but then what about the flight attendants and all the other people part of the airplane crews?


"And finally, of course, business travellers tend to get less exercise... than people who stay in place."
Seriously? Have you tried changing flights in Frankfurt?

hCCiicP3gZ in reply to extradry

Imagine the workout you get going from Schengen to non-Schengen when your incoming flight is delayed and you're about to miss your connection. A good 30 minute jog just there, *with* weights. I'd never be as motivated in a gym.

gznQtvZ86a in reply to hCCiicP3gZ

Last minute gate changes counts as HIIT, in my opinion.

Seriously, part of the reason I lift weights is for the ability to lift my own luggage without risking injury or major discomfort. Now I can lift my body weight (i'm females), which isn't a big deal for weighlifters, but is more than enough for any luggage out there.


1. cf. Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

Hypermobility has been around a long time. Today it is by air, but in the past it was by car, ship, or indeed, in Alexander the Great's time, by chariot.

2. Someone actually did a paper on this???

Perhaps there should be a study called, "Academics Having Too Much Time On Their Hands And Not Enough Good Research Ideas."

guest-njmliem in reply to ZpVcxoBFfC

edwarding and ZpVcxoBFfC like to criticize the article by criticizing something not related to the article. Nice try. "HE needs to justify HIS existence" - This kind of arguing method probably already was practised by Adam & Eve. Let's return to discuss content.


Business travel glamorous? Maybe in the time of the Titanic. As a multi-million mile guy I can tell you that business travel is the last thing I want to do but ... here we go again!


"MANY of us have found ourselves trying to explain to friends and colleagues that, no, business travel isn’t as fun and glamorous as it seems."

mmm.. maybe up to 10 years ago they thought of it as glamorous - now they just feel sorry


Air travel is lovely providing that (a) you only have to undertake it three or four times per year and when you do so (b)you always travel Business or First Class.
Otherwise it is horrible. Since I began running my own companies I've had the luxury of avoiding most travel simply because in today's connected world most travel really isn't that necessary. Go to X once and stay long enough to establish face-to-face working relationships and thereafter use Skype except perhaps for a once-per-year real-world encounter.
I still know a lot of people who take perverse pride in being stuck on airplanes for a significant proportion of their lives, just as coal miners used to feel macho about going down the pit to get pneumoconiosis. Self-deception may be vital when you have no control over your travel plans but for the rest of us avoidance is the nicest strategy of all.

Economist Blogger in reply to CA-Oxonian

As you said "when i began running my own companies" That gives you the right to decide for yourself and organize the business relationship as you judge is more effective/efficient . Most business travellers do not have that luxury.

Capn Fowl

My solution is to experience the world by moving every 2 or 3 years, with family, and to stay in the region while assigned there. It's disruptive in a different way, but avoids regular jet lag. I'm still married & the kids are still speaking to me. However, I do have an obsessive need to unpack and destroy cardboard removals boxes.

Top Hat 001 in reply to Capn Fowl

I'm the son of a international businessman who had us move every 18-36 months. Certainly avoided regular jetlag spare the trips to visit family in the homeland. Found the point that friendships fray and my immediate families were the only constant very true.

Also, someone told me that only white families who companies relocate are expats, the rest are called immigrants. Certainly not how I would define it, but there are examples.