The research, carried out by NOP on behalf of web conferencing firm WebEx, shows that far from the macho image of business trips being a perk rather than work, business travellers really don’t enjoy being away so often and would rather be at home with their families.
When asked who they missed most when travelling, researchers from NOP found that for 60 per of men missed their partners the most while they were away travelling. By contrast, half of women business travellers said they missed their children the most.
Honey Langcaster-James, television psychologist and a lecturer at the University of Hull, says that many people over-glamorise business travel. “During graduate recruitment sessions I am involved in at university, many students say they are looking for jobs which will give them lots of international travel. But when they get these jobs and start travelling on business regularly, the novelty wears off. The glamour soon seems like a distant memory and you just want to get through meetings and get home as quickly as you can. The reality is that business travellers have a lonely existence.”
The travellers in the survey take around 13 business trips every year, each lasting an average of just over five days. This means that travellers spend more time travelling on business than they do on annual leave.
To help them cope with the lack of home comforts, many resort to other means. The survey reveals that four per cent of travellers take their favourite cuddly toy with them while five per cent take a lucky charm. “People look to something else for comfort and it shows the stress they are under,” says Langcaster-James.
The myth of business trips being little more than an excuse to go out on the town with clients is also debunked by the survey. Just eight per cent of respondents said they ventured outside their hotel room on an average trip, with nearly three-quarters saying they preferred to stay in and read a book.
Langcaster-James says: “When we travel on business, we adopt an insular approach, amusing ourselves in our room, and generally putting our personal lives in stasis. In fact, business travel can be a lonely existence and it seems it’s more ‘Brits are bored’ than ‘Brits abroad.’”
She adds: “We should sit up and take notice of the results of this survey. I think that organisations should take this much more seriously, particularly now that there is more of a focus on work-life balance.”
WebEx’s Sylvia Jensen says: “Business travel is a notoriously painful experience. The survey results show that there is a strong case for encouraging workers to engage in virtual business meetings. Obviously, there are many occasions where it is imperative to meet face-to-face, but business professionals should understand that there is an alternative to the frustration of international travel.”
That’s all very well but is it really possible to replace face-to-face meetings with phone calls, video or web conferences? Some people clearly don’t think so.
After 9/11, when business travel plummeted, British Airways launched a high profile advertising campaign to woo travellers back on-board. The message was clear - if you conducted meetings face-to-face you won the business but if you emailed your PowerPoint presentation over instead, you didn’t.
Sociologists argue that as much as 85 per cent of communication is non-verbal and that much of this is lost if you don’t meet face-to-face. Honey Langcaster-James says: “From the psychologist’s point of view, there’s an awful lot that goes into communication in terms of body language and facial expressions but with sophisticated technology, you can have a good virtual meeting.”
WebEx argues that solutions such as theirs should be seen as complementing face-to-face meetings rather than replacing them.
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