Business travel and the idea of being a jet-setting doer of business has an allure to it. There’s this sort of mythologization involved, the idea that this means that you’re someone, that you’ve made it.Â
But, unless you’re on the knife’s edge of some entrepreneurial project that’s been padded with the backing of angel investors, the reality of corporate business travel is really quite different: navigating crowds at conference centers, long days networking desperately trying to strike the match of meaningful business conversation with as many industry buzzwords as possible. All that is capped off with socializing at evenings out to dinner, by the time you retire to your airport hotel, you’re relieved at the solitude, a chance to finally be alone and switch off, though you do wish that you were at home in your own bed. You drift off to sleep, hoping that you wake up fresh and ready to do it all again tomorrow.
In a way, you can see why these two junior employees got it so wrong on their first work trip, especially without the oversight of their own boss being present. The temptation is definitely there to enjoy yourself and experience this new place you find yourself in. But these aren’t teenagers; these are grown adults who should be able to see that temptation and then make the right decision. It’s not as if you can say that they made one mistake and missed their flight either, from this manager’s account of events, it’s very clear that there was a pattern of behavior and not an isolated incident.Â
Professionalism and responsibility go hand in hand, and if this were a test they failed spectacularly.
