First of all, I want to ask you not to be judgemental when you read this, okay?

I have just been invited to go on a trip to another country for 5 days/4 nights. It will be in a fairly large group (18) and it will be paid for by my company. Our purpose there will be to network with our counterparts in the other country, to make some connections for future, mutually-benefical relationships.

I don't know if I want to go or not. Here are my pro's and con's. Please let me know if you have any insite or any pro's or con's yourself.

Pro's
free trip
we will stay in nice hotels & all food will be covered & will probably be quite fancy
get to see a new country


Con's
Traveling with a bunch of people I dont really know (who are all higher ranking than me in the company
Going to a cool, new place, but being limited by what my work schedule is

I know this may seem like a dumb problem to have, but its my problem & I would love some insight.

Forgive me Lorena — but I'm not certain that I would consider your cons to be cons at all.

Traveling with a bunch of people you don't really know from you company will provide you with the opportunity to forge some relationships. That they are in senior positions shouldn't really matter.

In my opinion, what would you prefer — being limited by your work schedule at home or abroad? I know what I would like!

Nobody on these boards is judgmental. We're here to help each other other out!

To me I'd look at it as an opportunity for a new experience. And one that appears to hold little risk for you. You're not footing the bill and the size of the group means you're less likely to be stuck with someone you don't click with the whole time.

If you do go and manage to network and make connections for future, mutually-beneficial relationships then it may open the door for other opportunities to travel - to this country or others if your company does business in other countries as well.

At the end of the day it's an opportunity to travel and most folks on these boards would probably tell you to take advantage of it unless there is a glaring issue why you wouldn't go. It's not being judgmental, it's just that we all love to go new places!

What's your alternative? Going to work at the same office (or whatever) that you do every day?

It's just work in a far more interesting environment. I see no downside.

4 days/5 nights. I'd go. It doesn't sound like your work will be all that difficult.

Pros
Completely different experience than being a tourist
Learn about the location from a locals perspective
Free food and alcohol
Fancy hotels (sometimes)
Squeeze in a little site seeing or extend a trip for personal time

Cons
Away from home
Potentially lose a weekend or two
Intense and tiring
Work talk 24/7

I went on a business trip to India where I visited 5 cities in 5 days. It was an 8AM to 10PM schedule during the work week with most of the time was spent in transit between customer visits, but it's been one of my most memorable travel experiences to date. It definitely sparked my interest in India, and I'm planning on eventually going back to spend a lot of time on my own. So in a way, work travel can give you an overview of a place without spending any of your own money.

The only downside that I see listed above would be talking about work 24/7—but even that can be interesting sometimes. Take it!

Another Pro—Air Miles!

Agree with the above posters.

Also...can you take an extra day or two at the end and bum around yourself? I try to do this on almost all of my business trips. If you have the vacation days, why not take advantage of the free trip!?

I have traveled a lot in the back of the plane as well as front of the plane. One full decade I exclusively did long haul TATL as well as South America. After some time, the body begins to show the toll of traveling across time-zones. Sleeping in strange hotel beds, eating at odd hours.

The early pros were: Expense account, Exotic food, nice hotels, and lots of FF mileage. In the esnd, its just another job where someone has to travel.

The stress of international flying increase manifold post-9/11 for many road-warriors. Now, many have become compliant automatons.

The early pros were: Expense account, Exotic food, nice hotels, and lots of FF mileage. In the esnd, its just another job where someone has to travel.

However, the original poster was asking about what sounds like a one-off business trip. This is substantially different from a job that requires frequent international travel.

2wanderers wrote:

The early pros were: Expense account, Exotic food, nice hotels, and lots of FF mileage. In the esnd, its just another job where someone has to travel.

However, the original poster was asking about what sounds like a one-off business trip. This is substantially different from a job that requires frequent international travel.

Oops This is what happens when one posts on an empty stomach and little sleep

Thank you everybody for your advice on this. i did go on the trip and wrote a 5 page report of my observations. I am the only one who did that. at our recent follow-up meeting, I was the only one with a notebook on my lap, reading description of places we had been and things we talked about there, since nobody else seems to have taken a single note on the entire trip. I looked good, I contributed a lot and I hopefully have contributed enough so that I swayed the direction of the group into a positive one, rather than the ugly, money-grubbing one the head honcho had. somehow, she was able to drive through the cities of this 3rd world country, oblivious to the suffering of the common man on the street and instead played with her iphone or talked about the most stupid stuff from back at her office. i hope next trilp she trips in a pothole and has to spend a week getting healthcare with the locals.

Woohoo! Congrats, Lorena. Glad you went on the trip and it was a positive experience (apart from your boss not falling in a pothole).

If you want to share any of that 5 page report on your trip as a travel story on BootsnAll, you can submit it here.