Employee Wonders If There Are People Who Actually Like Work Trips With Their Co-Workers — ‘You Have To Act Happy & Pretend You Like Your Job’
'Meetings, meetings, meetings.'
Pokryvka / Shutterstock On the surface, work trips seem like they’d be a good time. You get to travel to a new city, eat at restaurants, and enjoy a hotel room while being paid for your time.
Yet, in reality, work trips tend to be more taxing than a regular work week, and you don’t even get the comfort of sinking into your own bed at night after everything is done.
An employee wondered if anyone actually likes going on work trips with their coworkers.
“Why does no one ever talk about how exhausting work trips are?” Chloe Bartuska asked while lying in a hotel bed.
She rattled off a list of everything that’s expected of employees on work trips, starting with “Wake up at 5 a.m., put on makeup, put on your best business outfit, go get coffee with everyone, act happy, act like you love life and your job.”
Next up on the schedule is to “Meet 800 new people,” followed by “Meetings, meetings, meetings … 10 hours pass.”
Bartuska noted how after hours upon hours of meetings, your brain stops working, “But you have to keep using it.”
She explained how you have to meet up with coworkers for dinner and “chit-chat, chit-chat, chit-chat” until you’re totally exhausted.
She mentioned that drinking plays a huge part in work trips, saying, “You have to assimilate; you have to have those drinks. Alcohol is so ingrained in corporate America.”
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During work trips, employees have to ‘be on’ even after working hours are over because socializing is so important.
When she finally got to bed, Bartuska slept poorly, “Because I think I’m going to get kidnapped every hour of the night because I’m a woman traveling alone, and then we wake up at 5 a.m. and we do it again.”
“Day 3, I am not okay,” she declared. “This is the introvert nightmare.”
In her next breath, she noted, “This is the stupidest [expletive] to be complaining about. There’s no reason for me to complain, but I’m tired.”
While it could be said that having a job, at all, is a privilege of some sort, and feeling burnt out by the demands of that job is a valid response.
Work trips certainly demand a level of energy and social interaction that goes above and beyond what we normally do on a day-to-day basis. It’s not surprising that the intense, nonstop schedule of a work trip wears employees out.
The comment section was full of employees commiserating with Bartuska’s experience, with one person declaring, “My social battery was not made for work trips.”
Someone else noted that it feels “Extra exhausting having to be extra nice and chatty to everyone.”
Other people shared tips to make work trips a little easier on their minds and bodies.
One person suggested drinking mocktails, so it looks like you’re partaking, but you’re able to wake up rested without the hangover that usually accompanies a work trip happy hour.
Someone else shared that they keep hydration sticks and protein bars in their hotel room to combat the inevitable jet lag that comes from traveling for work.
Work trips might not actually be enjoyable, but at least they don't last forever, and you'll be back in your own bed before you know it.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.