Leave 9-5 job for a job with 80% travel?

vicky7833

hardCopy wrote: »

I've done the travel thing.

For the first 3 years with the company all of my clients were in Dublin. This I enjoyed, I got to make a fresh start on a new site every 3 - 10 months and picked up a broad range of experience in different industries.

Then I got sent to the UK. I spent three months in a tiny village outside Leicester, one month in Milton Keynes and another three in Liverpool. I was up early Monday to catch a flight and had to to work late every Monday evening to make up time because we arrived in late. Friday evenings were always a mad panic because somebody wanted something done before we could leave or scheduled an afternoon meeting. I'd get back to Dublin and head straight to my girlfriend who I hadn't seen all week. Weekends left just enough time to catch up on laundry and socialising.

Midweek I had no cooking facilities. In Leicestershire I could eat in the hotel, one local chipper or bring a sandwich back from the office canteen. At least in MK and Liverpool I had a choice of chain restaurants to pick from. Hotel WiFi was £15 a night and the company would only let me claim for it once a fortnight to submit my timesheets. They eventually got me a Vodafone dongle so I wouldn't go insane with boredom at night could work in the hotel.

All the shops were closed by the time I left the office so if I ever wanted to pick anything up I had to take a taxi to a shopping centre at lunchtime.

The company agreed once to let me bring my girlfriend over for a weekend instead of me flying home.

Overall it was a pretty shiite experience. I ended up leaving the company because I couldn't get an assignment back in Dublin. I left about 1.5 stones heavier after those months but with a lot of Per Diem payments in my back pocket.

The good kind of business travel is when you get taken to a nice hotel by your suppliers for a jolly. Sadly these don't come up often enough.

Thank you all for all the very informative information. I think everything that everyone has mentioned is enough to help me make an over all decision and I think 80% travel is too much.

Based on some of the scenarios here, I can imagine myself not wanting to leave on a Sunday night to go on yet another Business trip that month as I really treasure relaxing weekends with my other half. Or being in a situation where a critical meeting runs over and could result in me missing my flight home when I had been looking forward to getting back. Being in situations where I could feel lost and have no control over or having a ****ty day and not being able to return home to loved ones, instead being faced with a hotel room on my own with no friends to talk to as there could be a time difference.

I would definitely embrace a new work opportunity that could benefit my career, I know I am bored of my role now but maybe if I spend a bit more time looking for a more suitable post, that could involve some travel (20%) instead of the majority of my time being travel based.

I always looked at those in suits and carrying laptops on flights and thought this looks like fun, I wonder where they are off to. I would chat to anyone and enjoy building up contacts but maybe a bit more thought before choosing a new venture is the best step for me at the minute

newcar2016

Travel for work is fun for two weeks then it gets old and it's painful and unsettling.

Ursus Horribilis

I always looked at those in suits and carrying laptops on flights and thought this looks like fun, I wonder where they are off to.

I was thinking this might be the case. It does look very glamorous, especially if you're in a job you're not not happy in. A job with some travel is tolerable but at 80% you'd be selling your soul to your employers.

jive

vicky7833 wrote: »

I would definitely embrace a new work opportunity that could benefit my career, I know I am bored of my role now but maybe if I spend a bit more time looking for a more suitable post, that could involve some travel (20%) instead of the majority of my time being travel based.

Good decision I think. Honestly anything less than 40% international travel is fine, any more than that and you'd really want to enjoy it a lot.

Only large negative is difficult planning normal life things for midweek unless your schedule is fixed well in advance (which it might be!).

vicky7833

Odus fell down wrote: »

I was thinking this might be the case. It does look very glamorous, especially if you're in a job you're not not happy in. A job with some travel is tolerable but at 80% you'd be selling your soul to your employers.

Yes I think you're definitely right! The only extra that was making me go for this was the salary... it would have been about 8k more!

Is 32k a good salary for someone with a lot of duties? (Work that I don't enjoy) Work that I am not properly trained in and don't know what I am at half the time which is making me want to leave. Plus all the work that I started the job for has been off shored to locations worldwide where it's cheaper!

Stheno

vicky7833 wrote: »

Yes I think you're definitely right! The only extra that was making me go for this was the salary... it would have been about 8k more!

Is 32k a good salary for someone with a lot of duties? (Work that I don't enjoy) Work that I am not properly trained in and don't know what I am at half the time which is making me want to leave. Plus all the work that I started the job for has been off shored to locations worldwide where it's cheaper!

Depends on what the duties are to be honest. Retail assistants on min. wage have a lot of duties, but it's a relatively unskilled job so doesn't warrant paying more.

Gone West

Grab a taxi in Dublin... "oh no receipts, sorry" (aka taxi driver doesn't like to pay tax).
Grab a light rail in the USA... might not have a price printed on ticket.
Grab a late night meal somewhere... no till, no receipts
Tipping in the USA 15%-20% on nearly everything. Usually not reimbursable. (Does your maid leave you a receipt? And yes, you're supposed to tip em!).
How many bottles of $6.50 hotel-water are too many on your expenses?
And simply losing or forgetting receipts.

Believe me, the €8k raise would be lost in no time to receipt attrition with 80% travel.
It's actually a MASSIVE insult to just offer €8k per year as a raise considering that amount of business travel to the USA. What would an equivalent employee cost in the states?

Edit: My position for clarity:
Location independent remote worker, but with 8-10 business trips to the USA/Asia/EUR per year.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

Gone West

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

In my experience, serious companies don't take credit card receipts for expenses alone anymore.
Taxi drivers legal obligations and the reality are different. PLENTY of taxi drivers feign no printed receipts and hand over business cards.
How do you bill the maid tip in my example? I can give you lots more examples of difficult to claim tips if you need help.
Travelling 80% for business means you will be flying in late, hungry, thirsty and inconvenienced more than if you were at home. In business parks and inconvenient places late at night. Hotel water or no water. This is an example of the realities.

Regarding losing receipts, well, nobody is perfect. I am just explaining the realities here. Small receipts do get forgotten.
Real life tends to not be so black & white.

I own an applewatch

vicky7833 wrote: »

Thank you all for all the very informative information. I think everything that everyone has mentioned is enough to help me make an over all decision and I think 80% travel is too much.

Based on some of the scenarios here, I can imagine myself not wanting to leave on a Sunday night to go on yet another Business trip that month as I really treasure relaxing weekends with my other half. Or being in a situation where a critical meeting runs over and could result in me missing my flight home when I had been looking forward to getting back. Being in situations where I could feel lost and have no control over or having a ****ty day and not being able to return home to loved ones, instead being faced with a hotel room on my own with no friends to talk to as there could be a time difference.

I would definitely embrace a new work opportunity that could benefit my career, I know I am bored of my role now but maybe if I spend a bit more time looking for a more suitable post, that could involve some travel (20%) instead of the majority of my time being travel based.

I always looked at those in suits and carrying laptops on flights and thought this looks like fun, I wonder where they are off to. I would chat to anyone and enjoy building up contacts but maybe a bit more thought before choosing a new venture is the best step for me at the minute

So basically you've just thrown my advice down the sh1tter.

Trust me, this is the last time I ever supply you with any quality guidance.

Enjoy being a working stiff for the next 40 years!

Gone West

I own an applewatch wrote: »

So basically you've just thrown my advice down the sh1tter.

Trust me, this is the last time I ever supply you with any quality guidance.

Enjoy being a working stiff for the next 40 years!

Either trolling or you have some serious control issues there, friend.

I own an applewatch

Fuzzy wrote: »

Either trolling or you have some serious control issues there, friend.

I was merely voicing my disappointment that the' one-week-in-Benidorm-sun-holiday-with stupid-kids-and-frumpy-wife' brigade won out over my sage advice.

Hey ho...

I own an applewatch

I was merely voicing my disappointment that the' one-week-in-Benidorm-sun-holiday-with stupid-kids-and-frumpy-wife' brigade won out over my sage advice.

Hey ho...

jive

Fuzzy wrote: »

Grab a taxi in Dublin... "oh no receipts, sorry" (aka taxi driver doesn't like to pay tax).
Grab a light rail in the USA... might not have a price printed on ticket.
Grab a late night meal somewhere... no till, no receipts
Tipping in the USA 15%-20% on nearly everything. Usually not reimbursable. (Does your maid leave you a receipt? And yes, you're supposed to tip em!).
How many bottles of $6.50 hotel-water are too many on your expenses?
And simply losing or forgetting receipts.

Believe me, the €8k raise would be lost in no time to receipt attrition with 80% travel.
It's actually a MASSIVE insult to just offer €8k per year as a raise considering that amount of business travel to the USA. What would an equivalent employee cost in the states?

Edit: My position for clarity:
Location independent remote worker, but with 8-10 business trips to the USA/Asia/EUR per year.

You're doing it wrong. Learn to travel better and expense properly. You should never end up in the red when travelling for business purposes, you are working unsociable hours for no extra pay on behalf of your company; I've never heard of anyone get called up on claiming tips. Tips are reimbursable in every travel policy for every company I've ever worked in.

Travel policies are essentially rule out a few things (entertainment, classes of travel, etc.) while stating everything else is reimbursable, within reason.

hardCopy

jive wrote: »

You're doing it wrong. Learn to travel better and expense properly. You should never end up in the red when travelling for business purposes, you are working unsociable hours for no extra pay on behalf of your company; I've never heard of anyone get called up on claiming tips. Tips are reimbursable in every travel policy for every company I've ever worked in.

Travel policies are essentially rule out a few things (entertainment, classes of travel, etc.) while stating everything else is reimbursable, within reason.

The place I worked had a self-certifiable expense form. In recognition that some receipts inevitably get lost. If you lost a high value receipt it had to be countersigned by a manager, really big ones needed a senior executive and a good explanation but you were never expected to take the hit.

Any taxi driver I ever met who issued hand written receipts would usually throw you a block of ten receipts and ask you to fill them in yourself. I kept the spares for the odd time I lost one.

Printed receipts usually have a box to fill in a tip amount which I never had difficulty claiming.

I also got a €60 unvouched per diem for every night I spent away which more than covered the cost of meals and incidentals.

Gone West

hardCopy wrote: »

The place I worked had a self-certifiable expense form. In recognition that some receipts inevitably get lost. If you lost a high value receipt it had to be countersigned by a manager, really big ones needed a senior executive and a good explanation but you were never expected to take the hit.

Any taxi driver I ever met who issued hand written receipts would usually throw you a block of ten receipts and ask you to fill them in yourself. I kept the spares for the odd time I lost one.

Printed receipts usually have a box to fill in a tip amount which I never had difficulty claiming.

I also got a €60 unvouched per diem for every night I spent away which more than covered the cost of meals and incidentals.

I wasn't talking about my individual situation, just giving examples of how just an €8k raise could be swallowed up considering 292 days travel per year. The extremely small raise also shows that the company is probably also very tight on expenses.
I get 20/35/65 un-vouched for 3 meals daily which easily covers the incidentals, so I don't lose out personally.

BTW, work for Germans and try to claim un-receipted tips (my example was money left for the maids) or taxi receipts in your own handwriting and see how far you get.

Borzoi

Fuzzy wrote: »

BTW, work for Germans and try to claim un-receipted tips (my example was money left for the maids) or taxi receipts in your own handwriting and see how far you get.

Former colleague of mine got the bullet for expenses issues. EAT agreed with the company. Hand written receipts are not worth your job.

Other company had the PACE system - Pished Away, Can't Explain

jimmycrackcorm

Fuzzy wrote:

Tipping in the USA 15%-20% on nearly everything. Usually not reimbursable. (Does your maid leave you a receipt? And yes, you're supposed to tip em!). How many bottles of $6.50 hotel-water are too many on your expenses? .

You seem to be obsessed with maids :-) but I had an extended stay on a trip in the US and I asked the hotel to write out a receipt specifically for me to detail tips. It was accepted by my employer because it cannot really be argued that you can stay over there and not tip.

If I had tried to make a claim for $6.50 water my manager would have asked why the hotel room didn't have a sink...