Longest Business trip?

[sam_gordon]

Curious what's the longest you've been away from home for business? I've done four weeks a couple times in my younger days, but might have a five week trip (five different cities in four different states) in October.

Yes, I'm married (if I was single, it's an easier decision, but more logistics to figure out).

 

[SirDuff]

I’ve done a couple of two month secondments. But, single, so, as you note, much easier.

 

[kdonnel]

My longest is a week. I have done that three or four times.

I have not traveled often for work. Maybe a dozen times in 30 years of working.

 

[EACarlson]

Longest so far is a week. This year I've done M-F once, M-Th once, Fri-Sun a half dozen times, one Thu-Sun and a Tu-Mo. I've got a Fri-Sun this week, a Wed-Mon next month left this year, with a possibility of a Wed-Mon in November.

 

[Moliphino]

About a week. I did Saturday-Thursday for a Guam trip, including travel (outbound flight left 6am Saturday morning and arrived in Guam early Monday morning). I spent every other week in Dallas one summer when we were doing environmental testing at a lab down there.

 

[Simba's Mom]

DH used to travel internationally a lot for business. Usually it was for 2 weeks at a time, every 2-3 months, leaving me and our 2 young boys (and this was in the days before cell phones and face time). Rarely, he went for 3 weeks. One entire year, he was a week home, a week at a new plant to arrange equipment, etc. At the end of the year, we were offered the chance to move to where the new plant was. I didn't want to move, but it meant no more traveling for DH. I really feel bad for those whose husbands travel a lot.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

Eight weeks.

 

[Dan Murphy]

4 days, tops.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

DH & I travel most of the time for his job. The longest we've been away at one time was four months in the summer of 2022.

 

[JaxDad]

Do military deployments count? If not, probably 6-8 weeks for training stuff.

 

[Genie+]

36 days straight of mostly 10 hour days. Fortunately my limit was just beyond that. Knowing it was almost over got me through those last couple days. Boy was I glad to come home.

 

[tvguy]

I did two, two week trips over 40 years ago. I was single, 22 years old, and it was new and exciting. A year later, the pattern changed, and over a three month period I was out of town at least one day a week, some weeks two days, and a couple of weeks I made three out of town trips. I was needed to work out of town but also needed to work back in the office so I shuttled back and forth to Los Angeles, an hour flight with seven cases of equipment. That got very old very fast.

I have posted before that I wonder in this Zoom age why many business trips are even necessary. And I know many people have responded that they feel a face to face meeting is still preferred. However, this past weekend I was visiting my son and daughter in law and my DIL had an interesting chat about that. She lives in Los Angeles and has worked the past 18 months for a company in New York. Her job is completely remote She has never been to her "office", never met the person the hired her, or any of her supervisors. She had never met the clients she represents. There are two other co-workers in Southern California, and they got together once, on their own time. The company has said maybe some day they will fly them to New York, but the boss says he's not sure it's worth the $5,000 per person for air fare, hotel and ground transportation and that doing that wouldn't improve their operations.

 

[nene0182]

The longest has been 5 days. I’ll be gone for 4 days next week.

 

[YachtClubWoman]

10 days

 

[StageTek]

5 months away. 2 weeks home. 4 months away.

 

[disneychrista]

2 days, one night. Never been in a job that really had much travel involved.

 

[EACarlson]

I have posted before that I wonder in this Zoom age why many business trips are even necessary. And I know many people have responded that they feel a face to face meeting is still preferred.

I'll tell you the rationale for all of mine. Two of my trips were professional conferences that gets more work done and connections made during the not actually part of the conference time. If I was walking away from my computer for breaks and lunch, I wouldn't have the contacts I need to help me get things done. The rest of my trips were for my side job as a sports official, that is still something that can't be done by Zoom. And finally, I have a meeting with a large client today in the office, they flew in to rural Wisconsin from Cincinnati to address many issues and questions at once, and that is their preference. As long as the clients want to meet face to face, we'll meet face to face. Almost all company paid travel is gone, only if the clients are paying.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Many years ago when I was teaching, they sent me to a "training" for a week (during the summer). It was at a college, a couple hours from home. It was to learn about AP (Advanced Placement) classes. The plus side was they paid me mileage, put me up in my own hotel room for a week and gave me a food stipend.

 

[The Mayor]

I did three week trips a quite few time over the years when I worked. It was always to tie in trips to China, India and Korea so I didn’t have to do them individually. Being a married father of two children made it hard to be away that long but it was better than having to break it up into three different trips.

 

[soccerdad72]

In terms of length of time, 10 or 11 days. Three countries in S. America (Chile, Argentina and Brazil).

In terms of distance - a couple trips to Singapore.

All of this was after I was married, but before we had kids. My wife was 6 months pregnant when I was on my last international trip to Singapore (the company shifted directions after that trip).