Sharing hotel rooms with coworkers?

[DisneyFan32WI]

I'd poop in the hotel lobby's public bathroom.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I'm a salaried professional for a corporation, albeit a small one. I've had to do everything from unclogging toilets to trapping raccoons as part of my job LOL

 

[NHdisneylover]

I'd poop in the hotel lobby's public bathroom.

Lot of hotels in Europe, especially smaller one in remote factor locations, don'T have them. Tiny lobbies which are just a check in desk with nowhere to sit, no bathrooms, etc are quite common and these are often the nicest (or only) hotels in the area.

Once again, the type of work, frequency of travel and I guess even places you are travel to are factors in how corporate provided rooms and room sharing plays out.

 

[tvguy]

In discussing the original topic, having to share a hotel room with a co-worker, with my co-workers, the sharing a hotel room was secondary to the question "Why do people need to travel anymore?" With Skype and Go To Meeting and all the other software, most every reason for traveling is gone. You can do a face to face meeting at your desk.

 

[JoeA]

In discussing the original topic, having to share a hotel room with a co-worker, with my co-workers, the sharing a hotel room was secondary to the question "Why do people need to travel anymore?" With Skype and Go To Meeting and all the other software, most every reason for traveling is gone. You can do a face to face meeting at your desk.

Technology is a good supplement but you'll never replace the good old fashion face-to-face meeting and then the extra "value" of lunch/dinner, IMO.

 

[sam_gordon]

In discussing the original topic, having to share a hotel room with a co-worker, with my co-workers, the sharing a hotel room was secondary to the question "Why do people need to travel anymore?" With Skype and Go To Meeting and all the other software, most every reason for traveling is gone. You can do a face to face meeting at your desk.

I've never been on a company trip (overnight) to simply meet with someone. All the trips required being at that location for an event.

I guess all of your reporters just do their stories by Skyping and GoToMeeting?

 

[tvguy]

I've never been on a company trip (overnight) to simply meet with someone. All the trips required being at that location for an event.

I guess all of your reporters just do their stories by Skyping and GoToMeeting?

Skype and satellites are a tool we use frequently. Did a Live Skype Friday with the guy behind the Oscar Goodie bags, and Skyped with Erin Brockovich last month. That allows us to get interviews that we wouldn't normally get. A few of those in the past we might have traveled to get, but technology makes travel unnecessary.
Sort of like NAB, we don't even send anyone anymore. All the managers used to go. Now, they expect those vendors to come to us and setup their equipment at our location to demo it. Sony does it all the time with their ELC system, and Live U send a rep and left a demo unit for us to use for a month before we decided to buy it.

 

[NHdisneylover]

In discussing the original topic, having to share a hotel room with a co-worker, with my co-workers, the sharing a hotel room was secondary to the question "Why do people need to travel anymore?" With Skype and Go To Meeting and all the other software, most every reason for traveling is gone. You can do a face to face meeting at your desk.

Even for normal meetings and conferences, there can be real value in getting everyone in the same place. DH has often said that the biggest benefits to come out of a meeting or conference are almost always unexpected/unplanned things that happens in the breaks--when people's minds are on the topics at hand and they end up chatting more casually with others they may not even have thought to connect with had they not both happened to be grabbing coffee at the same time. He intentionally schedules breaks to be long enough to generate good conversations but not so long as to encourage people to leave the immediate area, to facilitate those types of conversations and connections.

But most of DH's travel is not really for meetings or interviews. Many people travel for things like installations, to see a factory first hand to get a clear grasp of what is happening there (not just how the top management in the factory perceive it, etc).

 

[DawnM]

Dh's firm does this for lower level employees. Managers can get their own rooms.

 

[tvguy]

Even for normal meetings and conferences, there can be real value in getting everyone in the same place. DH has often said that the biggest benefits to come out of a meeting or conference are almost always unexpected/unplanned things that happens in the breaks--when people's minds are on the topics at hand and they end up chatting more casually with others they may not even have thought to connect with had they not both happened to be grabbing coffee at the same time. He intentionally schedules breaks to be long enough to generate good conversations but not so long as to encourage people to leave the immediate area, to facilitate those types of conversations and connections.

But most of DH's travel is not really for meetings or interviews. Many people travel for things like installations, to see a factory first hand to get a clear grasp of what is happening there (not just how the top management in the factory perceive it, etc).

Certainly something to consider. I know some of our equipment (software/hardware) it is always a struggle to upgrade. The vendor sends a new person, who, at first asks us why we have the hardware/software setup in a "non-standard" way......then backs off when he discovers that we don't even have the password to change anything.....only his company techs do. Then spends most of the time allocated to do the upgrade just getting the old setup working property before he can START the upgrade. So it would be nice if they sent the same person each time.

 

[sam_gordon]

In discussing the original topic, having to share a hotel room with a co-worker, with my co-workers, the sharing a hotel room was secondary to the question "Why do people need to travel anymore?" With Skype and Go To Meeting and all the other software, most every reason for traveling is gone. You can do a face to face meeting at your desk.

Now, they expect those vendors to come to us and setup their equipment at our location to demo it.

Certainly something to consider. I know some of our equipment (software/hardware) it is always a struggle to upgrade. The vendor sends a new person, who, at first asks us why we have the hardware/software setup in a "non-standard" way......then backs off when he discovers that we don't even have the password to change anything.....only his company techs do. Then spends most of the time allocated to do the upgrade just getting the old setup working property before he can START the upgrade. So it would be nice if they sent the same person each time.

So at first you say people don't need to take trips, because everything can be done electronically, then you (your bosses) expect someone to travel to you. So SOME travel is needed?

 

[Minniesgal]

In discussing the original topic, having to share a hotel room with a co-worker, with my co-workers, the sharing a hotel room was secondary to the question "Why do people need to travel anymore?" With Skype and Go To Meeting and all the other software, most every reason for traveling is gone. You can do a face to face meeting at your desk.

We use video conference and the equivalent of Skype all the time but some technical situations need face to face working together.

Also when you work with another company as part of your job you need to build a working relationship with your peers and the only way to do that is face to face. I'm part of a joint venture and we have to have a working relationship to get access to the information we need simply requesting it does not work.

 

[tvguy]

So at first you say people don't need to take trips, because everything can be done electronically, then you (your bosses) expect someone to travel to you. So SOME travel is needed?

We don't pay for travel of vendors selling us stuff. And that would not be my local bosses making that decision anyway, that was all corporate.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

In discussing the original topic, having to share a hotel room with a co-worker, with my co-workers, the sharing a hotel room was secondary to the question "Why do people need to travel anymore?" With Skype and Go To Meeting and all the other software, most every reason for traveling is gone. You can do a face to face meeting at your desk.

In my career, the industries I've been in have spent the bulk of their travel budget on the sales staff & I don't see that travel going away anytime soon.

Now, "my" travel has typically been production related. I don't believe we could have cut out those trips entirely, but we could have taken a smaller staff on occasion.

 

[sam_gordon]

We don't pay for travel of vendors selling us stuff. And that would not be my local bosses making that decision anyway, that was all corporate.

I think you missed my point. You can't say "travel isn't needed, do it all electronically" and then say "we expect people to come to us". It's not a matter of who pays. Either (some) travel is necessary or it's not.

 

[kamik86]

My company now has less travel as we did just get a secure Video conferencing room. Before then we had alot of travel just for meetings because of things that were not allowed to be discussed over a phone line.

Now most of the travel is for things like installations of equipment, testing of things that can't be done in the lab (some of the items are location specific It could work 100% and if you moved it two feet need to be completely retuned), and inspections of what is already in the locations where we will be installing (because if we leave it up to the people that work there they will forget to mention that large item in the corner we can't move that is in the way of all our stuff).

One trend I did notice on this thread. It seems most that have shared rooms for large companies did so for conferences. My company attends these occasionally but they are the bottom of the barrel when it comes to travel funding, all the direct contract stuff gets to go first. Also the conferences are generally company paid as a benefit to us more then to the company. So I could see being told we had to share for those or pay to stay in our own room.

Most everything else is specifically scheduled around major items in the area if there are any. So we do our best not to do these activities when the hotels are all full.

 

[nkereina]

Technology is a good supplement but you'll never replace the good old fashion face-to-face meeting and then the extra "value" of lunch/dinner, IMO.

True. But if a company's budget is walking the line to the point where employees now have to bunk together, wouldn't it make more sense to either send one employee and/or take advantage of video conferencing? For the employees' morale/sanity, for the sake of the bottom line, and to be competitive with other companies that likely don't have such a weird travel policy.

 

[JoeA]

True. But if a company's budget is walking the line to the point where employees now have to bunk together, wouldn't it make more sense to either send one employee and/or take advantage of video conferencing? For the employees' morale/sanity, for the sake of the bottom line, and to be competitive with other companies that likely don't have such a weird travel policy.

Which is why I said it's a good supplement and didn't say it's worthless.

 

[sam_gordon]

True. But if a company's budget is walking the line to the point where employees now have to bunk together, wouldn't it make more sense to either send one employee and/or take advantage of video conferencing? For the employees' morale/sanity, for the sake of the bottom line, and to be competitive with other companies that likely don't have such a weird travel policy.

As has been said multiple times in this thread, some employees don't have a problem sharing a room. So asking some to do so wouldn't affect their morale or sanity. Yes, I know others have said it would, but it's not a forgone conclusion.

 

[nkereina]

As has been said multiple times in this thread, some employees don't have a problem sharing a room. So asking some to do so wouldn't affect their morale or sanity. Yes, I know others have said it would, but it's not a forgone conclusion.

And has also been said many times, the people who have no qualms about sharing a room are in the minority. A company should be concerned about the morale/comfort of the employees from a majority perspective. If the majority of employees would have a problem with it, then it would indeed affect morale and sanity.