The life of a road warrior seems so glamorous to those who aren’t living it. I laugh now when someone says “I wish I could travel as much as you.” Many assume that road warriors are staying at 5-star hotels, traveling first class, eating at fancy restaurants and living off an expense account. That might be the road life for a lucky few (and I do mean lucky) but the majority of road warriors aren’t living high on the horse.
For everyone who has ever said “I wish I had your job” here’s what you’re really missing:
Eating:
- Eating alone gets really boring
- Eating healthy is really challenging when you’re eating 3 meals a day in restaurants/hotels and have to stick to a per diem. Often times I found myself spending a lot of money out of pocket (except when I was in Thailand.)
- The first things friends say when you get home from a long trip is “lets go out for dinner.” That’s the last thing you want to hear after you’ve eaten the last 10, 20 or 30 meals in a restaurant.
Hotels:
- Trying to find hotels within a per diem limit can be very challenging. I would often spend my own personal time negotiating with hotels or scouring the internet for a rate at my preferred hotel that would allow me to stay within per diem.
- Sometimes you’re required to stay in a specific hotel and sometimes those hotels are awful and unless you were physically unsafe, there wan’t much you could do about it (other than pray you didn’t get bed bugs.) I have such horrible memories of a Microtel Inn in Mississippi.
- Living out of a suitcase is not easy and depending on the length of a trip, can be really challenging. I am not sure if men feel the same way, but being limited to 4 or 5 outfits on a month long trip is not easy. I would wash clothes every 4-5 days and by the end of the trip I would find myself saying “ugh, I don’t want to wear that again.”
Travel:
- I wish I knew what companies were paying for people to fly in first class/business class – none of the road warriors I know fly first on their companies dime.
- Everyone assumes I have tons and tons of frequent flyer miles and they’re usually shocked when I tell them I currently have about 40,000 miles. I used my miles to upgrade from coach to business class for all of my international flights. In the first 4 months of 2014 I flew from New York to Hong Kong, and back, twice. From New York to Melbourne, Australia, and back, once and from New York to Perth, and back, once. Upgrading was the only way I could spend that much time on a plane.
- Travel can make you sick – physically sick. The more time I spent on airplanes the more often I got sick. It wasn’t until I became compulsive about cleaning my seat, tray table, etc… that I started to avoid getting sick.
- I can’t tell you how many colleagues who are new to frequent international travel I’ve had this conversation with: Colleague, “can I ask you a gross question?” Me, ” sure.” Colleague, “do you get nose bleeds after long flights?” Me, “yes, welcome to the glamorous life of an international road warrior.” The more frequently I flew, the more frequent the nose bleeds became. My doctor said it was a side effect of the very dry air in the airplane cabins (though you should consult with a doctor of your own because this is not medical advice.)
- Speaking of doctors, unless you’re incredibly ill and practically on your death bed, you go to work. You can’t tell a client who flew you half-way around the world that you can’t work because you don’t feel well. Being sick on the road just plain sucks. (In fact, the reason I became loyal, and remain loyal, to Starwood is because of how they treated me when I was really, really sick at one of their hotels. I’ll save that story for another post.)
Entertaining:
- Sure, there are some times when it’s fun to be social on the road. An occasional trip to the theatre or very fancy dinner out is fun, but night after night, it’s exhausting. You have to be “on” all day with clients so it can be hard to be “on” all night as well. Most nights I just wanted to crash.
- I wasn’t a tourist when I was on business – unless I stayed the weekend or extended the trip. Its funny how people assume that because you’re doing business in a city that you’ll also see all the popular attractions. That is so far from the truth. I had about 3 hours to “tour” Perth and I’m sure there were dozens of things I missed. I was “lucky” enough to spend plenty of weekends in some places while I spent very little time in others.
While it may seem glamorous from the outside, it’s really not from the inside. Glamorous Life Of A Road Warrior – the fictional account of a road warriors’ travels – that sounds like a great title for a tell all book! Maybe that will be my next adventure – the glamorous life of an author.
What are your experiences as a road warrior?