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Business Travel Stress, Defined
Time lost when a traveler might be working but instead has to stand in a security line can add stress. Thinking "If I was in the office right now, I could be doing something productive" adds more stress.
Surprises caused by an unscheduled event that disrupts travel is another. Major storms with a cascading effect on airports not even in the affected area commonly add "Will I make my connection?" stress.
Routine breakers that cause an inability to stick to regularly scheduled home activities count too. Activities that are easy to do at home like exercising, watching television or surfing the web add stress when not done on the road.
The biggest stress factor of all? Lost Luggage.
"Losing one's baggage requires replacing the lost content, often in a short space of time. This presents multiple uncertainties under tight deadlines, which produced considerable stress," Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) said in an Executive Travel article.
Coming in at number two on the list of 33 possible stress triggers was being without an Internet connection, or having an unreliable one. Third place was having to fly in coach on a medium or long-haul trip, followed by flight delays, inconvenient arrival or departure times, having to stay in a low-category hotel, inconvenient hotel locations, and last-minute travel.
[Photo Credit: Flickr user Samuel Rönnqvist]
Coming in at number two on the list of 33 possible stress triggers was being without an Internet connection, or having an unreliable one. Third place was having to fly in coach on a medium or long-haul trip, followed by flight delays, inconvenient arrival or departure times, having to stay in a low-category hotel, inconvenient hotel locations, and last-minute travel.
[Photo Credit: Flickr user Samuel Rönnqvist]
Filed under: Business, North America, United States
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Henry Oct 29th 2012 2:53PM
In our business we struggle with travel stress a lot. We try to make traveling easy and stress free (especially for first time travelers. We feel that if we can group our participants on our trips together, and provide them with a good first time travel experience that they will be more prone to want to travel and travel stress free. Thanks for the blog, great advice. Please feel free to check out our blog and what some of our trips are all about.- http://boldearthblog.com/
Thanks!
Avi Oct 30th 2012 2:24AM
According to a new study by a corporate travel agency, business travellers suffer especially keenly from stress. Using data gleaned from 6,000 travellers, Carlson Wagonlit Travel CWT.L found that unpleasant ‘surprises' like flight delays and luggage loss were the highest trigger of stress, especially for female travellers who were also more fazed by ‘routine breakers' like not being able to eat healthily.
However, women felt decidedly less stressed about flying economy than men.
CWT's "Travel Stress Index" also found that frequent fliers (over 30 trips per year) get most stressed from ‘lost time', with factors relating to the reimbursement of expenses, and from flying with a non-preferred airline, adding to their unease.
Because senior air warriors in particular travel so much, their stress levels have no time to drop before they set off on another trip. This is why, CWT says, there's a difference of four ‘stress points' between frequent travellers and occasional travellers.
While commending a study into a rarely examined issue, Cary L. Cooper, distinguished professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School, disputes the idea of specific stress triggers to travellers.
"When people are travelling, it's not just about bags and all the rest of it - it's about the whole process: Separation from your family for a period of time; the hassle of the airport; travelling ‘cattle class'; problems with hotels - it does accumulate up," he said by telephone.
"If I was looking at the impact of travel on my team of marketing people, I would also look at their sickness absence rates in contrast with others in different functions; their turnover rate; their performance appraisal compared to others."
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