Independent research commissioned by CWT has shown that the two biggest worries that affect frequent business travelers across the world are homelife deterioration and putting pressure on colleagues.
When it comes to their personal life, 22 percent believe their business travel commitments erode the quality of their relationships and homelife. Whilst 21 precent worry their families think they prefer traveling for work more than their day-to-day homelife responsibilities.
On the professional side, 22 percent feel guilty that their colleagues have to bear the load of their work whilst absent, 21 percnet stress over spending too much time with coworkers or clients, and 14 percent are concerned about the difficulty of staying in touch with people in their main office.
“Even though the same research reveals that business travelers feel that positives outweigh negatives at work (92%) and at home (82%) when traveling for business, companies need to be aware of the concerns that business travelers face and help to address them head-on,” said Catherine Maguire-Vielle, CWT’s EVP and chief human resources officer, in a written statement. “Relationships are a fundamental part of a person’s wellbeing and companies have the obligation to ensure their employees’ travels are not jeopardizing them at home or in the office.”
When looking at regional differences amongst frequent business travelers, Americans are in general the biggest worriers versus their European and Asia Pacific counterparts.
Twenty-six percent of Americans believe their home and personal relationships suffer versus 23 percent of Europeans and 18 percent of Asia Pacific travelers. Twenty-three percent of Americans claim that spending too much time with co-workers or clients on the road can be stressful versus the same percentage of Europeans and 19 percent of Asia Pacific travelers. Twenty-two percent of Americans are concerned that their families think they enjoy traveling for work more than their day-to-day homelife responsibilities versus 17 percent of Europeans and 23 percent of travelers from Asia Pacific.
That said, Americans are less concerned about the difficulty of staying in touch with people in their main office (13 percent versus 14 percent of Europeans and Asia Pacific travelers) and coworkers picking up the slack (16 percent versus 25 percent of Asia Pacific travelers and 24 percent of Europeans).
Generational Differences
Boomers in Asia Pacific and Europe are more likely to say that home and personal relationships suffer when they travel. However, in the Americas, Gen X travelers take the lead.
Gen X travelers are also most worried about colleagues picking up the slack. They scored the highest percentage in the three regions.
Millennials score higher than the two other generations in every region when it comes to being concerned about their families believing that they enjoy traveling for work more than their day-to-day home life and responsibilities, and about the difficulty of staying in touch with people in their main office.
When it comes to the stress caused by spending too much time with coworkers or clients on the road, generational differences vary in every region. In Asia Pacific Millennials come first; in the Americas, Boomers and, in Europe, Gen X and Boomers are even.
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