What is your company's policy about weekend travel / home?
 

I'm looking for some people who frequently travel to a single destination for over a week at a time. I'm interested in knowning what your corporation's policy is regarding weekend travel home. Do they provide return travel home every weekend? Or every other weekend? what is the norm for US-based companies?

I'm also interested in whether you normally travel on weekends (especially Sunday), or instead spend Monday/Friday travelling.

For domestic US travel we can either:

A. Fly home every weekend
B. Travel somewhere else over the weekend
C. Fly someone else out for the weekend / stay over

The only limitation to B & C is that it can't cost more than it would be to travel home, otherwise it's paid out of pocket.

We have to be at the destination mid-morning on Monday, if we can accomplish this leaving Monday great, otherwise some travel on Sunday may be required.

It depends. Some of our project based staff only come home every week. Some, it's once a month. I did a two year weekly commute where I went out Sunday night or Monday morning and returned Thursday night or Friday morning. The Thursday option was better, so I could be in my own bed Thursday night, work from home Friday, and be off work at 5pm Friday already at home.

Many companies do not set an overall corporate policy and leave it up to the individual discretion of department/section managers or directors.

I think that this is fairest, because different departments have different needs (for example, trainers don't always have the option to work on a client site at night or off-hours, which technical consultants often do). It works well if the boss takes an approach where the travelling employee will be "made whole" for working or travelling during times that are normally time off.

I was lucky to have bosses that always ensured, through the use of comp time and other methods, that "it all came out in the wash" - that is, that the situation was beneficial to all sides- employee, company, and client. These enlightened managers understood that an exhausted, frustrated travelling employee was an asset to no one.

Work for a Big 4 accounting firm. We try to limit travel to leave on Monday morning and return home on last flight Thursday night. It doesn't always work out, especially when having to take transcon flights.

I'm also at a Big 4 firm and although we have a policy that allows for the flying home or bringing someone else out if you choose not to go home, its really all project-dependent.

For example, I've had projects where I've flown NYC-Seattle on Sunday night and returned Friday morning, which meant all day Friday was spent traveling. Had I wanted to bring someone out to me, I would have been able to do so no problem, as the refundable ticket (then) was about $1200, more than enough to cover a couple nights and some non-refundable travel for my guest.

Once the project is international, things get a bit more murky. There's no way you're going to be able to come home from Asia every week, even if the company was willing to pay. In cases like that, regional travel and other things are allowed.

Large consulting firm.

Same here. But B and C are taxable, so you end up paying 25-35% of the cost. If you stay at the project and don't fly anyone out, hotels & expenses up to normal travel costs are reimbursed.

1st flight out Monday, last flight out Thursday is "standard". Friday afternoon is common, Sunday less so.

We can return home after 21 consecutive days if domestic, 60 days if international. Travel is usually over a weekend.

I work for a Fortune 500 company, though our small division has some waivered policies, and I'm never sure which is Big Corporate and which is Little Corporate.

Our policy is travel home on the weekend for international travel, which is all I ever do. We can stay over the weekend if we want, if staying over is less than the airfare home.

Supposedly we have to wait 10 days before we're allowed to charge for laundry, which seems somewhat arbitrary to me. I usually go to the laundromat weekly while on travel, and it ends up being about five bucks, plus whatever dry-cleaning is.

that one sucks :(

DH works for a Fortune 500 company

1. Travel home every weekend ( the goal is out Mon back Thurs nite - but if transcon usually tranlates to out Sun back during day Fri)

2. He can go somewhere else if boss approves it.( never been turned down)

3. If he doesnt come home, they will pay for hotel but won't pay for me to fly out.

4. The unofficial target on domestic expenses is not to exceed 2K a week - he usually doesnt come close to spending that.

Yeah, it does. A little off topic, but does anyone have any experience with being relocated long-term? My company is sending me to Japan for over a year and offering trips home every 90 days in business class. Does this sound standard? Thanks.

That sounds like a pretty good deal. You might want to see if you can get the flexibility either to fly home every 90 days or fly a significant other or family member out to see you every 90 days (either business class for one, or economy class for more people, within the limit of the business class ticket).

Also, what kind of leave are you being offered for trips home? Being able to fly home once every 90 days doesn't do you much good if the time away is sucked out of a pathetic allotment of vacation days.

When I worked for a tax-funded international organization, we had 6 weeks' annual leave (plus 10 stat holidays plus the week between Christmas and Jan 1), plus 2 weeks' home leave every other year. I would think that for a one-year expat assignment, you should be given at least an additional 2 weeks' leave (on top of a decent vacation entitlement like 4 weeks) for trips home.

The flexibility you mention is actually already part of the policy. As far as leave, I have to use my vacation days (16 days/yr), or go into work. Unfortunately, I will not be traveling back to my work location on my trips home, so I have to use vacation time. I'm single and new to KS, so I go back to TN to visit my family and friends there. I do get Japanese holidays, and there will be about 25 of those, compared to the 12 I get now.

I'm self employed, but my contracts always stipulate that after 30 consecutive days out of town, I fly home for a minimum of 7 days. Domestic or international. I'm happy with that.