Originally Posted by
B747-437B
2 flights, 17 hours total each way, plus 5 hours at connecting point. Back-to-back redeye flights. 1 day at destination and then redeye flights back.
In addition, I am returning about 8 hours earlier from another trip, so it would be 3 consecutive nights on planes for me and 5 out of 7 nights by the time we return.
I've had a chance to discuss further with some of my colleagues and am leaning towards a course of action, but am keen to see any more feedback. I'm meeting the Chairman later this evening so I will put the matter to rest one way or the other before tomorrow.
To me, it comes down to this:
As the person who has the say so, if an employee came to you with that same itinerary (22hours travel, 1 day doing work, 22 hours travel - plus whatever the prior and subsequent trips are), not with shareholders / chairman, what would your answer be? Personally, I think it is unreasonable to expect anyone to do that, but I know sometimes we all have to suck it up - long term tho, if that happens a lot, you are going to end up with high turnover / sick employees.
I used to work somewhere with a pretty tight travel policy, and there were times when the trip was worthy of an exception to the policy (such as one of our managers, who lived in Asia, travelling to NA headquarters). Our mandated 'cheapest fare' had him dancing all around the houses, in shorter segments (which meant under the threshold for business class). I would always approve a non-stop flight in business for him.
If you are fair to others, and reasonable when they come to you with similar exceptions, I don't see that rules have to be unmovable.