Originally Posted by
bitterproffit
But I also recognize how difficult it was to sometimes travel for work especially when you didn't want to. There is a lot of powerlessness in business travel as well. You are going where you have to go, not where you want to go. And I think that powerlessness makes most of us want to then try to control what we can, and that is our personal space, or our temporary domicile, or our seat. That might be what is often behind the DYKWIA attitude; a need to control what you can, because you are not in control of so much else.
Now, when I travel, its for choice. And I look at the people around me who are acting in the way to OP describes, I usually just feel sorry for them. Oh, you are going to Berlin for a meeting? Nice. While you are in that meeting, I might be practicing FKK in the Tiergarten. So enjoy your high powered business meeting. I'm going to enjoy this book, a bottle of beer, and a nice ham sandwich in the sun.
Nice post. I have never traveled for business, my field doesn't travel, we have no extra money. But I often kinda feel for these people, discussing numbers and sales goals all the time, racing around glued to their cell phones. I recently sat in a hotel restaurant in London on leisure travel and a table of business travelers was to my left. They talked about some every day matters and then began discussing their panic attacks. When they started, when they get them, how often. All about work and mostly around travel. There were four people at the table and they ALL reported on their attacks. Sad, really.