JClishe

True, but the time to think about this is while you're interviewing for the position in the first place. You should be asking questions about how many hours are in a typical work week and whether or not that includes travel, and take that into consideration that as part of the overall compensation negotiation.

If you accept a position based on a 40 hour week plus 8-10 hours of travel, than obviously you already have thought about that in relation to your pay otherwise you wouldn't have accepted the position in the first place. The only way your salary would ever be effectively reduced in this type of situation is if you are forced into a different position or the expectations of your current role changes and you aren't able to re-negotiate your salary.

goalie

my two hockey pucks are that it's my own time as it's a commute and i don't get paid to commute nor do i do work when i'm driving to work and as such, i won't do it on a plane.

sbm12

<mod>
I'm going to move this over to the TravelBuzz forum where it is a bit more pertinent as it isn't particularly technology related.
</mod>

Athena53

That's my practice, roughly. When I go to India I spend the better part of a weekend on the plane (MCI-ORD-LHR and then LHR-BLR). When I'm not sleeping or eating/drinking, I watch movies, read books and listen to music without the least bit of guilt. On shorter hops it's tough to be productive in Coach, but I'll transcribe my hand-written notes or start on reports. I do the same in airline clubs on long layovers if there's work that needs doing. My company doesn't pay for airline club membership but it greatly improves my productivity! I once paid $50 for a DL day membership because I had 4 hours to go before my flight. (Meeting ended early and shared a cab with a co-worker who had an earlier plane.) I got a lot of work done before I declared it quitting time and enjoyed a few glasses of wine.

Athena53

Overpriced and my computer battery won't last more than 1.5 hours or so, anyway. I refuse to carry a spare- I get hassled enough by over-zealous TSA agents as it is with my current collection of electronic widgets. I bring work I can do without a connection. I'd consider free Wi-Fi a plus so I could use my iPod Touch, till it ran out of power.

deniah

for my situation, traveling more often for projects, training, and conferences, than for same-day meetings, it is mostly personal time. also our general policy is that flying day is travel day -- its an act to show up to an office for 2 hours of face time.

of course for many "work time" is almost inseparable from "personal time". i get some reading, reviewing, and production in sometimes onboard or in lounges... but its quite rare and its a difficult environment to do so

CMK10

At my last job my meter starting running as soon as I left my house and wasn't turned off until I reached the hotel/my home/office. Therefore, I always considered my time onboard company time as they were paying me. I'd dress for it (even if I wasn't seeing any clients or colleagues that day) and made a point to spend some of the flight working.

However, my Father who works as a lawyer, only gets to bill hours (and therefore get paid) if he's specifically working on the client's material. Based on that, he considers it to be his time.

gglave

If I'm travelling on business during work hours it's 'company time' but generally I don't work on airplanes. It's not that I'm not willing to, it's that I can't. I'm 6'3, always travel in economy, and 75% of the time the seat in front of me is in full-recline, so there's no way I can work on my laptop - I can barely open a paperback book.

If I'm giving a presentation I might review a printout of it, or read some documents or similar, but that's about it. I will work at the airport prior to departure if I have time - My home airport (YVR) has free WiFi so that's a huge help.

No value - As I said, I can't open or use my laptop (Dell Latitude E6400) in economy so WiFi is neither here nor there.

Athena53

One thing I try to do when all else fails (in Coach seat during business hours, brain is fried) is listen to industry podcasts. I can also get into into news podcasts in French, German or Spanish, all of which are languages I can use on the job. (Well, OK, the guys in the Zurich office don't sound like the German newscasters but it helps.)

I used to work for a consulting firm and did a fair amount of flying back and forth. If there was nothing billable I could do on the plane, I always made sure to stack up on business-related things to make and do, especially for the early-AM EWR-DFW runs. I logged the time as non-billable but was generally reading industry periodicals or whatever else I could do to maximize business-related work while en route.

Phipps

Our firm tracks travel time for internal metrics, however we aren't expected to work on the plane. A lot of that stems from privacy concerns - even with screen guards it's pretty easy for others to see what you're working on. Both clients and our firm feel it's important to keep this sensitive information private, which makes sense to me.

Non-NonRev

Not criticizing, just curious: Was this because of the idea that you might meet or interact with present or (potential) future clients?

In my past job, I worked with several IBMers who told me that business dress on flights was required for this reason, even if they had no meetings or business functions on the day of travel. The idea was that they were an "ambassador" for the company while in that public setting.

Redhead

I generally never work on the plane. I may sometimes work in the lounge. I tend to fall asleep on planes or my mind just goes blahhhh so even if I tried to work, I'd be ineffective. I also do a lot of international travel on weekends so I'm ready to work on Monday morning so I am giving up my personal free time to travel

Finite Elephant

My company's policy for exempt employees is that time spent traveling outside normal business hours can't be recorded unless:

1. The travel is by car and you're actually driving.
2. You're actually working on something while traveling.
3. You have special dispensation (never happens).

There's been some debate (verging on the theological) among the rank and file about this policy when applied to trips crossing multiple time zones. Note that company policy calls for travel in Y within North America and even sometimes overseas (upgrades are on you, of course), so airborne productivity is limited.

thedoorchick

Interesting. There have been times when I had to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight home, from a more-eastern time zone, so I was all the more tired. I rolled out of bed, threw on some jeans, brushed my teeth, put on a hat and got on the plane.

Our policy is you can only charge travel time if it is is required to complete an 8 hour day. For example, if you arrive somewhere at noon and work till 7 p.m. you charge one hour to travel. Otherwise is is not recorded. There's no expectation of working on the plane although I often do. As others have mentioned, it's a good time to prune old emails and other mindless tasks.

CMK10

My reasoning was also that I was an ambassador of my company and if they were paying for me to travel, I wanted to look the part. Plus I take after my Father whose motto is "it's very hard to be overdressed".