pinworm

Anytime I am not at my house because of work, it is "work time"..but that doesn't mean I will actually DO work! It depends what I have to do and how pressed I am.

Aliquot

[QUOTE=JClishe;14202674]

Your comment was that since you're only on the plane because of work, that therefore plane time is work time. I disagree with that line of reasoning, and I was asking you where that line of reasoning stops. I'm only at the hotel becuase of work, so does that mean that hotel time is work time? Or do you consider plane time to only be work time if you're flying during business hours? You didn't clarify this in your original comment.
QUOTE]

This line of reasoning stops when what I am doing in no longer necessary to perform my job. It is necessary to be on the plane because my employer wants me to get where I am going. It is necessary to take some form of transportation to/from the hotel. Once I am at the hotel and have no work that needs to be performed my time is my own. Although I'd rather be home I still have the freedom tom choose what to with my time. I can watch TV, go to dinner, see the local sights or do whatever suits me. The time spent traveling for work is time spent for filling my duties to my employer. To not get compensated in some way is to devalue my time. I have things I�d much rather be doing then sitting in a cramped metal tube breathing stale air.

pinworm

[QUOTE=Aliquot;14259682]
Well, my job description says "95% Travel", therefore the travel is part of my job, therefore while travelling for work, I am at work even if cooling my heels in a hotel room or napping on a plane. I am not an hourly employee, I am salaried. My compensation is not based on hours worked, but getting the job done each month. I am paid a flat monthly rate which essentially means that when my company needs me, day or night, I am obligated to comply..but it also means that being engaged in travel on their behalf is part of that salary and part of my job is to get there. So flying is working, even if I am asleep on that plane.

swag

When I was salaried, I was paid to get the job done. I often worked on the plane if I could; if I got it done then, it meant I had less work to do on the ground.

Now I am paid hourly. I don't bill travel time, per se, but if I am working on the plane, that's billable the same as time working on the ground.

joer

I was/am hourly. I was paid for travel time in airplanes and the bus to O'Hare, as well as the time it took to drive to out of town job sites (>50 miles) or to ORD, MDW or MKE if I had to drive there for some reason.


I almost never did anything work related while in flight, but there wasn't much I could do either - about the only thing that could be done work related while in an airplane would have been expense reports or field service reports - and I usually did them on the weekends because of the cramped quarters on planes, and they usually only took about � hour total. I can't imagine doing them without a table or desk to spread stuff out on (notes, receipts, etc).

mapu

Time spent on the plane, at the airport, in the taxi to and from the airport is clearly work time as I wouldn't be there otherwise. My company's policy fully agrees.

Athena53

I once completed an expense report for 3 weeks in London before I landed back home- but I think Coach was a lot less cramped then (1983) and we did them on paper. Now, with my company's on-line "tool", I need an Internet connection. Too bad- those multi-currency, multi-week jobs I have to do on the long hauls would be perfect airplane work.

pinworm

I consider drive time work time also. Now, the one exception is commuting from my HOME to my OFFICE..I choose where I want to live, and that is not work.

However, from my office to other field offices within my city IS work travel, even if I don't stop at my office. Once I go past my office, the mileage compensation starts therefore it is work travel, and as such, I include the drive in my 8 hour day. Sometimes this drive within my own metro area is 50 miles. As I am compensated for it, I consider it part of my work day, so if there is a 1.5 hour drive back home, I leave at 330 instead of 5pm.

I also consider driving to the airport to be work time, as I am compensated for the mileage ONCE I PASS MY OFFICE. In otherwords, I get paid for the miles from my office to the airport, not from my house to the airport.

Essentially, as I am salaried, anything I am doing involving work of any kind, be it driving there or to the airport, or flying, or sleeping in a hotel..is WORK time because I am not at home.

BearX220

That may be, but a lot of professional services firms still want hours reports. I myself think hours are a false indicator of productivity or value generated -- a report that took 20 hours to generate is not prima facie 400% more valuable than one that took 5 hours -- but there is still this fixation. So as long as we're reporting hours, I'm reporting all travel hours. In my view anytime I'm doing something for the company or a client that constrains me from doing what I want to do, whether it's iron my shirts or go to the movies or play with my kid, that is company time.

If a firm really did stop counting hours, and decoupled your compensation and status from billable hours filed, and only assessed the quality and value of your work, I'd be singing a different tune. But until then...

Exactly. And travel is stressful, and bad for your health. You eat crap and sweat out connections and sleep badly and usually alone. A travel-intensive life is in most ways worse than a life where you get to go home and raid your own fridge every night. Travelers should be compensated for that.

Scousie

Company time as I can't choose to do something else if I am travelling for work.

daregale

Work travel is company time because I'm representing the organization and not free to spend my time as I'm will. It's part of the cost of doing business that the company should bear rather than the employee. I use it to catch up on professional reading and responding to email, writing reports, and other relatively mundane tasks. Or meeting with colleagues on shared projects if we happen to be flying together.

rsercely

Almost always, travel time is not work time. It is usually outside of anything like a normal office workday, like on Sunday, or after 6PM. Yes, I am salaried, but IMHO, that only means that in general, I put my 45 hours or so a week in, and after that I get very, very cranky. If I considered travel as work time, I would be over 50 hours ever week.

There is another aspect to this - wondering how others feel.

If travel time is work time, and since the company is paying for the travel, doesn't that make the airline miles the company's miles?

This is the argument I use to my company - Mr Company - you can have my miles, but that means I am only on airplanes between 7AM and 6PM. Mr Company has always said, "Never mind - you keep the miles"

Weean

My employer's policy is that travel is work time, & accordingly we can request Time Off In Lieu (TOIL). I tend not to bother claiming mine as I can then slack off the odd hour on a Friday afternoon reading Flyertalk with a relatively clear conscience.

Trouble arises when policy is that we travel on a Saturday, and can claim TOIL accordingly, so we can get cheap fares, but we aren't allowed to claim TOIL for the Sunday when we can be stuck in the middle of nowhere away from our families, but aren't "working". I was told on one occasion that most on my grade considered the travel a perk (and by implication, I should stop my whingeing).

BearX220

That is a standard ploy to manipulate the poor traveling sod into wrecking his life in the service of his company, and it's bull@#$t.

pinworm

"If travel time is work time, and since the company is paying for the travel, doesn't that make the airline miles the company's miles?"

At some companies, this is indeed the case. And it's an a-hole move on the company's part although some do see it as profit..of couse when the company collects miles it really means the executive leadership is cashing them in and using them! Companies that do this tend to have a travel administrator and their own accounts with the airline, and do all the booking for employees. Generally though, travel prices fluctuate so much that such accounts are not that profitable. My company tried a corporate partnership with AVIS but it became clear that even with the discounts, other rental companies would sometimes be cheaper depending on the day and season of the rental, so they pretty much gave up and told us to price hunt.

My company and most companies don't really care about collecting miles. Part of the reason is that we do not use a travel administrator, and all travel booking is done by the worker travelling. So I pick and choose my airline and am supposed to do it on price. I am supposed to buy the cheapest available, but any miles earned are mine so far as the company is concerned. Because I book my own travel under my own airline member account, the company really has no idea when and how many airline miles or other status I am earning and it would be a pain for them to bother tracking it. Were they demanding to keep my airmiles, I simply wouldn't join an airmiles program. It is considered a perk that causes no loss to the company's bottom line so they don't really care.

The exception is American Express rewards. For a fee I pay to my company, I can keep all award earned with the corporate card. The fee is small compared to the awards. If I do not pay it, the company keeps all the awards. If I get a 100 Home Depot gift card for every 100 dollars spent, it pays for itself in a week. I currently get 1 airmile for each dollar spent, amounting to about 5000 miles a month.