Weean

It's pretty much mandated for TATL flights at my workplace. The younger ones seem to like it.

emma69

If you are working in Europe M-F, it is likely that you would have to fly home on Saturday (since I am not aware of many Belgium - US flights on Friday evenings). If you stayed until Sunday, that would give you the Saturday to do touristy things, but realistically if you have to be working in the US on Monday, you are going to have to leave Sunday morning, early doors. Then you would get home (typically, based on the Belgium - N America flights I know) later in the day on Sunday, tired from travel, and then you need to get set for the work week (laundry, grocery shopping etc.).

No company I have worked for has ever objected to an extra day, but if employers made a habit of recommending it, depending on where the travel is, could end up with pretty tired, unproductive staff come the Monday mornings.

LondonElite

I don't really see the difference really.

This is exactly what I was going to say.

Proudelitist

I was the OP in that post.

I discovered that my staying the weekend would be cheaper. If I went Tuesday to Tuesday, the airfare would be $1800 less. By staying, even with more hotel and meal charges, the savings came down to 1200..still significant. Boss didn't care and told me he wasn't going to pay for a weekend in london. So..the trip cost 1200 more. This was the same boss who freaked that I flew in F...even though it was for the price of a Y ticket, and less than a colleague paid for his Y ticket. On principle.

Another time I was expected to go to Tulsa one week, and then Kansas City the following week.

I was based at PHX at the time. I could have flown out to Tulsa and back on the Friday, and then flew out again on the Monday for Kanasas City. That would be 4 flights in total, plus some transport costs to and from the airport and another rental car. The solution was to just stay in the Midwest over the weekend and drive from Tulsa to Kansas City. Even with meals and two more hotel nights, the total savings came down to nearly 480 dollars. It was cheaper for me to stay there than to come back and go out again..not to mention easier on me. That boss was cool with it and completely understood...because that boss ONLY cared about the bottom line of the ledger at the end of the month and recognized that savings was savings.

And that's what it comes down to. People who get hung up on the principle of an employee having a weekend on the company dime EVEN THOUGH IT SAVES THE COMPANY MONEY are petty.

All that matters is that bottom line on the ledger. If it saves money, do it.

pinniped

I did this all the time in my single days. The company was pretty chill about the travel policy, we were permitted to do either (fly home for the weekend, or stay) within reason. I managed my own budget and had incentive to be a good steward of it, and the mutual trust worked out for everyone involved.

If anything, I cherished the flexibility and actually became a little bit zealous about managing travel expenses downward: I was much more diligent about booking flights with good advance notice, finding good hotel rates, and not wasting money where it could easily be saved (e.g. using trains when they're just as fast as taxis, using local SIMs instead of high-priced roaming, etc.). If I stayed a weekend, I'd *usually* stay in the same hotel, but always switch to the weekend rate instead of blinding booking our corp (weekday) rate. If the weekend rate was brutal for some reason, I'd switch hotels if it made sense to do so.

warakorn

This is, how I know it:
The young ones would just invite over their boy-/girlfriends to stay with them a weekend in an exciting city. The employee gets per diem and just the air fare of the partner needs to come out of the private pocket. Sometimes the partners may apply some vacation days to spend even the weekdays with the employees.

Usually, there is not quite a lot of sympathy of fellow colleagues (the older ones with families and commitments at home) that the employees have fun in a great city and still get a per diem (per diem is pretty high in cities like Singapore, Zurich, London, New York).

Moreover, the weekend party on a company dime has one big challenge -> its the taxes and social insurance aspects (at least in European jurisdictions; the per diem and hotel costs might not be recognized as business expenses, but rather as a wage increase for the employee). Even if it saves the company money (cheaper saturday night stay air fares), there are legal limits on what is allowed.

If you just have a full-day Wednesday business event in New York (and coming in from Europe), it's tough to argue for per diem and hotel costs for a weekend stay. The solution is obviously that the business event is moved to Monday or Friday to justify a weekend stay there - telling the client "my schedule is super busy on Wednesday".

CPRich

Again, see my first response.

I'm done on Friday. I can fly back Friday and have $7K in expenses. Or I can fly back Monday and have $5K in expenses, including paying for my hotel and per diem over the weekend.

Why is it a problem for a company to save $2K and make an employee happy?

I spent a weekend layover in Dubai on my way back from India. I was able to see the town, travel up the world's highest building, drive the desert sand dunes, explore some of the ancient souks of the middle east, and my company/client saved money. Should I feel bad about it?

CPRich

Jealousy doesn't factor in my business decisions. Get over it.

It's a given that all actions are compliant with legal requirements.

There's no need to "argue" financial facts. It costs more or it doesn't. Manipulating this benefit at the cost of business operations will get you booted pretty quickly.

Badenoch

Definitely of mixed minds. I understand the attraction but am against companies "promoting" or urging their employees to stay longer than required solely for the company's financial benefit. If the impact is so great on the bottom line it quickly becomes "mandatory" or employees are under great pressure to say a couple of days extra.

Some places are worth staying a couple of extra days in but others I want to be wheels up the minute business is done. How do you ensure that this "benefit" remains optional?

Yachtman

I've had opportunities offered by companies to stay an extra few days in places at their expense, on a few rare occasions I've taken them up on it, I've even brought my wife along. But honestly, most of the time I just don't have the motivation and interest to be alone in a city and knackered from working, I just want to get home to be with my family.
Don't get me wrong, I love travelling for leisure with my family, but on my terms and to my own schedule.

rdurlabhji

We have a similar flexible policy at my employer.

If a trip would be a cost savings we can stay the weekend. Additionally I can stay the weekend and not take expenses if the prices are similar to fly home on Sunday rather than Friday.

Lastly if I will be in a place (that I actually want to be) for back to back weeks, it is often cheaper or similar to get an extra 2 nights of hotel rather than another roundtrip flight.

All of it is acceptable as long as it's done within reason.

Allan38103

I stopped after the fourth meaningless response.

The question is pointless and I think OP is trolling.

kop84

Seems fun for the person who gets sent on 1 maybe 2 business trips a year.

Sounds not so fun for the high mileage road warriors who already are away from home more than they'd probably like (or spouse would appreciate)

For business it's a mixed bag. On a one off scenario it may be cheaper. But then there is duty of care and liability. If you were involved in some sort of incident (natural disaster, terrorism, accident, etc) the company could be liable for what happens to you. While it may save the company X$ on that trip, it may end up costing them more in the long run.

That said, I have asked and been granted approval to stay the weekend on my dime if going places for a Thursday/Friday meeting.

steveo

I've been on both sides of the coin here. I was doing a job in Midland Texas, and we were done for the week earlier (done thursday, needed to be back monday). All the vendors except me went home, and my company refused. The penalty for that was me finding a new job.

I have also had it many times where I'll be done Friday, and fly back monday and it will save $3000 or so. Of course the drawback is now that I am old and have a family its not as easy.

A few times I've been requested to stay in the country for a few extra days in case anything goes down. I got to spend a week in Rome due to this policy, and a stern talking too from my boss that "if I do anything fun, don't tell me about it".

The best however was I got stuck in Calgary for the weekend, so I flew my wife in and they paid for a nice trip to Banff. Even got to stay in a hotel with a grotto

Loren Pechtel

Reminds me of what happened to my father long ago.

He got in trouble for an expense report 1/4th of what his boss turned in for the same conference.

He booked the hotel across the street rather than the hotel with the conference. He didn't sneak his wife's expenses into the bill, either. There was more but I'm not recalling it now.