Travel and corporate waste

"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
09/06/2016 at 14:45 • Filed to: None

I know when people think about corporate excess, the first thought it “executive salaries WHARRGGARBL...hey, aren’t the MLB playoffs on right now?” But I’m starting to think — after my 15+ years in the corporate world — that the waste is far, far deeper than that, even in reputable companies. While the executives make the headlines with their corporate jets and occasional malfeasance, I’m privy to a lot more (corporation name changed to protect the innocent). For example, I just learned I have to go to a certain Northern California city, let’s call it Rice-A-Roniville. For four days. For a half-day meeting. All the way from the Eastern US. That’s 8-hour flights each way (including airport time and layovers) and about $2,500 in expenses above and beyond my salary. The travel time prevents me from getting my actual work done, and there are about 100-150 other people who have to come, too, and I guarantee I’m among the lowest ranking ones. And the entire meeting could be held via conference call or video. I may be guilty of over-reliance on technology, but I just wanted to share a typical biannual event for them, one which will drag me away from my young kids and wife, as well as any semblance of productive work, all so I can take notes in a meeting. Why did Al Gore invent the Internet again? /rant off

DISCUSSION (21)

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 14:50

I just end up enjoying the nice trips.

jimz > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 14:52

it gets worse when you have a byzantine, bureaucratic travel approval process. co-worker of mine had to fly to our engineering center in Australia. He did all of the documentations and it went up through the chain, and it seemed everything was set so he booked his flights. Then somewhere in the process someone didn’t like something, so the booking was cancelled. By the time everyone in the chain was happy, it had been delayed long enough to quadruple the airline ticket price.

to top it all off, about a month after returning he got an email from the corporate travel office with “tips on reducing travel costs,” one of which was “booking further in advance for lower air fare.” Needless to say, his response tore a strip out of them.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 14:52

Whenever I see Facebook posts bitching about executive salaries, I like doing some quick math to show how it equates to a few dollars per employee per year yet people still don’t get it.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 14:53

Yep that inefficiency is top to bottom in basically every company. Kind of sickening to be honest. But us humans are inefficient creatures so I cant see this shit changing.

For Sweden > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 14:59

My organization funds a lot of travel. The travel budget exceeds the salary budget.

We also work in aviation, so travel is unavoidable.

Ash78, voting early and often > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
09/06/2016 at 14:59

I’ll counter by asking “Where were these trips when I was 23 and wanted to do ANYTHING except stay in my shitty apartment?" Now I have a great family and lots of home/community obligations, but the travel ramps up. I guess it'd be different if they had mentioned travel when I asked in the interview process 6 months ago. The answer was "nope, very rarely"

Ash78, voting early and often > For Sweden
09/06/2016 at 15:01

I grew up with a dad in sales/service for General Aviation, so that's a big part of my aversion to traveling parents. Back in the 80s/90s, it was a lot more necessary and productive.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 15:02

I always shake my head when I hear stories like yours from my friends and colleagues.

My company is pretty tight on travel. Almost all our travel is directly billable to support programs in ways that can’t be done via conference call, etc. Usually it’s for things like ship inspections and whatnot. And we have to book flights in coach, and since we are a government contractor we stay in cheap-ish hotels, with rooms at gov’t rate, and get the gov’t allotted per diem to cover expenses. It’s still fun and I still like doing it, but we don’t make a fortune off it like some people do.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
09/06/2016 at 15:02

Math and facts are stupid! No one needs to make that kind of money! Rabble rabble rabble!

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
09/06/2016 at 15:05

It depends on the company. My company is really tight on travel, so it’s hard to make a dime off it. We base everything on the government rates and per diem (we are a gov’t contractor) so and they usually only authorize travel for things that can’t be done via conference call or other means.

Nothing > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 15:06

I used to travel. Then, senior managers during one of the 10,000 various reorgs all organizations go through were asked to cut travel. I haven’t had a single trip this year, first time I haven’t had work trip in years. Of course, senior managers are now getting increased bonuses due to the excellent job they’ve done in limiting travel. Funds simply get reallocated.

Me? I kinda miss the trips, now.

Jayhawk Jake > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 15:08

I like that you mention criticisms of corporate aircraft, then basically describe exactly why they are useful tools.

If you had a corporate aircraft at your disposal, your travel time is significantly shortened, you can go there and back the same day, no need to pay for hotel, and you can be productive during the flight. I bet that the actual cost of that trip, meaning direct operating cost of the aircraft, is quite a bit less expensive than your total expenses and lost productivity flying commercia.

smobgirl > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 15:09

I once flew to Hawaii to photograph about a half acre of parking lot for redevelopment. Took about 20 minutes to finish.

Ash78, voting early and often > Jayhawk Jake
09/06/2016 at 15:10

Don’t misread — I’m a big fan of corporate jets where they’re needed. That wasn’t my criticism, I was just pointing it out as a common, misdirected point of hostility towards corporations (starting with Obama and the Big Three). The one senior exec attending this meeting flies on the jet and will be at one other meeting that same afternoon (in Minneapolis). But I will add, from experience, that the final decision on most corporate jets is peer-driven rather than purely an economical decision. You don't want to be the only exec showing up at a summit on Southwest. There is definitely some element of ego pushing it, but it's mostly practical — the value of time.

OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 15:15

Yeah that makes perfect sense. I’m looking at 30% or so travel and perfectly fine with it even though I’m getting married in May. It’ll be interesting.

Ash78, voting early and often > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
09/06/2016 at 15:19

Another hard part is going to cool places, then working 12 hours a day and having no downtime. The Gulden Grate Bridge and Al-Katraz Prison can only look so cool from 5 miles away. :(

Transit > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 15:37

Just got back from there a week ago, and boy is that place expensive! I will recommend Foreign Cinema in the Mission District or The Spinnaker in Sausalito if you do have any free time for some good eats.

Transit > OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
09/06/2016 at 15:41

We had a senior manager threaten to cancel our trips unless we updated his travel planning calendar on time. “Oh? Do less paperwork and I don’t have to go to central Mexico away from my family for weeks? Thank you!”

Tekamul > Ash78, voting early and often
09/06/2016 at 15:44

I was in a meeting for a client earlier this year, in which there were 60+ attendees, all engineers, and jack squat was done for more than an hour. No action items, no decisions made, just rehashing shit everyone already knew.

I learned this was a thrice weekly meeting, and they were all like this. It was about $20k a week in wasted productivity. It’s a smaller scale than what you describe, but it was so accepted, I doubt it will ever change. Just a constant bleeding of money/productivity.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > Snuze: Needs another Swede
09/07/2016 at 10:24

Problem is its not only travel thats wasteful.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
09/07/2016 at 11:20

Absolutely true. I can think of examples where we are wasteful. For example, we have an office in New York. We have no clients up there, but by god our company was originally founded up there, so we need to have a “home” office, even though our headquarters is in DC.

I think you are right, it happens in every company, but I think it depends a lot on the size of the organization. In my experience larger companies tend to be more wasteful than smaller ones. Usually they have the overhead to allow for it, and it’s easier for things to fall through the cracks.