In 13 years of duties with 2 institutions, I've become aware of how our flocks undergo their (supposedly) business trips. I myself is always feeling in between excitement of going places (and do my trip rituals) and concerns about whether my family would be okay while I left and whether the trip worth the time and effort.
Some people I know try to escape or skip the trips, either because of their indispensable domestic roles at home (usually the mommies) or at work (they feel like fainting to find works piling up when they are back), or because of the not-so-attractive places, although in most cases people might have the power to choose their favorable destination, or because of their resistance to the intimidating task/work itself (this ones, I would call them renegades).
Some are very much in favor of going some places (or ANY places) on company's budget because of the allowance, the possibility of taking a short break from routines (especially if we come as listeners or we opt to be consistently in vegetative state during the business meeting) or the opportunity to enjoy the country's stretched islands (I guess only very few of our troop REALLY WANT and ACTUALLY GO to North Maluku or Jayapura on our own, just for fun).
The rest maybe more or less like me, think and treat the business trip as chances to see 'the outside world and meet people', to enjoy our beautiful roaring -or otherwise opaque- cities, to have fun with the extra disposable income, and (of course) to have sabbatical (a.k.a. temporary breaks) that believed could make our relationship with our job better.
Those reasons, of course, are only worth considered after we make sure that there's no way we can say 'No' or 'I'll pass it this time' to our bosses, there's no serious issues (more about kid's health and the availability of house assistant) left at home, and there's someone at work who would back us up when we leave. I admit, we demand too much. But, as we prefer not to be in extremes, generally we do the trips and strangely find ourselves going through them just fine.
I myself usually had between 3 to 5 local business trips a year, including trip to some satellite cities around Jakarta. Proximity to our HQ, time consideration, and budget constraint have made some hotels in Bandung, Bogor, Cikarang, and the airport's surrounding (despite of their limited services) the most feasible venues for most of our business meeting outside HQ.
This 2012 marked something different to my standard 3-5 times a year. One of my co-worker was transferred to another dept and, since I am the back-up, I am attached to the work he used to do until we get the replacement (which kind of happening later in 2013). So, in accordance with implementation of some new systems in my office, I flew over several big cities in the last 11 months: Semarang, Denpasar (twice), Makassar, Medan, and Surabaya. Bandung, Tangerang, and Jakarta were also in my list.
Sounded nice, isn't it? Yes, indeed. Alhamdulillah, almost all of those duty trips went in success. By my (rather low) standard, I would say :p.
But one was a nightmare. It was when I replaced my other co-worker who is EXCEPTIONAL in his field. I took his position in giving an overview of our newest system for our high executives from HQ and our rep offices. It went absolutely awful; one of the audience even asked if I ever took "Training for Trainers" session. Others looked at me with pity-look and said to themselves "Sorry young lady, we wanted HIM... and we don't know why they sent you instead". That one-hour when I was standing there --no more sure on what I was talking about-- was the worst presentation I ever delivered (I made some other bad presentation, of course. But, hey... there's no way to expect 13 years without bad presentation).
I got my lesson. One, I didn't prepare the material properly for different kind of participants who had different angles thus demanded more than just plain explanation.
Two, I was just too naïve, mentally unprepared, and didn't recognize types of people who enjoy the "hostile time" either to promote themselves or to "help" me to be a better trainer. I was easily intimidated and it made things worse.
Three, be a replacement required more guts and effort to reach the minimum level. It was a big mistake that I didn't refuse the project in the first place :p, not knowing it would be a deadly mission. I should have been more assertive and smartly said "No".
To put it in a nutshell, being in different places surely has given me a lot of things to think about and enjoy, at the same time. Some trips were advantageous because of the great and fun companions. Some are debted to the unique beauty of the places themselves. And some purely because the jobs could be done more effectively by flying there.
Some people I know try to escape or skip the trips, either because of their indispensable domestic roles at home (usually the mommies) or at work (they feel like fainting to find works piling up when they are back), or because of the not-so-attractive places, although in most cases people might have the power to choose their favorable destination, or because of their resistance to the intimidating task/work itself (this ones, I would call them renegades).
Some are very much in favor of going some places (or ANY places) on company's budget because of the allowance, the possibility of taking a short break from routines (especially if we come as listeners or we opt to be consistently in vegetative state during the business meeting) or the opportunity to enjoy the country's stretched islands (I guess only very few of our troop REALLY WANT and ACTUALLY GO to North Maluku or Jayapura on our own, just for fun).
The rest maybe more or less like me, think and treat the business trip as chances to see 'the outside world and meet people', to enjoy our beautiful roaring -or otherwise opaque- cities, to have fun with the extra disposable income, and (of course) to have sabbatical (a.k.a. temporary breaks) that believed could make our relationship with our job better.
Those reasons, of course, are only worth considered after we make sure that there's no way we can say 'No' or 'I'll pass it this time' to our bosses, there's no serious issues (more about kid's health and the availability of house assistant) left at home, and there's someone at work who would back us up when we leave. I admit, we demand too much. But, as we prefer not to be in extremes, generally we do the trips and strangely find ourselves going through them just fine.
I myself usually had between 3 to 5 local business trips a year, including trip to some satellite cities around Jakarta. Proximity to our HQ, time consideration, and budget constraint have made some hotels in Bandung, Bogor, Cikarang, and the airport's surrounding (despite of their limited services) the most feasible venues for most of our business meeting outside HQ.
This 2012 marked something different to my standard 3-5 times a year. One of my co-worker was transferred to another dept and, since I am the back-up, I am attached to the work he used to do until we get the replacement (which kind of happening later in 2013). So, in accordance with implementation of some new systems in my office, I flew over several big cities in the last 11 months: Semarang, Denpasar (twice), Makassar, Medan, and Surabaya. Bandung, Tangerang, and Jakarta were also in my list.
Sounded nice, isn't it? Yes, indeed. Alhamdulillah, almost all of those duty trips went in success. By my (rather low) standard, I would say :p.
But one was a nightmare. It was when I replaced my other co-worker who is EXCEPTIONAL in his field. I took his position in giving an overview of our newest system for our high executives from HQ and our rep offices. It went absolutely awful; one of the audience even asked if I ever took "Training for Trainers" session. Others looked at me with pity-look and said to themselves "Sorry young lady, we wanted HIM... and we don't know why they sent you instead". That one-hour when I was standing there --no more sure on what I was talking about-- was the worst presentation I ever delivered (I made some other bad presentation, of course. But, hey... there's no way to expect 13 years without bad presentation).
I got my lesson. One, I didn't prepare the material properly for different kind of participants who had different angles thus demanded more than just plain explanation.
Two, I was just too naïve, mentally unprepared, and didn't recognize types of people who enjoy the "hostile time" either to promote themselves or to "help" me to be a better trainer. I was easily intimidated and it made things worse.
Three, be a replacement required more guts and effort to reach the minimum level. It was a big mistake that I didn't refuse the project in the first place :p, not knowing it would be a deadly mission. I should have been more assertive and smartly said "No".
To put it in a nutshell, being in different places surely has given me a lot of things to think about and enjoy, at the same time. Some trips were advantageous because of the great and fun companions. Some are debted to the unique beauty of the places themselves. And some purely because the jobs could be done more effectively by flying there.
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