Travelling is fun and opens up exploration opportunities for career moms. For some jobs, travelling, both locally and internationally is necessary and even unavoidable. For instance, moms working in the tourism and hospitality industry are required to travel a lot for work.
In other fields travelling is not necessary. For the rest of careers you may be required to travel for work from time to time.
However the travelling can get out of hand and affect your family. As a mom taking too many and frequent work trips will affect you and your life. It affects the relationship you have with your child, spouse, friends.
You can tell that you are travelling too much for work when your work and your health is negatively affected. You will also notice your family and social relationship deteriorating. Further you may realize that you are spending too much money on these trips.
When this happen you need to limit the number of business trips you are willing to take. You can do this by delegating some trips, readjust work style, changing your field or employer, starting your own business,
Signs you are Travelling too Much for Work
1. Your Work Performance Is Affected
You will know you are traveling too much if your work is negatively affected. If your work stalls whenever you are traveling, then you are taking too many work trips. Normal work travel should not should significantly affect your projects and other work assigned to you.
When you notice a consistent drop in performance around the time that you travel for work, it is one indication that you have been traveling too much and need to slow down. You, therefore, know you need to adjust if you are unable to meet your work goals.
2. Your Health Is Affected
If you are constantly becoming disoriented, then you may be traveling too much. Generally, frequent international trips across multiple time zones can lead to Jet lag. If you notice this, it is one indication that you need to slow down on your work travels.
Signs to look out for include daytime fatigue, feeling unwell, alertness problems, and stomach issues. Further you feel more exhausted and need longer and longer time to rest and recover. It is not worth the mental/physical strain and stress that comes with it.
Read: How to Avoid Burnout from Work
3. Your Relationships Are Failing
Traveling too much will also imbalance your relations outside work. It takes away most of your time and leaving little for your children, spouse, and friends. You may hence find that you miss key moments and events for your family and spouse such as birthdays, school days, etc. as you were away on travel.
If traveling prevents you from spending quality time outside work, then it is too much. You may become a stranger to your family and social circle as a result of being away too much and too often.
Read: How to have a Social Life when Working Full Time
4. If you Are Spending Too Much Money
While a majority of your travel costs may be taken care of by your employer, you may still be required to incur some additional costs. This includes food, communication, and miscellaneous among others. Another cost implication is the cost of keeping your home running normally while you are away such as childcare.
If you notice that your spending on work trips is high, then you are probably travelling too much and too often.
5. Negatively Affects your Work-Life Balance
If you are traveling for work and not leisure, then an aspect of work is involved. It feels like you’re still at work even when you’re not because you aren’t at home where you feel the most comfortable.
When the business become too frequent, it negatively affects your work-life balance because you have no time for other things in life. You are no longer able to incorporate self care or social time with friends or attend family events.
Traveling too much also limits your extracurricular hobbies etc. You will find that you have no time to pursue your hobbies or other personal interests because you are always away. As a result it becomes hard to get involved or commit to social/personal hobbies.
Further, you may notice that it becomes difficult to get established since you are mostly away most of the time. You may realize that you are going to all these new places but never getting to see them because of work. If this is your situation, the work travel is too much.
6. Burdening your Family
Travelling and leaving your children and family behind requires that some one is taking care of them. This places a higher burden on your family at home to handle everything (errands, chores, etc.) while you are away.
Therefore when taking too frequent and for longer trips , you will notice your family will start complaining. Your husband may start being less supportive of your work because of the amount of work and burden they have to handle in your absence.
Read: How to Manage Travelling for Work and Leaving your Baby
How to Avoid/Limit Work Trips
1. Delegate Trips to Others
Train your juniors and other members of your team on how to handle work outside the office. By doing this, you can delegate some work travels to them and only travel when it is necessary for you to travel. Delegating some trips and taking only the crucial trips ensures that your plan allows you to balance and avoid a overwhelming work schedule.
2. Conduct Virtual Meetings
You can further reduce the frequency and number of work trips you are taking by going virtual. Today there are so many technology options you can explore to hold virtual meetings instead of a physical business meeting with your clients. By doing you can eliminate taking work trips that do not necessarily require a physical presence.
3. Change Career/Employer
Switching employers is one of the things you can do reduce too much work travel as a mom. Some jobs such as in the tourism and hospitality industries are travel-related and there are few adjustment options in such careers.
However given the implications that these work travels have on your life, you can decide to switch jobs and enter a career where travel demands are very minimal. By doing so you can reduce or eliminate the need for taking business trips.
Alternatively you can change your company. If you are working for a regional or international company, chances are you will be required to travel locally and internationally for business. To eliminate these trips, you can find another company lest a local one which does not have business relations that requires you to travel.
Read: Top Mom Friendly Jobs and Careers
3. Quit And Start Your Own Business
Some moms may have the option of quitting and starting their own business. You can choose an industry that minimally involves traveling. It is an effective strategy to avoid travelling too much for work. It will give you the independence and freedom of traveling when you only need to.
How to Minimize the Impact of Work Trips on your Family/Kids
- Negotiate some kind of work from home policy when you’re not traveling. It allows you to work from home for a while after a trip to re balance your life. This will help offset the time you’re away.
- Put your family first. Schedule on being home on key days and do not go for work trips on these dates. For instance always be home for birthdays, anniversaries etc. Doing so will help you offset any negative impact of other work trips that you take.
- Consider the age of your kids. Eliminate work trips when your kids are young if you can.
- Create a network of support system including spouse, close family, reliable sitters/daycare to run everything while you are away. The support will help create leverage and balance off some of the effects and challenges of travelling too much for work.
- Consider your spouse as well. Ensure you have their support and they are willing to step in when you are away. When your spouse supports you , you can easily balances off the challenges of travelling too much for work.
- Find a way of keeping in touch with family while you are away to minimize your absence. This includes video calls among others.
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A Guide to Preparing for a Work Trip
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How to Make Business Trips while Pregnant Easy and Safe
