I flew to a project kickoff in Milwaukee on Thursday. We had a day-long meeting Friday most of which I was responsible for. I needed to get a lot of information from them to create a design document for their project. I had lots of questions for us to discuss, but I learned very quickly that what I thought to be simple questions with simple answers were not very simple and they had a hard time giving me direct answers. We ended up talking around the points I needed to get, so I hope I'll have enough info. to create a solid design. They are paying a lot of money for this project and I have the heavy responsibility in most respects of making sure they get what they paid for. Our flights were delayed coming home so I didn't get home until 2:00 in the morning.
Here are a few pros and cons of business trips:
Pros:
- Eating out a lot and having the company pay for the food
- Visiting new places
- Sleeping in nice hotels with very comfortable beds
- Having other people make your bed and clean up the room
- Time to read good books on the plane
- Not getting to come home at night and consequently having to work longer hours per day
- Delayed flights and long hours of travel
- Not having as much time to do what I want to in the evenings
- Not being with Jason
- More stress at being in charge of meetings with VIPs in the company and needing to make a good impression
It's always great when the company pays for food (only because I love to eat out, and it's nice to not have to pay for it! :) You were right by us! Too bad you weren't here a little longer-- we could've gotten together! Glad you're home safe and sound, though! (and we'll see you guys soon!)
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