Episode takeaways

Frequent Business Travel, International Business Travel often comes with the job, with higher responsibilities often comes need to travel, eg regional manager

You may be leaving home for 3 weeks here or there, or 3 weeks a year. 90+/ year or 200+/year

If you are a frequent business traveller or have been one and have a story to tell, please contact me at [email protected]. We can talk on or off the record.

1.Benefits of Frequent Business Travel

For traveller

• career satisfaction
• career development and advancement
• ‘change, novelty and pleasure’
• Creating global networks and benefits for the company in terms of knowledge transfer

For family

• More intentional times together,
• Time to do pursue own projects

Reflection: What do you find as FBT benefits for you and for your family?

2. Challenges

• Couple challenges and marital strain
• Parenting; guilt, loss of connection, role strain UN Dad story
• ICAN model: Blog Distance Parenting: How the ICAN Model Helps Families Stay Connected When One Parent Travels - Rhoda Bangerter
• Watch Being Gordon Ramsay | Netflix Official Site
• He makes a point of being an involved dad when he is home. You see him playing with his younger children, doing the school run and ringing in from a rooftop for a wedding planning conversation with their eldest.
• One of his adult daughters says "I know I can text him, call him any time"
• It's hard to leave. As he prepares to go for 6 weeks, he acknowledges how much he is going to miss his family. "Being away from home is tough"
• At one point his child says 'I'm going to miss you' and he replies 'me too'. It's a beautiful way of validating a child's feelings
• They always involved their kids in what he was doing "instead of it being a totally separate life".

Reflection: A great question to ask ourselves is :'Are there ways we can involve our kids in our work?'

• Your body

Reflection: Have you thought about what frequent work travel is doing to your body?

For #InternationalBusinessTravellers (IBTs), #FrequentBusinessTravellers (FBTs), #RotationalWorkers, #Flexpatriates, and anyone whose work regularly crosses borders, #travel is part of daily life.

But it also creates a unique set of demands:

✈️ disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms

✈️ repeated time-zone changes

✈️ long periods sitting

✈️ irregular meals and routines

✈️ increased stress and reduced recovery time

✈️ exposure to unfamiliar environments

✈️ higher cumulative exposure to cosmic radiation at altitude

This isn't to scare anyone. It is to highlight the need to take a closer look at what impact frequent travel might have, keep track of its effects in order to put things in place that will mitigate them.

Many of my blogs, resources and podcast episodes are from the home-based parent's point of view, but as I am preparing an episode from the traveller's point of view, I have also come across https://superpower.com They offer a yearly membership for 100+ biomarkers for prevention. A combination of AI and a team of doctors interpret markers such as;

🔺 inflammation and recovery

🔺 metabolic health

🔺 cardiovascular risk

🔺 nutrient levels

🔺 energy and resilience

All markers that can be affected by frequent travel.

For those of us who support #globallymobileprofessionals and families, perhaps we need to expand the conversation about mobility. It is not only about relocation support, cultural adaptation, and resilience. It is also about sustaining the person who is doing the travelling because a successful global career should not come at the expense of long-term health.

3. You have more agency than you think

You may have more agency than you realise in shaping how travel impacts you and your family.

• avoiding back-to-back trips where possible
• travelling on a Monday rather than Sunday
• protecting transition days
• resisting the temptation to overload calendars before and after travel.

While organisational demands may limit flexibility, proactively managing the parts within your control can help create a more sustainable rhythm between work, travel, and life at home.

Reflection; How much leeway do you have? How much of the calendar is put in by you?

What can you do that would help?

Contact Rhoda: [email protected]

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Buy the book: Holding the Fort Abroad

Your partner's job opportunity in another country seemed like an exciting idea, but lengthy work assignments mean you're holding down the family fort - alone.

OR Your partner is working and living in another country, and you feel like you are shouldering all the home responsibilities alone.

You may be wondering:

• How can we be a family when we're miles apart?
• Can I cope, alone, when troubles arise?

I believe there are answers to the above questions, and the answers start with you. In this context, it's more important than ever to invest in yourself, to care for yourself, to set your own goals and to watch yourself grow. Equally important is to nurture your relationship with your partner and learn to parent together.