7 Early Warning Signs for Companies to Avoid Business Travel Burnout

Through the years, I’ve met many a business travel team leader, whether a director or VP of sales, HR director, employee development, etc. that have one universal struggle with their business travelers: INCONSISTENT RESULTS!

But what causes inconsistent results? There are many reasons, but one, in particular, that is the quantifiable and hands-down champion of the world.

Here’s the headline and reality we absolutely must not only understand but truly accept as gospel truth:

Nobody is at their best when they’re burned out and there’s a cost.

Overseeing a business travel team is a challenge especially when you just want consistent results. Is that too much to ask?

But there is a grind of business travel that has two levels of cost that few consider:

• The business traveler
• The company

When your business traveler is only a short flight away from burnout due to the stress of the road, they’re costing you money and positive results the entire way.

Let me say it again to let this statement sink in:

When your business traveler is only a short flight away from burnout due to the stress of the road, they’re costing you money and positive results the entire way.

According to the Kingston Study, 45 percent of the 200 frequent travelers surveyed reported higher stress levels than normal while on work trips. And 31 percent said they experienced emotional exhaustion – one of the major risk factors of burnout – on a weekly basis.

Simpila’s Business Travel and Mental Health Survey showed 80 percent of those who have experienced mental health problems (stress) have not told their employer. And you need to know.

In a recent Gallup study, 1 in 4 employees feels burned out often which results in a 63% increase in taking sick days and 2.6 times more likely to resign.

You may not even realize burnout could cost you up to 200% of the salary you're paying this employee, and this doesn’t even factor in the loss of productivity of that person going from busy to beatdown to burned out.

These stats are staggering yet most companies continue to do business as usual or in this case, business travel as usual.

Why? Too many companies who have business travelers and especially those that lead their road warrior team are simply unaware of any signs of burnout.

As a result, Elite Road Warrior Group has done the heavy lifting for you.

Here are 7 Early Warning Signs for Companies to Avoid Business Travel Burnout

1. Lack of boundaries with work hours

Business travelers “always feel on” when they’re traveling for work. The lines between work and personal time are blurry at best. They’re thinking about work ALL the time on the road which is not healthy, especially if the company feels they own the road warrior’s entire time on the road.

For years, I would have my laptop out and already working on the 6 am flight there or late at night on the way home. I was the guy known for always having dinner with his “laptop lover”. I rarely enjoyed the great steak and vino I had because I had absolutely inhaled my food.

I would then take my laptop lover up to my room for a nightcap and work and work and work. Talk about a lack of boundaries with work hours.

Always working. Always on.

The quality of my work definitely suffered as referenced by reading emails or the presentation over and over and over. And my brain could never shut down as I tried to get some sleep.

Now, mind you, many companies make you feel that they own their business traveler every moment they’re on the road and hence create this “always-on” mentality. Other times, it’s the driven, competitive road warrior or the “I have to please the boss” or “I can’t let anyone down” mentality that creates this 1st warning sign.

The problem is the mindset that taking a break or resting is wasting time when in reality, having boundaries actually makes you more productive and increases results which is what matters most to the company.

Proof? The times I took a couple of hours in the evening to unplug with downtime (time to be, not to be on) to go to a ballgame or be a tourist in the city I was visiting, my productivity and quality of work skyrocketed.

Boundaries must be put in place to ultimately avoid burnout.

2. Feeling overwhelmed by the daily road demands

At first, the road is exciting and there’s a desire to throw yourself into your work every moment of the day and night. But eventually, this pressure begins to build. They have their road responsibilities but also often their normal daily responsibilities and this can overwhelm.

When traveling, work chat continues and piles up, internal emails and meeting requests seem to intensify knowing you’re on the road with less time. Then you add all the work you create from traveling: follow-up quotes and proposals, endless action items. And this is on top of everything else going on back at the office. You know, those people who are working that very appealing 9-5 job?

Most business travelers, especially men and those of us who’ve been out on the road for a while will never tell you that they feel overwhelmed because it sounds like a sign of weakness.

But they need to have a company that cares enough to notice even before the road warrior begins to experience overwhelming stress and not make it their lack of commitment or effort.

Pro Tip: if you watch their personality, their actions will tell you possibly before their words.

Poor, unhealthy habits creep in on this 2nd early warning sign such as stress-eating, drinking more or too often. Busy is one thing - beatdown from being overwhelmed benefits no one. Often they just need someone to come alongside them to help and this is where you or your company can play a major role.

3. Diminishing or inconsistent results

A business traveler is on the road to produce results for the company and they need to get results even if they have to work late at night, at the airport gate, or on a flight.

Unlike their co-workers in one place all day and going home for the evening, road warriors need to work in the margins to not only get their work done but actually see results.

And the longer this tension, the quicker diminishing or inconsistent results begin to appear which frustrate both the road warrior and the company with an uncertainty of how to change it except work harder and longer.

I use the analogy of a high-performance car in comparison to a high performing road warrior, an elite road warrior. It looks great on the outside. Immaculate. Always clean, always waxed. Even the inside of the car is in order and never dirty. But if you open up that hood, it exposes an engine that has not been taken care of, at all, and for a long time. It’s the result of always putting in cheap gas, no maintenance, little to no repairs, just get you back out on the road.

As a result, the car, just as a road warrior, has diminishing and/or inconsistent results.

This was my story. I could produce results and impressive ones at that but…not consistently. And the more I went from busy to beatdown to burnout, those results began to diminish because I was not taking care of my high-performance vehicle.

Many people in burnout continue doing their jobs, sometimes even somewhat successfully. However, they don’t perform at their full capacity. Even when they appear to be functioning to those around them, their work performance suffers because they quietly decide to not work to their full potential or simply cannot due to burnout.

4. Frequently coming back tired from a business trip

Early flights out of town and late flights back home usually on the road warrior’s personal time make long days even longer on the road. Then you add late client dinners or staying up late or getting up early to catch up on work, it wears road warrior’s out. And if your employee is expected to be back into the office the day after a business trip no matter what time they came home, they’re just worn out and going through the motions the next day.

The reality is 73% experience a reduced quality of sleep when traveling. Many business travelers struggle to sleep well the 1st night on the road in a new location. Others have to deal with a cost-based hotel that directly affects the quality of their sleep and benefits no one in the long run.

This was me. I went from coming home tired to coming home exhausted. As a result, I would sleep seemingly most of the weekend and be right back out on the road on Monday morning. I was home but not really there.

At one point, my wife had ENOUGH. I was coming home from a brutal travel stretch of international then back-to-back-to-back trade shows and beyond exhausted. On my drive home, my wife was texting me about how tired she was and since we’re both competitive, we were out to convince each other who was more tired.

I pulled into the driveway of my house and saw only my wife’s arms with my two-year-old doing the running man and screaming his head off. Translate: She was done.

I walked in the house and would love to report I kissed my wife, grabbed my son, greeted my other kids, and then gave my wife the night off to go out to dinner or out with her friends and I would take care of those kids that look and act like me and put them to bed.

Instead, the kids said “Daddy’s home” and I selfishly responded “Daddy’s tired” and went to the downstairs couch and was in a coma for hours until my beautifully angry wife gave me three words I’ll never forget: “Something’s Gotta Change”.

Pro Tip: Sleep is their biggest performance enhancer on the road and needs to be a higher priority to both the road warrior and the company.

5. Neglect of eating properly on a consistent basis

Eating out every meal and not always having control of what, when, or where you will eat not to mention how long you have to eat, can quickly catch up with a road warrior and literally weigh them down. In fact, there’s a name for it derived from The Freshman 15 and is called The Travel 20.

Personally, I was an over-achiever and earned the elusive “Entitled 40,” and I mean pounds, on the road eating the best of the king’s food and drinking the best of the king’s wine.

76% of business travelers experience a poor diet on the road and they have the weight to prove it. Their neglect of eating properly and lack of movement directly affects a road warrior’s energy. And it’s completely understandable with the late-night dinners, entertaining clients, and grabbing whatever you can find at the airport. Of course, you have to try that city’s specialty food, craft beer, and on and on and on.

But at what cost? The neglect of eating properly on a consistent basis directly affects our ability for consistent results, our energy, and ultimately leads to burnout. It is possible to eat healthier on the road and the payoff is far more than meal receipt.

This mindset must be encouraged from company leadership and the business traveler must own the belief that food is fuel and fuel is energy and I must have energy on the road to eliminate burnout and exceed results on a consistent basis.

6. Lack of any type of exercise on the road

Movement is one of the first activities to go for a road warrior because the road does most of the movement for them. It’s just so easy to sit when you can, take the elevator or escalator, sleep-in due to a late-night or work first thing in the morning. But weeks turn into months, turn into years, and the lack of movement catches up with a road warrior because they fail to equate movement creates energy. There are creative ways that don’t require much time to increase movement on the road that could make a tremendous difference in their energy and overall results if encouraged and implemented.

I found every excuse not to work out on the road:

• I don’t want to pack workout gear and it smells
• I can’t get in a “full workout” like I do at home (which meant an hour of meandering around the gym and more on my phone than a workout machine)
• You can’t get in a good workout in a hotel gym

All lies nothing but lies!

For the longest time, I let my workouts be the first thing to go if I felt any type of time crunch or too anal about the “Exact time to workout” and it always affected my energy levels and therefore my productivity.

I can get in a GREAT workout with dumbbells, body weight, and resistance bands no matter if I’m in the hotel fitness center or my room.

The truth is movement creates energy and especially in the morning, it puts you in a great place for the day. But if it’s not encouraged, it can lead to sedentary road life and burnout.

7. Missing those back home

Business travelers may act like "this doesn’t bother them" or “they’re used to them being gone” but the reality is they think about home more than you realize. Their spouse is a single parent when your employee is on the road. They’re missing sporting events, recitals, birthdays, and monumental moments in the lives of those back home.

Over time, they feel the guilt and disconnection from being on the road and this leads to stress, additional pressure, and ultimately burnout sometimes just as much by their family. Statistics prove within two years this factor causes either the road warrior or significant other to force either a job change with less travel or moving to a company that is more sensitive to the business traveler with a spouse and/or family.

I grew up with a father who was a business traveler but my wife did not and the early years were difficult. And the more I climbed the corporate business travel ladder, the less I was home.

There are ways to be intentional, thoughtful, and creative to stay connected with those back home. In fact, as a result, I’ve created a number of products to help road warriors to be more intentional, thoughtful, and creative on the road to leveraging their time away and flourish relationships back home.

If your business traveler is feeling the stress of home life, it will absolutely not only lead to burnout but increase its timing.

These can be avoided and we at Elite Road Warrior Group can help.

Business Travel Burnout is real no matter if it’s ignored or not

Burnout is an accumulative process and all 7 warning signs all lead to the inevitable. True change will not be accomplished and sustained without organizational intervention. At Elite Road Warrior Group we know you want to be a company that gets more consistent results.

In order to do that, you need your business travelers to perform at their best.

The problem of business travel burnout makes you feel frustrated and uncertain about how to fix it. We believe nobody performs at their best when they’re burned out and you should have a high-performing team. We understand and feel your pain which is why we help business travelers perform at their best.

Here’s how we do it (and what we call the business travel results plan:)

Your action item:

• Request a conversation to get started. - That’s it. Go to www.EliteRoadWarrior.com and click on Complimentary Analysis.

Schedule a 30-minute call with me, I can learn more about your business travel strategy and how we can create a custom plan to help immediately.

Elite Road Warrior Group offers three business travel performance trainings:

1. On-site Consulting for business travel leadership teams and road warrior workshops where we come to you
2. Live Quarterly Workshops in the Chicago land area where you come to us
3. Online Training such as virtual coaching and monthly online training specifically for your road warriors

You Got This!

For more information on Elite Road

Warrior, visit EliteRoadWarrior.com