For Frequent Travelers, Family Often Bears the Brunt of Stress

Beth Duncan can’t decide which is more stressful these days: the general hassles of airport security, reduced flight schedules and hotel hops that come with traveling for her sales job--or the emotional toll it seems to take on her family every time she leaves.

“It’s gotten so I have to hide my suitcase and briefcase from my [9-year-old] daughter when I pack or else she’ll have a meltdown,” said Duncan, 38, a national sales representative for a pharmaceutical company. “I hate leaving like that. I see her little face the whole time I’m gone.... It’s enough to make me want a desk job.”

Business travel remains off about 20% from last year for a mix of reasons, including the limping economy and corporate travel budget cuts.

But at the same time, business travelers are facing unprecedented family pressures since Sept. 11 that also are keeping them grounded more. Indeed, experts say many companies may be forced to modify travel requirements to accommodate the growing number of employees whose families are anxious or uncomfortable about letting their loved ones fly.

Some companies already have addressed employees’ personal concerns by cutting back trips, allowing travelers to return home a day early or adjusting schedules so that more teleconferencing is used in place of face time. Some gave their business travelers time off immediately after the terrorist attacks to regroup and spend time with family before returning to the skies.

But six months later, many companies realize they have to do more, as employees continue to grapple with family pressures that show no sign of subsiding.

Greg Herder, chief executive of Hobbs Herder Advertising in Newport Beach, said two of his sales representatives quit after Sept. 11--one because of additional stress related to flying once a week all year long and the other because traveling so much was keeping her away from an ill spouse.

Since then, Herder said, he has watched stress levels mount among his 12-person sales team. The burnout rate for those jobs typically is four years, but Herder said he began to see signs in some workers that it would happen much sooner.

“I started to feel like a counselor for a while, because many of our salespeople were voicing concerns from their children and spouses and it was really getting to them,” said Herder, who himself travels about 25 times a year. “I kept trying to find ways to keep everyone moving, because in our business we have to travel. There’s no way around it.”

Herder and his partner, Don Hobbs, decided to help their workers stay in touch with family members while on the road--by paying for all their cell phone calls to and from home. The executives also are considering pay increases and additional vacation time for their frequent-flying sales team.

“As a company, we’ve got to be more sensitive about this,” Herder said. “Even if an employee’s OK with traveling but his family isn’t, that’s going to cause stress. We have to take care of them, not just because it’s the smart thing to do as a boss but because it’s the right thing to do as a person.”

For some, the corporate move toward sensitivity came too late. Under what he called “intense” pressure from his new wife, James Ruiz quit his job as a software consultant in October when his boss would not cut back his business trips.

“I wanted a reprieve, just temporarily, to be with my family and help them get through their anxiety,” said Ruiz, who is now self- employed in Houston. “It probably would have gotten better, with me being fully able to travel again in time. But I wasn’t given that time.”

Indeed, most business travelers who have cut back on trips expect their own safety concerns to fade by year’s end. In a recent survey of business travelers by WorldCom Group, about 70% said they soon will feel “completely” safe flying again.

It’s different for their family members, however. About 42% of the respondents believe their loved ones will be concerned and stressed about their business travels for at least the next year. Nearly a fourth of those surveyed said their families will never again be comfortable letting them fly.

“This is the second-biggest reason business travelers are giving for why they are flying less,” said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, an advocacy group.

“It’s a shift that demands attention from companies, because it isn’t likely to go away any time soon. When it comes to corporate travel right now, families are more involved than ever in the decision-making process.”