When Will Offices Learn That This Never Works?

A few jobs ago, I was your basic corporate mook sitting in an office in a major European city. A few times per year, I had to travel to another office in a small town in Belgium. I didn’t book my travels. The way it worked was that I sent an email to someone in Human Resources with dates and places, and they would come back with flight and hotel booking. 

Here’s how the trip worked most times: wheels up at 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning and touchdown around 8:00 at the Zaventem airport. I took only hand luggage, so I was off to the airport’s train station in the terminal. I spent some forty minutes on the train; my destination was something like the second stop. It was a twenty-minute walk from the station to the office. I was on my computer by 10:00ish and worked the whole day. It was about the same when flying home on an evening flight.

One memorable flight was different. They booked me on Europe’s favourite low-cost airline. They avoid the expensive morning peak hours, so I flew at 9:30 or something to Charleroi, which is a “secondary” airport for Brussels, serving low-cost airlines. I took a bus from the airport to Charleroi town, a train from Charleroi to Brussels, and another train from Brussels to my destination. I stopped for lunch somewhere along the way and arrived at the office around 2:00 pm. Basically, I got paid for looking out of the window and waiting for the next transport. And, of course, it was the same on the way back.

I really hope the ticket price difference was worth it.