The Business of Traveling
When you travel on business, someone else makes your bed, cleans the bathroom after you and delivers your dinner. Unless, of course, you’re a man, in which case probably your wife does that for you most of the time, anyway. Which explains why women over 40 – more than men – enjoy business travel.
I can just hear the shouts of disagreement from men: “I cook dinner sometimes!” and . . . I can’t think of any possible other arguments. I mean, really, when is the last time he cleaned up the “droppings” left around the toilet? Or, for that matter, changed the toilet paper? It reminds me of the joke “How many men does it take to change the toilet paper?” with the answer being, “Nobody knows; it’s never been done.”
Yes, I know I’m practicing a twisted type of misogyny and I know there are some shining exceptions (or, mostly, I’m guessing there are), but my vast experience with business travel tells me that most men are so used to be taken care of that living in a hotel – for them – is an inconvenience much more than it is for women. In fact, I’d venture to say that most women find business travel rather relaxing.
Think about it, those of you who haven’t enjoyed the pleasures of hotel life. Someone calls you in the morning and in pleasant (albeit sometimes recorded) voice, reminding you that it’s time to get up. You drift over to the bathroom and – lo and behold – no soap scum, no whiskers, no crumpled tissues on the sink! You sashay over to the toilet – the seat is down! It’s clean! Ah. Nirvana.
Breakfast – that’s either delivered to your door or available at a quiet, private table where you can read the morning paper in peace. And, after your day of work, what exactly do you have to do? NOTHING! No decisions on what to make for dinner – just what to order for dinner. No clean up, no late night laundry. In fact, you can splurge and have the hotel do it for you. You are in heaven.
So, what makes all this so different from the male experience? Let’s see; you have to get up when the call comes and – unless you think ahead and request a second call – you’ll oversleep. Sure, the bathroom’s clean, but isn’t it always? And who’s there to get your towel for you?
Breakfast means you have to think ahead, if you want it delivered; there is no one there to think for you. And the waitress in the hotel restaurant doesn’t know what you want without telling her!
After your workday, now it gets even worse. Sure, there’s nothing you have to do and you can plop yourself in front of the TV, but now you have to wait. Dinner’s not ready when you get there. And if you go to the restaurant, you may not be able to watch the game! All those conveniences you have come to expect at home just don’t exist on the road. . . which is exactly why women love business travel. Because usually “those conveniences” are provided by her.
All right; maybe I’ve exaggerated.
But I doubt it.
Tags: business travel, men over 40, putting down the toilet seat, the inconveniences of business travel, the toilet seat, when women travel for business, why do women like business travel, women and business travel, women over 40
You hit the nail on the head with this one! I remember my ex husband (I emphasize EX here) came home from a business trip and left a pile of dirty laundry on the bed expecting me to automatically clean it. I was happy to see him home and fixed his favorite dinner, did his laundry, and made him feel welcome. When I had to go to take care of my Dad in Florida for a week I came home and found him happy to see me, but also a lot of dirty laundry and very little food in the frige. For a week he had been doing what I had been doing all along, getting the kids up for school, dealing with homework, etc. That night in bed I said, “You know what I would love to have you do just once?” He looked at me warily and said, “What?” I said, “Have you get up in the morning and get the kids off to school while I sleep in, then fix me coffee and bring it to me in bed, like I do for you every day”. He laughed so hard I thought he would choke! “That ain’t gonna happen!” he said. The next morning I brought him his coffee cup, but it was empty with a note in it that read…”Get your own damned coffee!”