International research reveals extent of work pressure on business travelers

LONDON – iBAHN, the leading provider of digital converged services for hoteliers, announced today the findings of a survey of international business travelers.

LONDON – iBAHN, the leading provider of digital converged services for hoteliers, announced today the findings of a survey of international business travelers. It confirms that businesses are increasingly putting pressure on their employees to work as normal when traveling, which adversely affects older workers more than most.

The research revealed that three quarters (76%) of business traveler respondents felt under pressure to work normally even when traveling.

Most under pressure are professionals, largely male, in the 50-59 and
60+ age groups. Those under the least pressure were in the 18-29 age
group (57.1%), which could indicate a move to a more relaxed attitude to mobile working in the younger generations and a significant business traveler generation gap.

Julie Hurst, director of the Work Life Balance Center, commented, “As iBAHN’s survey shows, too many organizations are still focusing on the measure of the numbers of hours worked, rather than measuring objectives achieved. This is one of the most fundamental issues holding back the balance between working life and private life and is especially relevant in the time-sensitive business traveler environment where time zone differences can encourage long days, but not necessarily productive ones.”

Graeme Powell, managing director EMEA, iBAHN, commented, “The business traveler has a daily challenge to face in the form of getting to their destination while maintaining levels of productivity. The traditional approach is to make time on the move using available connectivity, but this often creates more stress and can result in poorer quality work. The age gap shown in our figures suggests that mobile working is the norm for the next generation of business travelers, but what will be the cost to work/life balance in the future?”

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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