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Dealyed, But Better For It?
New York Times September 17, 2007 Just Think of the Hassles as Character Building By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D. IT’S an affront to your physical comfort, a threat to your sanity and a challenge to your circadian rhythm. Any guesses? That’s right, it’s business travel. Being an optimist with an apocalyptic imagination, I like to indulge in all the worst-case scenarios when I travel, while confident that these are things that happen to other people. Not this time. From the perch of a holiday traveler, I recently got a taste of how bad it can get for business travelers. Arriving two hours before a return flight in Rome with my partner, I got the grim news that there was only one remaining seat. One of us had to stay behind. The agent was unmoved by my assertion of self-importance, and directed me to a growing line of disgruntled travelers, a mix of fuming businessmen and exhausted vacationers. As recompense for being bumped off an oversold flight, Alitalia offered each of us $300 cash, a hotel voucher for the night and a business-class return flight first thing in the morning. Suddenly, things were looking up: an extra night to revel in the Eternal City, money to burn and a relaxing flight home. In short, another day, albeit enforced, of Roman holiday. But this was not the way a German businessman ahead of me felt. Muttering about the unscrupulous behavior of the airline, he started to have a meltdown. Being a psychiatrist, I thought I might try to reason with him and get him to calm down. Not a chance. He started ranting at me and pounding his fists on the counter. I discreetly suggested that the attendant call security, and not a moment too soon; within minutes, he came to blows with two beefy Italian security guards who wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him. Admittedly, this man had some problems, to put it kindly. But it got me wondering what exactly is so stressful about travel, especially for the average businessman or woman. Airport food, you say? Yes, leaving yourself to the tender mercy of airport cuisine can be a grim affair. Sterile and uncomfortable environment? Here you raise the hackles of many an architect who worked long and hard to bring light and space into your travel world. But I’ll grant that terminal seating leaves something to be desired. No, I’m afraid that none of the above comes close to the real culprits of travel funk: lack of control and unpredictability. Imagine you have been invited into a game of poker and are given two choices: a regular deck of cards or a mystery deck with an unknown number of aces, kings and the like. Which deck would you pick? Of course, you would choose the regular deck, where you could calculate — if you were so inclined — the odds of drawing any one card or hand. Travel is like mystery poker: you are literally blind to the chances of the outcome because there is always crucial information that is missing. In case you haven’t noticed, people generally do not like uncertainty and ambiguity. When you are trapped in an airport terminal and hear an announcement that your flight has been delayed, you usually have no clue whether you’ll be leaving in 30 minutes or three hours. Which brings us to the crux of travel stress: lack of control. For all those alpha men and women of the business world, accustomed as they are to order and control, this is not a happy situation. So what can you do with such unpleasantness? Well, there is really only one thing you are in total control of while traveling — yourself. You can’t escape infuriating delays, but you can adjust your schedule to make room for them; don’t put extra pressure on yourself by making your schedule so tight that there is no leeway for error. Carry a diversion with you at all times. I recall one exasperated businesswoman in the airport at Boston furiously e-mailing on her BlackBerry about a delay. When I circled back a few minutes later, I found her relaxed, watching a movie on her laptop. Smart move. And while I’m at it, beware of the business lounge. Bored and stressed though you may be, the last thing you need is a drink or two to relax before your flight. Sure, you’ll feel good for an hour or so, but alcohol is a diuretic, and you are about to spend several hours in dry recirculated air, narcotized and dehydrated — a state generally not conducive to business matters. If all else fails, just think of business travel as good training for the work itself: navigating uncertainty and frustration with aplomb. Bon voyage. Richard A. Friedman is a professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College.