“When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

Quote by Henry David Thoreau; a favorite writer and life experiencer. What does this have to do with engineers on business travel, especially to construction sites?

The Man

Thoreau highlights the importance of nature, simplicity and living in the present. You non-arguably could do no better than immediately throwing the electronical device you are reading this with against the wall and instead picking up Walden. If you persist in this insanity however, let’s talk about gritty business travel for engineers and how it waits with life lessons.

Unpacking Thoreau’s quote, let’s consider that for many of us travel may become an integral part of the job. I personally like it at a certain level, though overdoing anything can be fatiguing. But if it is something that becomes essential to our role, instead of fearing or avoiding it like a dog “coming at us,” we might as well “whistle for it.” Embrace travel, extract value from it, enjoy and learn from it.

Much has been written on the broadening virtues of the road in general, so let’s focus here on some tactical specifics of site work for engineers and how those can form broader metaphors. There are five principles highlighted here:

  1. Fancy Wrappers
  2. Feet First
  3. You Don’t Need It
  4. You Don’t Need It II
  5. Happy Anywhere

Fancy Wrappers

Look around when you get on a plane. There’s the grizzled welder wearing a Harley T-shirt and Carhartts with the Diamond travel program status luggage tag. They are the pro. There’s a bunch of people wearing pyjamas or yoga pants or God knows what whose main priority is just being comfortable. And then there’s the guy in the business suit and tie in first class, who may or may not be turning up his nose at those in the cattle section.

The world has a great sadness for those forced to travel in man-girdles and neck-chokers, and there is relief for those that do not. The electricians, pipefitters and engineers (along with most everyone under 30) get a free pass from having to wear those confining, expensive clothes whose only purpose seems to try to signal to others how desperate you are to impress them – or that you make a soft, wealthy target for unsavories.

Rather, the rest of us know that as soon as we step on a jobsite, the combination of oily, sparky and rotating components makes it no place for fancy, conductive or dangly apparel. Being immersed in those sorts of environments and conditions inures us to grease spots, frays in non-essential areas and other minor imperfections in our skins. Something rugged, climate-appropriate, with basic safety features, sure. But Fancy Wrappers are just pointless at best, dangerous at worst.

Engineers naturally have an alliance with flannel/plaid of course, but of late I’ve migrated a bit away from pure cotton and more towards some poly blends or other things, if fire conditions permit. These in a pinch can look passable and less wrinkly if, heaven forbid, you need to attend an Important Meeting. They also air dry faster overnight, or on your body if you’re on a tight timeline. Once you get less Fancy, instead of ordering Hotel dry cleaning (which is likely not available in a man camp or modest Motel) you can make do with a sink. Spending $5 and hoping the hotel takes only a day to labor over a $3 shirt? Seem ridiculous? Go stand next to the diesel generator for a while if you need a Classy Scent.

Appreciation: Thank work travel for curing us of any stupid and often unachievable desire to have people slather our simple clothes with expensive, world-killing chemicals. Instead it can lead us inevitably towards a plainer Thoreau-ish wardrobe.

Feet First

One pricing exception is with shoes. The right steel-toed boots provide safety, proper temperatures and comfort for long days on your feet, essential for better functioning. My Timberland Pro series are exceptional by my modest standards. Find something that suits you and do not hesitate to spend some extra. For those so inclined and capable they could probably be useful weapons as well in a tight situation. At a minimum versus snakes. Perhaps badgers.

Compliant with ASTM F2413! Eat that Jimmy Choo

If some sadist forces you to attend Important Meetings and your practical shoes are all you packed, do the following:

  1. Polish them up with a banana peel or whatever oil is on the table for dinner (olive perhaps, coconuts work).
  2. Stick your feet under a table, which is where they are for 99% of IMs anyway.
  3. Use them as an alpha engineer signal that you actually know what happens out there where such shoes get dirty.

As for all things in life you should vastly prefer a solid foundation over a flashy exterior. Get yourself a solid pair ‘o boots.

Appreciation: Thank you work travel! For steering us towards rugged personal practicalities instead of frail, costly Italian Wingtips.

You Don’t Need It

Whatever it is, you probably can do without it. At least that’s the debate you will be constrained to have, if you will be living out of a backpack or small bag for weeks or months on your assignments. Use that as an opportunity to examine and strip down to what is essential. A few rotatable clothes. Perhaps no vehicles of your own. Something to keep your teeth from getting too mossy. Something to read and/or write in. Things that are multipurpose.

If I don’t have a work notebook (rare), and happen to have brought a small paperback I intend to keep, I’ll turn that into a sort of journal. Often you are forced to have a computer and cell phone, so I load up and listen to a lot of podcasts even with no Internet – the horror. Perhaps some medicine or medicinal teas. A bandanna, in case you need a hat, scarf, bandage, filter or tourniquet. A plastic bag. That’s about it.

An only slightly more extensive list of essentials might be found at Early Retirement Extreme here. 12-13 sets of underwear and sox seems like a lot though, especially if you have to do laundry in a sink.

Such a perceived dearth of pots ‘n pans, closets, sports gear, vehicles, gizmos etc does not stop you from interacting with humans in meaningful ways, hiking around (in your comfortable, heavy boots! simply more exercise!), paying for transit if you like to get further on the weekends and reading and learning things wherever.  People 30+ are gradually seduced into thinking they cannot live without so many things around them that they might – but rarely ever do – use. Work travel or similarly spartan retreats like university studies, conducted in the proper fashion, are basically periodic and refreshing tonics of anhedonic adaptation. At worst you will enjoy all your “stuff” more when you return to it.

Appreciation: When everything you carried fit into a backpack (or for most of my 20s, a small pickup truck), were those not the golden years? So thank you work travel, for being able to convey us back to those halcyon days – or prepare us for times like those ahead.

You Don’t Need It II

Closely related to “stuff” would be the concept of food. In research of my own somewhat peculiar eating mode, it comes out that getting stressed out about eating can raise hormones in ways that can be deleterious. So while I try to eat somewhat healthy on the road, it can also be useful to cultivate an attitude of moderate indifference to when and what you eat, as the Dokkodo would recommend.

or unbridled delight

If driving in the hinterlands or sensitive project tests keep you from a regular lunch or dinner, just fast, you will find you likely won’t explode. In fact your mind may be a bit clearer. Shrug and don’t stress about it. Do stay hydrated, but water is good enough and likely better than many other options. If the hotel has a breakfast but options are lousy after that, load up in the morning. You can get by fine calorically and fiscally eating twice or once a day – perhaps less for a couple days, if you experiment with and become accustomed to it.

Flip it around: if you are on a weird diet of kelp+lard+intermittent fasting but the client wants to offer a local dish and drink, then relax and ingest whatever if that’s polite, likely won’t kill you either. Think how much time and stress you save and how simpler your expense accounts get (or costs lowered, especially if you are picking up the tab) by not needing to slavishly adhere to somewhat artificial and social-driven food processing triggers and intervals.

Appreciation: Thank you work travel, for conditioning us to be indifferent to perfect timing and the finest foods.

Happy Anywhere

This is certainly a path for me that is still under construction, but worksite travel for engineers will often take you not into the boardroom of pinstriped suits, as discussed, but rather onto dirt roads and around tractors, donkeys and manual labor.

In one extended trip outside the U.S., I was struck by how the workers gathered after every lunch and sang for some time before picking up things in the afternoon. This shocked me since they sounded energetic, proud and happy. A well paid expat consultant would probably bill more in a day than some of those workers might make in a year. But despite this, they sounded scores happier than I was at that time in my life, net worth deltas notwithstanding.

If you travel for work entombed by comfort and air conditioning, isolated from any but your fellow 1%, you may wrap yourself in a bubble that could be increasingly costly and psychologically draining to maintain (the aforementioned “hedonic adaptation”). If you travel for work imbued with more simplicity, and even better yet, on a beneficial mission where your project will bring benefits to the inhabitants of wherever you travel, you will have a much better experience.

Appreciation: Allow work travel to strip yourself of many of those non-essentials, and let it bring you into contact with others that have fewer material goods (whether in their roll-on bags or huts). People that despite what you perceive as lacking are able to find joy and meaning. That will give you space to examine better what you need at your core, versus what you have been led along by others in your own society to want.

Summary

Past a certain level of material goods or comfort you are simply making Maslow’s Pyramid (and your belt) wider than it needs to be by staying at the Hilton instead of the man camp or Motel 6s – which actually are pretty nice these days. Instead of running from the dog of work travel deprivation, whistle for him. For the most personal growth one really might want to gradually focus one’s attention on the upper levels, after those at the base get sufficient coverage. By constraining the “width” of the lower tiers of your pyramid for extended periods, work travel can remind you of what higher order needs deserve more of your effort.

Appreciation: Long-term work travel can first enlighten you about these aspects of your life more valuable than material acquisitions – which many think is the primary purpose of a job. After increasing your awareness, such assignments can then prepare you fiscally and psychologically to “get by with less” for extended periods, which incidentally can give you a nice surplus between your income and expenses. Over time, such ratios may enable you to adjust your relationship with your job sooner to meet other personal goals, if desired. A bit ironic.

** Postscript: it figures. A few weeks after writing this I had a one-day business trip that I had to make in nice slacks/jacket/tie. The horror! $18 for dry cleaning, ouch.