ChickinStew

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

50%

Lately I've been traveling a lot more than usual for work. A colleague of mine recently vacated her position, and the description they posted of her job now reads '50% travel during high sales season.' What the fuck does that mean? Every season is high sales season. Due to the random class starts at career schools, it's always adoption decision time somewhere. 

I have 6 trips in 6 weeks. Some are a couple of days, others are three plus. It seems a tad excessive for someone who's job is to develop products, not sell them.

And yet this is now what my job has become. It's fine for now, but I do not see myself doing this next year. I'm a mother, but that's meaningless in the corporate world. You're not allowed to complain, you have to pretend you have no attachments, no one who cares if you're home or not. If I mention that I'd like to travel less, I'll get invisibly, insidiously black-balled. We are all busy, no one cares.

That is, no one cares but me. It is up to me to start saying no, and come up with reasons that sound valid, you know, other than, 'I feel like I'm missing out on large chunks of my daughter's development.' I have 8 trips a year for conferences alone, before any additional sales travel. I need to somehow emphasize that my time spent working in products is just as valid as traveling to sell those products. Either that, or become an actual sales rep and make some real money.