My New Rules for Professional Travel

HR professionals must invest in learning to be relevant.

An investment in learning means "learning how HR professionals in other organizations address problems similar to yours, how they are innovating on behalf of the organization . . . " HR From the Outside In

And that involves an investment in travel.

I love to travel. The almost-four years I was stationed in Germany, I utilized my 4-day passes, Federal holidays and 30 days of leave a year to see the highs and lows of Europe. Save my salary for future? Not me. I returned to the states with very little in the bank but a ton of memories. My husband and I share a love of travel with the kid as we embark on trips that have included the continental United States, Alaska and the Caribbean. Personal travel rocks!

Then, there's professional travel.

I don't travel for business often, but when I do, it seems to come in rushes. The next 4 weeks or so have me in Des Moines, Minneapolis, Chicago and Rochester, MN. I'll be away from home more than I am at home.

Driving to the airport early one morning after leaving a sleeping family behind, I've come up with a few rules for my travel from this day forth:

• No back-to-back trips for me and the husband. At least a full 24 hours together is required.
• Combine professional and family travel together when we can. What's a missed school day here or there when Washington D.C. is the destination?
• Leave in the light of day vs. stealing away in the dark. (Having a private jet would eliminate the 2 hour drive to the airport. Just saying)
• Upgrade the home technology to support FaceTime, Skype or something more than a quick text or hurried call in the midst of group dinners.

Above all, always tell each other you were missed. I enjoy being with my family. Our time together is already absorbed with the what not's of the day and, when you add in travel away from home, our time is reduced even more.

What rules do you have for your professional travel?

Photo credit: iStockphoto

Being Sick Sucks

I have a bunch of HR topics I could write about today like employee engagement, job-search attitude, credibility, compliance coaching, and buying "likes" but I can't.

I haven't had a chance to consider my message or my delivery because I spent the last week fighting off a strep-mono-pneumonia-influenza-whooping cough-like germ. I was down for the count. I cancelled out of my wine tour 60 minutes before I was to leave the house for my rendezvous with the girls.

I should have seen it coming for weeks and now know my "run it off" approach wasn't the best one to take. There wasn't any need to discourage me from working during my sick time, because it just wasn't happening. The Blackberry held no appeal for me and I couldn't focus long enough to make a difference if it did.

I was bad enough off that the sympathies came out. The kid got her craft on and made me these gifts one of the first nights:

There's always learning in life and here's what I am taking away from the last week:

• Being sick s***ks
• I am a much better sick person now than I was in college
• Health stations in grocery stores on Sunday mornings are useless
• Everything seems so much better with a sympathetic ear from an LPN with a sweet voice and a lollipop colored uniform

The silver lining? If I could run a 60 minute 5 mi run with pneumonia on a hot Saturday morning, I should be able get that closer to 50 minutes when I am well! I'd like to be lacing up my shoes now but the body is just not up to it - yet. I'll take the rest of the week to catch up from being our last week and wellness at home as I give my body the time it needs to heal.

Stay well!