This is the first story that I have ever written. I apologize ahead of time if there are grammatical mistakes. I only used Word. Let me know what you think.
Cheers!
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Cast of Characters:
Bill Jones - Main Character
Jim - Bill Jones's boss
Kim Smith - A new hire
Alex - A supplier for Bill and Kim
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I hate business trips. I really do. Between the car rentals, time at the airports, and the drives to suppliers, it really gets old quickly. You'd think that spending nights in different cities and great hotels would be nice. Especially if the hotel has free booze in the President's club, but there are only so many cheap beers that one person can drink. It's always the same three types of beer too.
Every hotel is a little different, but really it is a bed to sleep in, a TV to watch, a desk to work at, and a bathroom that is too small to move around in. Especially the space between the toilet and the shower. Who designs this shit? Every now and again there is something better, but my company limits what you can spend on a room, so those better suites aren't always within the allowed stipend.
Breakfast in hotels just suck. It could be a high end hotel, but if the breakfast is free, forget about getting something edible that you could actually consider breakfast. The crappy bagels, the shitty cereal, the fruit that is some odd color that it normally shouldn't be. Don't even get me started on the coffee if that's what you'd call it.
Going out for lunch and dinner isn't bad, but there are only so many times you can eat at a high scale restaurant by yourself. The waitresses are usually nice, but really don't care to talk since they just want to do their job and get out of there. At bars, it's the same, but the flies typically want to keep their heads down and drink their drink. It gets really lonely too eating all by yourself.
The days usually start at the airport to flying somewhere and then getting a rental car. Nothing flashy or exciting to drive, ever. My boss won't allow it since it is outside the budget. I then have to drive to a supplier for some sort of part my company uses. You wait for a while at their reception area, the person arrives, shakes your hand, the business cards are exchanged, the person then leads you to some conference room deep in the boles of the building, and then offers you a cup of coffee. The coffee isn't ever good.
You go over the details of whatever the meeting is about. I find that the company representative never is ready for the meeting. They've never read the documents before you get there. The two of you spend about 1 - 2 hours reading through them as if you were in middle school. Discussing point by point all the things that should have been read and understood prior to the meeting, but aren't.
After spending way to long at the company, going to lunch at some chain restaurant, finishing up for the day, you hop back into your rental car and head to the cookie cutter hotel. Unload your bags, pull out your laptop, and check your work email. I check the email and set the replies to be delivered late in the night. It's good to know the little tricks so your boss thinks that you're working late into evening when actually you really aren't.
Dinner, bed, repeat. Over and over again. It's like a terrible merry go round were the operator just went for a smoke and your stuck going in a circle, listening to crappy music.
So why all this talk about travelling for work? Why do I keep doing it? For the life of me, I just don't know. I guess I don't think there is anything better. I am looking though, my resume is out there and every now and then I get a hit, but the jobs just don't excite me. Most of the time the prospective company only wants someone to travel for them. Why should I change jobs just to do the same thing for them if I am already doing it now?
My life needs to change, I need to do something different.
My boss called me while I was on the road driving from the airport to a hotel. The next day I was going to see yet another supplier.
"Bill, how yah doing bud?" Jim, my boss, asked with fake excitement. He know that I am getting tired of the business trip. I've been on the road for over a month now.
"Not bad, not bad. You know; living the dream". I wasn't really in a good mood. My flight had been delayed for two hours, the airline lost my bag, and the flight attendant dropped soda on me when she tried passing it to the person in the window seat.
"Bill, I got a request from the director for you. We've got a few new hires that are starting next month and they need to be trained up. They aren't all going into the field like you, but they need the experience".
I mute the phone and groan. I had this happen to me a few months ago and it was a disaster. The new hire was so not cut out for the job and had lied on their resume. It took me all of five minutes to realize it during the first meeting with a supplier. Let's just say that guy only lasted a week more and then was let go.
"You still there?"
I unmute the phone. "Yeah, yeah, I'm still here".
"So, I know that you aren't heading back to the home office any time soon..."
Here it comes. I hold my breath waiting for my boss to say that the new hire was going to meet me in some shitty little city; that I was going to need to hold his hand and wipe his ass for him.
"I booked the flight for her and she is going to meet you in Buffalo."
Buffalo, in February? Hold on, wait a minute, did he say her?
Continuing, "Her name is Kim. Right out of college with a business degree too".
Where was this going? Everyone out of college today has some business degree or other piece of paper. A guy I knew once said that a degree now is only good for a hand shake and maybe a cup of coffee.
"Ok..." I added to the conversation.
"I want you to take her to meetings, explain the process, go over the paperwork, etc." My boss droned on.
"Anything in particular that you want me to train her on?" dreading where this was going.
"No, no, just the stock stuff. Make her feel welcome to the company and make sure that she gets on the right foot on her first assignment."
"Can you send me her resume so I can review it before I meet Kim was it?"
"I'll send it over tomorrow morning" promised my boss. "You know it isn't going to be much, she's young and only has work a few entry level jobs elsewhere."
"Sounds good. So where and when do I pick her up?"
"Kim is flying into Buffalo on Monday. You'll need to fly out this Friday or on the weekend so you can make it in time to pick her up at the airport. Here flight arrives around 1:30 pm or so".
"How will I know who she is?"
"Oh just wait at baggage claim. She has you're badge photo so she'll know who you are".
"Ok. Anything else I should know about?" not really caring.
"Nope! That's it. Have fun bud". My boss hung up.
I jabbed my thumb at the end call icon. I didn't trust someone hanging up on the other end to actually disconnect calls. Technology was great... when it worked.
The business day was already over and I was back in the hotel room. I tossed my work phone onto my office backpack and fall backwards into the easy chair sitting next to the bed. With a stab of my thumb I unmute the TV. Some talking heads on a cooking show were being overly excited for cilantro or something.
Her... Her... Did my boss say her name was Kim? Out of college no less... hmm
With a shake of my head I put the new hire out of my mind. No point in thinking that far into the future. Tomorrow was Friday. There was no way that I was jumping on a plane to Buffalo, NY in winter, in February, when it snows, when I don't need to. Sunday should be fine. I'll fly out then and get set for Monday. It's not like I was in any rush since the next meeting I had was on Tuesday somewhere between Buffalo and Rochester.
Most people think Tennessee is nice in February. It can be in the sixty's, but typically it is colder. Unfortunately it was the time of year were it actually was snowing. Not a lot mind you, but enough so that people who aren't experienced with driving in it, tend to act like complete idiots.
Since it was the middle of winter, the days grew shorter and I missed seeing the sun for more than an hour a day. Unfortunately, I had been here for a little over a month working directly with a supplier. They couldn't make the part to the specifications and they didn't seem to know how to correct the issue. The work day got long quickly and I dreaded going back to the hotel at night. At least during the day you could be a little more social.
Nothing was good on TV. There wasn't any reason to keep watching so it must be time to head out to dinner. The small city I'm in is called Johnson City. Yeah... if you're a fan of country music, which I'm not, it's that Johnson City. You know the one from Wagon Wheel...
Passing the reception desk, I get a nod of acknowledgement from the clerk on duty. Firing up the rental, I pull out of the driveway heading for a local bar I found on a previous trip here. The place wasn't large, but the kitchen made a really good steak. The bartenders typically would make conversation between pulling beers. It was the best that could be done on a cold night.
Walking through the double doors of Pat's, it's like stepping into an 80's biker bar that just forgot about the bikers and replaced them with hipsters drinking fruity alcoholic drinks. I still haven't figured that one out, but there it is.
It had been a long day before my boss had called. I had placed a pick-up order and was expecting to pick it up when I walked in. Unfortunately, the to-go-box wasn't ready so I pulled up a stool at the empty bar.
The beer taps were lined across the back wall, but I ignored them. Too much beer and only minimum exercise was making me gain weight even though it wasn't yet showing. I could just feel it, you know? I removed my cellphone from my coat pocket and thumbed through some of my work emails. Better to get them out of the way instead of having to deal with them later.
The food came. I paid for it and went back to the hotel. Past the clerk who again nodded at me, hit the elevator button, unlocked my room, ate dinner, and passed out sometime after midnight with the TV on. Another long and boring day over with it. Nowhere to go Saturday so more TV and the internet planned for tomorrow.
Sunday morning finally rolled around. My flight was out of a little dinky airport with only four gates, but I was connecting into Charlotte so I could grab lunch there. Check in was a pain. Since the airlines had gone to automatic tellers, if the ID method didn't scan correctly, or your credit card didn't get read correctly, you were forced to start the entire process over again either at another kiosk or at the desk with actual people at it. There were some days that I pretended that the computer system wasn't working so that I could have a few moments of real human interaction.
Check in at the kiosk actually worked today. Damn.
Security wasn't that bad so the wait wasn't long. For some reason the TSA had decided that there needed to be an express security line at this airport. What a waste.
Shoes off.
Belt removed.
Both go into a bin.
