Business Travel Executive, August 2018

EDITORS NOTES Our Mission Helping Travel Management Create Value for Corporations Since 1989 Dan Booth Managing Editor DBooth@ askBTE com Jerry Allison Publisher JAllison@ askBTE com Jerry Allison Studios Lloyd Aarons 2010 Publisher Jerry Allison JAllison@ askBTE com 973 839 6200 Managing Editor Dan Booth DBooth@ askBTE com 336 766 1961 Editorial Assistant Ralf Walters Contributing Editors Jerome Greer Chandler Harvey Chipkin Lark Gould Keith Loria Mark Rowh Jennifer Steinke Art Production Manager Michele Cameron ML Cameron@ Comcast net 908 979 1974 Business Manager Marylee de Ferrari Mdeferrari@ askBTE com 973 839 0620 Subscriber Services Subscriptions@ askBTE com 973 839 0620 Advertising Mike Shevlin mshevlin@ theshevlingroup com 847 749 0168 Jim McGinley Jim@ mcginleydoyle com 818 712 0672 Lauren Wysocki Lwysocki@ AskBTE com 973 839 4390 At Ease Time is what you make of it especially when its vacation time Its August already and inexorably our planet continues to run its 365 day course around our neighborhood star the Sun Thanks to the tilt of the Earth on its axis the southern hemisphere is preparing for the coming of spring while here in the north the so called dog days of summer are upon us and we consider the impending end of our warm weather vacations and the return of workaday routines The brains who study brain science assure us that it takes about a week to disconnect from our office routine and truly start to relax and rejuvenate Then we need something like another week to get all the benefits of time off And indeed according to a recent study by the American Psychological Association taking time off helps the majority of US workers recover from stress and experience positive effects that improve their well being and job performance Among the benefits when they return to work employees report their mood is more positive and they have more energy they feel more productive and less stressed However nearly two thirds of the 1500 plus working adults surveyed said the benefits of that time off are all too fleeting nearly a quarter 24 percent said the positive effects of vacation time disappear instantly upon returning to work and another 40 percent said the benefits last only a few days For some of us this gloom might be self induced relaxing during our time off is so difficult because we just cant imagine the office getting along without us On the other hand our stress might be caused by fear the office can get along without us So we tend either to worry our way through vacation or not bother to take the time at all People need time off from work to recover from stress and prevent burnout says David W Ballard PsyD MBA who heads APAs Center for Organizational Excellence When stress levels spike again shortly after employees return to work thats bad for workers and for business So time off is something that benefits both the employee and the employer provided the organizations culture encourages taking time off In those companies employees are more likely to benefit from vacation time and those benefits last longer the APA survey finds By almost every metric workers who are encouraged to take time off report they return in a more positive mood they have more energy and feel less stressed and more productive Of course business travel adds its own layers of complexity and stress to the work environment As a result the traveler experience has risen to the top of many travel managers list of hot topics Smoothing the way for traveling employees making the journey as painless as possible is critical to attracting and retaining high value talent Traveler experience is yet another in a long list of factors that bring the art of travel management to the fore as a strategic tool in more and more organizations Technology mobility data analysis people skills communication and more these are all areas of expertise that increasingly demand your attention As our industry changes you need information and insight to give you a leg up in a complicated world Exactly the kind of insight youll find month after month in Business Travel Executive A magazine for all seasons BTE