It's our annual company sales meeting taking place in Berlin from Mon- Weds this week. people coming in from all over Europe, ash permitting.
My UK colleagues and I are due to fly from various locations / flights on sunday which is now looking dubious. The boss has sent round an edict asking us to join forces and drive to Berlin instead. From where I live that is a 700 mile drive approx, even with 3 or 4 of us in rotation and leaving sunday at the same time as we would leave for flights that would have us arriving in Berlin at around 3am for a meeting starting at 8am.
Is this a reasonable request? Particularly as there are likely to be others from Scandinavia, Eastern countries, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc. also unlikely to be able to make it if German airspace is closed so the meeting will be half cock anyway?
Thoughts?
Sound a right laugh. Road trips are always good fun.
I'd love that, I'll go instead if you like?
You're boss sounds like a complete tw*t!
How productive will it be if half the people are knackered from driving half way across Europe and the other half aren't there?
[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas ]This[/url] has some good tips for long road trips and stays in hotels.
You're boss sounds like a complete tw*t
he sounds to me like someone who wants people he thinks are valuable to be at an annual event and can't see why adults would be worried about driving to Berlin?
double time AND mileage allowance , where do I sign up??
As long as he's prepared for you to only be semi-functioning on arrival, I think it's okay. Honestly I'd say he should give you an extra couple of days of time off in lieu and get you out there from Sunday AM.
The roads are so much better on the continent, it will take you longer to get out of the UK.
Road trip quality do the first stint and then get some bevvies down you and sleep.
Be honest - the whole meeting is a big waste of time anyway isn't it? You could all just have a conference call from your own offices and get the same stuff done. Just go and have a nice drive and a couple of nights away - it'll be great.
interesting comments; pretty similar to the comments from my colleagues.
I'm up for it, it will be a pain as opposed to a leisurely sun evening flight and taxi ride followed by similar on thursday lunchtime, but I'll do it. There are a few however dead against who feel it is 'dangerous' to have to drive that far / for that long and the fear is if they ultimately refuse, some of us could end up solo-ing the drive which late at night does become irresponsible.
Was just interested what others thought.
I thought that the ferries were packed as well?
[i]Be honest - the whole meeting is a big waste of time anyway isn't it?[/i]
Just what I was thinking. Does a load of salesmen getting together really justify all that air pollution? Same goes for most business meetings. I feel sorry for the folk whose holiday plans have been disrupted, but other than that this volcano thing has been great.
I think he should reschedule the whole thing
What if you happened to be on holiday the week before in, say, Orlando? Would he still expect you to drive to Berlin?
what a t*sser
Put it this way, it'll make you look good if you just get your head down and do it without grumbling. Just try an pick some sound people to go with 🙂
I'd try and book a ferry before you go worrying about anything else. Last I heard, Dover->Calais ferries, Eurotunnel etc. were all booked out.
Joe
Driving 700 miles across Europe? Sounds bloody great. Check out the pron mags you can buy in German service stations, they are DEBASED!
do it nearly every week
Midlands to Perth Scotland for 10am
Fly, leave house at 5am for a 6.30 flight to Edinburgh
or drive, leave house at same time, get on M6 stick cruise control on as soon as past Preston
meeting at 10am, work in office until prob 7pm then to hotel
theotherjonv -Unreasonable IMO.
Do what ya want tho', decent cash for not much effort? just a pain in the arse. fill yer boots!
It's unreasonable - the meeting should be rescheduled.
However, I'd go (very much depending on the people likely to be in the car with me).
Can you reduce driving time by ferrying across somewhere? And is the boss prepared to rent a Merc Vito minibus or something?
Can you reduce driving time by ferrying across somewhere?
Rotterdam - Berlin: not much over 7 hours?
leaving sunday at the same time as we would leave for flights
Erm.............leave earlier? This isn't Plan A - this is Plan B - the fall back because Plan A, flying, isn't an option. Get TOIL, get overtime, get whatever salesmen get for a couple of hours on a Sunday. It could be done in sensible time by departing earlier.
Get him to hire you an M3 or something tasty and to pay you for every hour of travel. Am I in cloud cukoo land?
It sounds like a bit of points scoring from your boss. [b][i]HIS[/b][/i] team made it to the meeting but the lazy Spanish/French/Italian etc lot couldn't be arsed... and so on.
I've been sent on dafter missions just to show customers and colleagues from other countries that we are prepared to send people on daft missions.
The question is can you get a ferry crossing booked?
1. I'm not a salesman 🙂 I'm in a different function but with my skill set I'm running one of the growth workshops that we are supposed to be doing - hence why i *have* to go
2. I don't get overtime. Extra hours are 'part of the job' and expected. I'm not grumbling in the slightest about that part, that's salaried instead.
3. leave earlier; unfortunately not possible due to a pre-arranged family commitment, otherwise of course could have been done.
4. Yes, Eurotunnel reservation is in hand (decisions were taken to book refundable crossings earlier this week just in case)
5. Next issue is with the VE103 (permit to take leased car on continent) The lease co are supposed to have sent this in the week but still not here. I spoke to them yesterday and they have promised another in guaranteed Saturday delivery. Now means I'm stuck here until it comes which means the kids might not get their trip to Chessington as planned (small mercies, maybe). But - if it doesn't arrive and given extenuating circumstances and given I have last years which expired just after Xmas - do you think just supposing the FR / GER police would cut some slack if I didn't have one.
6. Thought not........
7. German grumble mags: one of the guys I'm scheduled to go with has I suspect a collection of filth that would cause proprieters of the a/m german service stations blush. So I'll pass on that thanks!
Depends who you are going with. If they are half decent it will be memorable and great. I love German service stops and Germany 
Go Sick and enjoy the time off safe in the knowledge that the guvnor is miles away and will be for a few days
Weather looks nice for the coming week too
700 mile drive? a days driving.
However - driving for work will come under various regulations I would have thought and must be paid time - so tell your boss its two days TOIL if he wants you to drive
Why not take the train? Is that possible?
Depends on whether everyone involved thinks that it really is a really really really really important meeting.
If, in the end you don't, then maybe it would be a good point to assess which flights really are a [b]necessity[/b] within your company.
I feel marginally sorry for people who've had long standing holiday plans upset, but frankly, I hope the planes are grounded for weeks - it might start to make people think about whether it really is a good idea to commute daily to Brussels, or weekly to Naples or monthly to New York, or to go on a weekend break to Venice.
TJ does have a good point. Your boss is asking you to wing it. Even reps wouldn't be expected to be in a car for that long.
As TJ says it is only 700 miles. With a couple of drivers that should be a dawdle. Why not just accept and enjoy it as a bit of an adventure?
Imagine being in a car with TJ for 700miles. He'd pop on his Stalins history of Communism.....6hours over 3 CD's.....2 of the CD's with sounds of machine gun fire.
Sounds like a laugh. much more fun than boring flying.
*my initial post was going to be MTFU, but thought better of it*
They've sealed all the BA planes at H'row, so even with the best will in the world, it'll take days to unwrap the engines and get the fleet airborne again.
Engineering have a lot to do as there are certain tasks that need to be taken care of to maintian the serive logs and keep the aircraft ready for flying again once things clear, which could be weeks as the weather system is not going to change any time soon.
In the meantime some airlines will go bust for sure.
So - do as they did when I was last on public transport in Indonesia, wind up the windows and light up a cheroot! Sick bags are always provided. And if you really want to throw a spanner in the works, carry in the car & then eat a durian fruit with everyone present on your road trip!
[i]5. Next issue is with the VE103 (permit to take leased car on continent)[/i]
I wouldn't loose any sleep over this, unless its your own lease car, just get an email from your boss authorising you to travel without.
But seriously, while I've driven further before, look at the trains once in continental Europe.
[i]What if you happened to be on holiday the week before in, say, Orlando? Would he still expect you to drive to Berlin?
what a t*sser [/i]
I bet his boss knows he's not and that's why he asked him. If he was stranded abroad somewhere I bet his boss would know that too and not ask him. Why do people say such retarded comments.
Go it'll be a laugh and you can bring back some extra duty free.
Road trip to Berlin, funded by your employer. Do it.
Sounds like hell to me, but then I hate driving anywhere.
Engineering have a lot to do as there are certain tasks that need to be taken care of to maintian the serive logs and keep the aircraft ready for flying again once things clear
A good year to be a BA maintenance worker, then? Mega-overtime!
Some of them went for a walk along the full 3+ miles of the main runway yesterday just for the fun / novelty of it!
Herein lies a consideration: when the time comes again to fly, it's going to take an age to unseal, re-boot and uncover the engines and get everything back up to speed, so at some point everyone will be waiting on the engineering at all the airports, and don't forget they only do a 2/3 (of 24hrs - there's no grave yard shift) shift and there aren't that many to go 'round, and not to all the smaller airports where their planes are parked up such as Prestwick which has no permanent BA maintenance dept.
Also, many airlines only lease their planes, even BA don't own their own engines, they're leased from RollsRoyce, so the daily bills still need paying!
A mate of mine's a BA engineer at Heathrow, has some interesting tales about how they effectively just "reboot" the aircraft when it reports a fault 😯 😆
Phone conference, or get a video conference setup? Some companies and hotels have Video conferencing rooms you can hire and i'm sure this will be the same for Germany, Spain etc... Seems a bit mental to travel that far just to have a meeting...
all set to go, and now senior management are looking like pulling the plug on the whole shebang, seeing as hardly anyone can get there.
It was already a seriously slimmed down meeting and we didn't have one last year so all comments on flying / cost saving while relevant have already been considered, and this was considered a valuable enough face to face meeting that we decided to go ahead.
As for MTFU / it'll be a great road trip, etc., I don't think I've ever said I wasn't prepared to do it, just was interested in whether others saw it as reasonable, and whether some of my colleagues opinions were at odds with general views.
Seems a bit mental to travel that far just to have a meeting...
It's once very two years and is called face to face time. It's extremely valuable, to talk to your colleagues every now and then. You can't fix everything over the web (says he using it to answer just about any query right now) 🙂
has some interesting tales about how they effectively just "reboot" the aircraft when it reports a fault
The other year we'd sat on the plane after getting on for a bit when the captain came on and said there was a fault and all the lights would be going out as they were just going to try switching it off and on again 🙂
[i]I'm not a salesman[/i]
Sorry, I just jumped to that conclusion. I reckon my point still stands ie is a load of salesmen going to a group meeting really that big a deal? We're not really talking about people who contribute a lot to society now, are we? Apologies to any salesmen reading this, but it's true, isn't it?
Oh and before anyone says it, personally I work in IT, and to be honest I don't feel I add much to society either. And I'd post exactly the same comments about a load of IT folk going to a conference. In fact, I reckon about 80% of business travel by plane is utterly unnecessary.
I have a passing understanding of management speak so this is what your boss is really saying:
"the Big Boss wants us all to go to this meeting, I think its a daft idea but as neither I nor any of the other managers at my grade have the guts to speak out, we are going to go through the motions of this ridiculous plan. Eventually the staff will kick up so much that somebody above me will make the decision not to go. But it won't be me that went against the Big Boss and stopped singing the company song, oh no matey".
So just play along, in fact act dead enthusiastic, you might even get his job eventually.
Not enough people can make it. It's cancelled.