The Etiquette Edge, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 11

Travel Courtesy

Don’t Leave Home Without It

After a five-hour flight in a cramped seat, a ninety-minute layover turns into a four-hour delay. You’re tired, hungry, and will never make that morning meeting if the flight is delayed any longer. The airport seats are uncomfortable and you’re surrounded by irate passengers. To top it all off, you are looking at three days of wall-to-wall meetings and business lunches and dinners. You feel out of control and out of sorts. Let’s face it; travel is not your favorite part of the job.

Stressful at best and traumatic at worst, business travel often brings out our evil twin. We become ruder, less tolerant, and shorter-fused than we would normally allow ourselves to be. Perhaps it’s because we’re ...