I travel a decent amount for work. I used to do regular trips to Asia, but now the job is mostly domestic travel and I'm gone ~1 night per week. I understand how travel can turn into a grind for work when significantly different time zones are involved.
Early in my career, I had a mentor who was around 60 years old and was showing signs of his MS. We were talking about travel during his visit and he was gone multiple weeks a month and made regular visits to Asia. I told him that sounded tough, and his response was "I've had the same conversation with my wife, I don't like taking the redeye flight, but if I don't do it our competitors will and that's what this industry takes to win."
I just remember thinking, he looks extremely tired. That discussion has always stuck with me and I'm less willing now to put up with travel than I was in the first part of my career.
One of the other managers I work with made over 12 international trips last year. He mentioned that it's easy to sell people on the idea of your lifestyle as gallivanting all over the globe, but the reality is you are tired, away from your family, stuck in airports/hotels and don't have free time for yourself because your work responsibilities don't stop while away.
Going on work travel used to make me feel important, but after you go to the same city/hotel 15 times it loses its luster. I have come a long way since then, I even turned down a promotion over the quality of life issues it would have created due to travel. Frankly, the extra money just wasn't worth it.
