You should probably be sitting down when you read this one: Business travelers often drink quite a bit while out of town and even engage in clandestine liaisons, sometimes with perfect (or imperfect) strangers.
Yes, this is what an online survey hosted by On Call International, a travel risk management firm, pumped out. Taking responses from more than 1,000, the researchers found 27 percent of business travelers have engaged in binge drinking while traveling on the company dime, while 11 percent had a tryst with a stranger.
"America's business travelers are mixing business with pleasure more often than you might think, leading to potentially dangerous scenarios that should be keeping employers up at night," the report said. "This type of behavior is cause for concern for employers, as it poses a substantial risk to the personal safety of their employees as well as the reputation of their business. Legal risks are also a reality since corporate Duty of Care laws have become tighter than ever – making the need for proactive employee education vital for all organizations with traveling staff."
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Men are more into this on-the-road bad behavior than women, with 14 percent admitting to a bar pickup (vs. 8 percent of women) and a third disclosing they binge drank on the company expense account, vs. a quarter of women.
"Two percent of males claim they've picked up a stranger in a bar every time they've travelled for business – heightening their risk substantially," the report darkly reported.
On Call International offered a bit of advice for these gamboling business travelers.
"While it certainly appears that the allure of a one night stand without the constraints of being close to home is tempting to many business travelers, letting one's guard down in an unfamiliar setting can easily lead to dangerous situations for an individual. This includes assault, robbery and otherwise avoidable accidents leading to serious bodily injury – not to mention reputational damage for the employer," said Jim Hutton, On Call International's chief security officer. "While responsibility ultimately falls on the business traveler to act in a responsible and safe manner, employers need to be proactive by setting appropriate parameters and being clear about the expectations it has of its employees while they are out representing the organization."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
