Putting your money where your mouth is

Though it's not my money this time.

A few days ago I said I was going to 'nurse' each new software release through our customer contact in Dallas. That, of course, involves me travelling to Dallas, putting up in a hotel room for a couple of days and doing it.

You'd think, wouldn't you, that if the company I work for can so easily require me to travel to The Philippines or France on 3 hours notice, as they did more than once last year, that a short trip to Dallas would be easy to arrange. So I'd have thought, but when I needed to go to Dallas last December they made waves. Was my trip really necessary? Couldn't I do the work from here in Phoenix? And so on and so forth.

Things change; maybe they're watching the bottom line a little more closely than before. We've had a major change of management style; perhaps this was part of that change?

So it was with a little trepidation that I filled out my nth Travel Authorisation form, requesting a week in Dallas. A week may be more than needed but experience tells me that I always underestimate the time it'll take. This is also going to be my first exercise in this particular brand of hand-holding; both sides will be learning how to do it.

They surprised me by signing the forms off with nary a demur. I must have done a better sales job than I imagined last week.

Of course, planning all of this a week ahead of time is fraught with risk. I have a nagging suspicion, based on email flying between us, Dallas and Baguio, that plans may change and instead of enjoying Texas Barbecue next week I'll be in Baguio. We'll see what happens!