If you travel for work, what's the happy hour/dinner/going out culture like on your business trips?

[Anonymous]

I have my first business trip coming up and there's happy hours and dinners on the schedule every night. Not sure what to expect. 30 coworkers will be there.

[Anonymous]

For me it depends on the type of trip. For a trip that a lot of colleagues will be on, then yes, going out to dinner with a group every night is the norm in my professional world. It's also normal for some people to opt out on some nights because they're tired or whatever if there are multiple nights of this. Don't get embarassingly drunk and don't opt out *too* often.

[Anonymous]

I opt out about half the time so I can Facetime my kids.

[Anonymous]

I am an introvert and only have so much energy for socializing. I also need to get to bed early -- I'm an early riser, but also go to bed early. My sleep schedule is what is healthy for me and I'm not willing to compromise on it much.

So, I go to scheduled happy hours and dinners for the most part, but bow out after that. I'll add that I do not drink. Due to my introversion, I'd be pretty tired of it all after a few days, so I might skip a night of activities around night four or so to order room service and chill.

I'll add that what is appropriate/expected is going to depend very much on office culture -- you might work with a lot of folks who, like a PP prefer to get back to their room to Facetime with kids, or you might work in an office where there are unspoken rules that you absolutely do not skip out on anything. If you are with clients, for instance, you need to not bow out. It all just kind of depends. I personally draw a line at 9pm. I say goodnight and go to my room at 9 no matter what. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

For happy hours, you can have a half of one drink then excuse yourself to run and make a call or go work out or whatever unless there are clients. Be REALLY careful about drinking - firstly, you don't want to get roofied far from home and secondly, you don't want to make an ass of yourself, and thirdly, you might be jet-lagged and in a different time zone and dehydrated so adding alcohol to that can hit harder than usual.

[Anonymous]

I only travel for conferences or annual meetings 2-3 times a year and when I do it's usually a highlight to go out to dinner or happy hour with people I only see at those events. I sometimes have 1-2 colleagues with me who overlap with those groups and we both/all go, but generally I want to catch up with people I don't work with everyday. Typically it's just a regular dinner with a drink or two. One group can sometimes turn into a very late night, but nothing weird (this group does include a colleague).

[Anonymous]

Depends on firm. My current job Boring AF my last job we had tons of fun we stay out late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on firm. My current job Boring AF my last job we had tons of fun we stay out late.

Lol you must be under 40

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For happy hours, you can have a half of one drink then excuse yourself to run and make a call or go work out or whatever unless there are clients. Be REALLY careful about drinking - firstly, you don't want to get roofied far from home and secondly, you don't want to make an ass of yourself, and thirdly, you might be jet-lagged and in a different time zone and dehydrated so adding alcohol to that can hit harder than usual.

Geez...so many completely paranoid folks. Are you getting roofied by work colleagues? Also, won't you still get roofied if you drink 1/2 the drink? How long do you nurse that 1/2 drink?