One of the questions I’m asked most often is, “How can I take more time off for travel?” For the self-employed or those with alternative streams of income, taking time off may be a bit easier. For those working full-time jobs, there’s one key barrier. You need to convince your boss you need to travel. Let’s look at how exactly to convince your boss you need to travel using three actionable tips.
Tip #1: Travel Improves Work Productivity
There are three actionable tips to help you accomplish your goal of convincing your boss that you should travel. Let’s start with understanding the motivation for your travels.
Is your goal to request time off for vacation or is your goal to convince your boss that travel should be an included part of your job position? You need to be clear in what you are asking for before approaching your boss to discuss the possibility of travel.
This part is important. Rather than starting with what you want, I’d suggest starting with what your boss wants. Your boss wants you to be effective and productive in your work. Wonderfully, taking time off to travel can actually help increase your productivity. Read that again. Taking time off to travel can actually help increase your productivity. It’s true. Science says so (e.g., Tripathi, 2021; Miyakawa and colleagues, 2019).
“Taking time off to travel can actually help increase your productivity. It’s true. Science says so.”
– Psychology of Travel
So, an important part of your discussion to request time off can include some scientific support based on what your boss wants: productivity. Use Google Scholar or other academic research search links to find articles using keywords travel and work productivity. If you can find articles that are specific to your own field of work, even better!
You don’t want to over-sell the idea of productivity like it’s magic. Just refer to the science behind travel and productivity boosts. Doing this prep work before asking for travel time off, you put yourself in the best position to present a compelling case that matches what your boss wants. Bottom line here is that facts are more effective than personal opinions.
Tip #2: Break Down Barriers to Travel
There are a million excuses why you haven’t already asked your boss for more time off to travel. Perhaps you feel uncertain whether or not your supervisor will approve time off for travel. Maybe you’ll be judged negatively for asking about traveling more. Your boss might have their own personal views about traveling or taking time away from work to travel. First, see this post for how to give yourself permission to travel right now.
You need to break down barriers to travel with practical problem-solving.
If you’re like many others, you may be overestimating the work-related problems that may occur in your absence. It’s true that there may indeed be a real impact of your absence. However, more often than not the critical functions of your job can be upheld by others until your return.
“If you’re like many others, you may be overestimating the work-related problems that may occur in your absence.”
– Psychology of Travel
If that’s truly not an option (e.g., you are the sole operator of a business), you’ll need to plan ahead. This can include bringing along certain critical elements of your job role (e.g., FireHD tablet for emails, or some sweet Bose earbuds with top-end noise cancellation for virtual business meetings), creating a work template for simplicity and repeatability, and scheduling limited amounts of time to “do work” while on vacation.
You may also be overestimating the negative judgment about requesting time for travel. Ask yourself, is my anticipated negative judgment based on any objective information or simply how I feel others may judge? A lot of times, we don’t ask because we imagine a negative outcome rather than realistically considering objective evidence that actually supports that conclusion.
Tip #3: Make Travel a Necessary Part of your Job
Even better is when you can convince your boss that travel is a necessary part of your job. This doesn’t mean you have to shift to an exclusively traveling position. You just need to show that travel helps in your job performance. Show the benefit of your travel to your company like continuing education, training, or professional networking, and your travel ticket is all but stamped.
Okay, so how do I show the benefit to my company?
First, try to identify any benefits to your health, mindset, attitude, education, training, interpersonal skills, cultural awareness, motivation, networking, or business skills. To guide you, check out this in-depth post on the mental health benefits of travel. Look for any personal growth or perspectives, and then show it at work!
Make sure you intentionally and directly share what you learned with your boss upon your return. If you took time off for your own leisure travel, make sure to tell your boss how rested you are and ready to get back to work. When you return from a business trip, share the training tips you picked up to demonstrate the value of that trip.
Importantly, do this soon after you return to work to help connect the identified benefits with your recent travels. If you wait too long to show your boss the gains you made during your travels, you risk that your boss could attribute the gains to other factors.
For example, you got back a month ago and feel that you are now using a refreshed mindset to be more productive in your work. However, your boss attributes your increased productivity to some recent policy change for all employees at your workplace. Help your boss connect the dots between travel and the value it brings to your work.
Time to Convince your Boss
By recognizing the productivity boost of travel, using practical problem-solving to break down barriers to travel, and intentionally making it clear to your boss how your travel benefits your work, you increase the likelihood that any future travel requests will be met positively.
Now, all you have left to do is pack your bags (maybe a helpful journal to keep track of your mindset boost during travel?) and head out to enjoy all the perks travel has to offer!
For more, sign up for the free Psychology of Travel Newsletter, and comment below with thoughts and tips for your fellow travelers!
Happy Travels,
Dr. L
Founder, PsychologyofTravel.com
*Miyakawa, E., Kawakubo, A., & Oguchi, T. (2019). Do people who travel more perform better at work?. International Journal of Tourism Research, 21(4), 427-436.
*Tripathi, A. (2021). Impact of Vacation on Employee Stress, Health and Well-being, and Productivity. Journal of Pharmaceutical Research International, 100-111.
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