Catching a plane at 7am invariably entails getting up several hours earlier. Repeat this routine on a regular basis and the results are not hard to imagine: a tired and stressed business traveller, probably performing well below his or her ability.
Research has constantly found that frequent business travel leads to "poor work-life balance and poor psychological well-being."
The latest from occupational psychologists Robertson Cooper carried out with IG Management, the consulting firm of former Amex executive Bernard Harrop, has come up with some damning figures.
First there is the cost of the travellers' wellbeing. Professor Ivan Robertson of Robertson Cooper told the recent ACTE conference in Barcelona that "frequent flyers visit the doctors for psychological health problems around three times more than non-travellers and are at a heightened risk of poor health."
A survey of ACTE members carried out by the two companies found that poor health manifested itself in "anger, mood swings and relationships with others." Respondents reported "low psychological well-being" with average scores in the bottom 20-25% for manager/professionals. Not all of these were frequent flyers.
But they also spoke of their productivity level being linked to a poor work life balance where areas of stress included interference with weekend and spare time, lack of freedom to travel at convenient times and transit through airports.
These stresses were also spilling over into their family and social lives.
Prof Robertson had no doubt what was at least one of the causes of this. "Pressure on business travellers has increased greatly in recent years whereas travel policies have continued to be ‘price driven' with little regard to traveller health," he said.
In the White Paper that he and Mr Harrop have produced, the case is set out just as clearly.
"Focusing on the price of the air ticket does not take into account the inevitable stressors associated with travel - factors which increase stress levels and cause poor productivity costing a company real money.
"This means that there is a trade-off between the real cost of air tickets and the total financial impact on a company through employee productivity and healthcare bills."
So what is this cost? Prof Robertson gives as an example a company with 200 frequent travellers each with an average salary of £100,000.
He deduces that a loss in productivity by one traveller could cost the company £9,000 a year. For all 200 that would be £1.8m a year.
This is loss of productivity while the employee is at work – not for when he or she may be off sick.
Not surprisingly, Prof Robertson suggests travel policies "need to be reviewed to take into account the diverse needs of travellers' well-being."
But there does not seem to be much sign of this at least in Europe.
Beverley Heinritz, general manager of GetThere, spoke to BTE of three trends in the business travel industry: security and passenger safety, green issues and the work life balance. While the first is global, the second is strong in Europe but weak in the States, the third is strong in the States but weak in Europe.
Ms Heinritz said: "We have a lot of corporates changing the work/life balance and buying into other dimensions of travel, like extra leisure days on a business trip which some companies now allow.
"We are also really intrigued that some allow the business traveller to bring a companion for those extra days.
"We are also helping with things like booking restaurants for dining out, getting theatre tickets or arranging for a game of golf."
She referred to a survey by American consultants PhocusWright in the summer which found that up to a third of business trips were being extended mainly from the wish to spend a little extra time at leisure. Bolting on these days was a relatively cheap solution.
Adding on a couple of extra days of travel may not sound like an obvious solution to a person already stressed by too much travel. But it does offer a period of relaxation and a chance to be with a partner.
But it is addressing the problem – which Europe seems not to have done very much so far.
* A copy of the research results is available at www.acte.org/
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