Travel for work

[Ladyk79]

Hi,

I’m hoping someone can give me some advise.

I have been asked to attend a meeting in Manchester (4hours drive) on a Monday morning, which means I will need to be leaving the house before 6am. The meeting is due to finish at around 4pm. My manager has said to stay over night in a hotel but to drive an additional 2 hours after the meeting stay over and to continue my journey the following morning that way the “desk” will be covered because we are not losing out on the 4 hour commute home the next day.

I’m not a big driving, doing the 4 hours fills me with dread but I will do it. I guess my question is, is he being unreasonable asking me to get to a meeting 4 hours away on a Monday morning thus starting my day earlier and then to sit in a meeting and then to drive an additional 2 hours after that. Making this a long tiring day.

Personally I would rather stay over in Manchester log on that eve do a couple of hours and hit the road first thing the next day. Driving tired is a lot more dangerous than doing emails in the eve right?

I personally would rather be a bit cautious than over commit to driving so much in one day which will take me way beyond my working day anyway.

Can my manager make me do this?

Thanks

If you are travelling to somewhere not listed as your usual place of work then any travel time should usually be either paid or given back as TOIL.

Have you looked at whether there are any trains from your location to Manchester that would make for an easier/quicker journey? It's about a 3.5 hour drive for me to Manchester but there's a 1 Hr direct train to Sheffield then change to a 1 Hr train to Manchester and i can work/rest on the train.

If you are setting out at 6am and finishing the event at 4pm then that's a 10hr day. It's not completely unreasonable to ask that you overnight in a different city that would make you able to meet business needs the next day but it's also not unreasonable for you to prefer not to do that as it's a very long day and you will already be owed time back, so speak to your manager about it.

Haven’t they heard of Teams…