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I have worked at this company for about 5 months now and it's my first job that pays really well in my industry. During the interview my boss (owner of company) never mentioned travel as a requirement. After I was hired I realized that 80-90% of the employees at this small company travel.

He's asked 2 times about long distance travel for several days and I told him I can't because there are some personal issues in my life going on. They're private but I have a couple family members with health issues. I also have a couple people that rely on me for various things.

This last time he asked me to take a 5 hour drive. Even though I'm not happy about it I would probably do it. However my car is very bad for long drives. Its fine for in town driving. He said he'll find someone else for this travel but I need to work out the issues in my car because travel is "part of the deal". My plan was to keep this car for as long as possible so I could save money.

I don't know what to do now. I'm worried that I'm going to lose my job over this but I'm not willing to spend the thousands to fix my car or get another one right now.

How can I handle this situation in the best way possible, hopefully without losing my job?

Chris E
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Erik
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  • I assume you're asking how to handle this situation, but can you add a specific question to make sure answers are relevant and helpful? – dbeer Mar 01 '18 at 14:18
  • Would you be comfortable stating the industry? – AFriendlyGuy Mar 01 '18 at 14:20
  • @AFriendlyGuy My official title is "software engineer" but I have so far not done much of that. The travel is to do some IT work for a client. – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 14:24
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    Would renting a car just for the day and asking for reimbursement be accepted? – Sandra K Mar 01 '18 at 14:26
  • If your job requires traveling but you can't travel, you first need to plan for losing the job. Then you should approach your boss proactively, make a case that you bring value to the company without traveling and tell him that you can't travel. He will find out that you can't travel sooner or later anyway. It's better to start the discussion prepared and on your terms. There are several outcomes possible on a scale from "sure, you don't need to travel" over "no travel but a pay reduction" or "some accomodations are possible" to "you are fired". –  Mar 01 '18 at 14:26
  • @Roland I have told him that there are personal issues that prevent me from traveling long distances but have never did a formal sit down with him. Do you think I should do that? – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 14:28
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    @Sara Based on what you describe it would appear necessary. –  Mar 01 '18 at 14:29
  • @SandraK It's common for employees to rent cars and be reimbursed, but only if they take a plane to get there. Short travel is personal vehicles. – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 14:30
  • Is your situtation of not being able to travel likely to change at any point in time, or is it something that will continue for the foreseeable future? – dbeer Mar 01 '18 at 14:39
  • @dbeer I don't think it will change for at least a year but thats just a guess. – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 14:43
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    What would your family and other dependents do if you became unavailable? (say, you caught pneumonia and were sick in bed for a few weeks)? – Dan Pichelman Mar 01 '18 at 14:55
  • @DanPichelman lets hope it doesn't happen – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 15:03
  • At your next job, get any travel requirements in writing before signing on if this is such a big deal for you. – Glen Pierce Mar 01 '18 at 15:45
  • Is there some reason you cannot use public transport, or for that matter, just take a cab? – Masked Man Mar 01 '18 at 15:55
  • @GlenPierce I will but I don't think it's right that travel wasn't mentioned at all, especially how much of it they expect. Not everyone can put their life on hold for 1-2 weeks per month. – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 15:55
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    Welcome to at will employment. They can fire you for refusing to do something that's beyond the scope of your original agreement. Yes, that doesn't seem like it should be ok, but ultimately, justice and law intersect with surprising infrequency. – Glen Pierce Mar 01 '18 at 16:05
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    Rent a car. In most US cities, you can rent one for a day for less than a software engineer makes in an hour. If you're travelling across state lines, make sure your car rental agency understands this. Find help for your family. Licensed and bonded CNA agencies are easily found in most US cities, as well. Your family's health insurance or Medicare/Medicaid may pay a good portion of it. – Wesley Long Mar 01 '18 at 16:56
  • What would your employer do if you didn't have a car? Was "owns a car" part of the job requirements? – Monica Cellio Mar 01 '18 at 22:42
  • @MonicaCellio "owns a car" was never asked or listed in the job requirements. He didn't even ask if I had reliable transporation to/from work, although I do even if my car breaks down. – Erik Mar 02 '18 at 14:00

5 Answers5

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Based on your comments, it sounds like you have a Bus Factor of 1 in your personal life.

This means that all the people who depend on you are going to be in trouble if for whatever reason you are unable to perform your daily tasks.

Find help. It might be some form of community service program, or it just might be a friend that you trade favors with. Single parents do this all the time (I'll watch your kids tonight & you'll watch mine tomorrow).

Once you have someone you can rely on, the issues at work won't be a problem any more.

From your relative's point of view, you being out of town on business for a day or two is no different from you being sick in bed coughing your lungs out. Either way, you need someone to cover for you.

Dan Pichelman
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    One time isn't so bad. This travel won't be a one time thing. Most people here travel at least 1-2 times per month. My boss's second in command was the first person to ask me to travel and I brought up this being a requirement. He said it was more of an opportunity. My boss is acting more like its a requirement – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 15:22
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    I think you miss Dan point. You can say NO to your boss. But diseases and illness aren't that understanding. So what would you do in that case. – Juan Carlos Oropeza Mar 01 '18 at 15:51
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For this apparently obvious requirement for the job, your manager is unscrupulous for not mentioning it during the hiring process. There's a reason he failed to mention it because he knows it is a deal killer for many people.

You have several issues: car/money and time. Renegotiate for all of these. Fixing the car situation is either going to cost money or you taking a big risk every time you drive it outside the city. Your time restrictions may require either asking for a lot of favors to help manage the family care or you have to hire someone.

I don't know the hiring/firing practices of where you live. Hopefully, the manager will come to his senses and realize he tried to take advantage of you and it failed. Start doing the math and come up with a money figure you're going to need to make this work and get ready to negotiate everything: trip length, travel compensation and other costs (the nature of the costs are none of his business.). If you don't ask for things, don't expect to get them. Sorry you were put in such a bad situation by a worse boss.

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Ugh.

Normally I'd say "get a new job", but this is your first job that pays really well.

So the next question is if there is a reason it pays really well? Are you doing complicated work? Is it for the travel?

Now I ask how well does it pay comparatively, and how long have you had it for? To keep this same level, it's easier if you have the job for at least 6 months, but nothing is stopping you from looking for other work.

You also note "some people depend on you", I'm assuming they aren't family. Will they still be able to depend on you if you have no job? If not, you're doing them a disservice by losing this job.

You ill family is unfortunate, I wish them the best. But why do they need you? To salvage this job, can you hire the occasional carer for them?

You car is ridiculous. Owning a car that cannot make a 5 hour commute is very silly, lord knows what condition it is in. For your own safety get one that can make a longer commute.all the sections of your question that elicit sympathy, but this one makes you seem like you're not really taking care of your life.

A half decent second hand car sounds affordable based on your statements, be aware that you can also resell it. You might not want to spend the money on it, but it will help your job AND honestly, probably save your life.

bharal
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  • The people that depend on me are family. My ill relatives have chronic illnesses that frequently require hospital visits. I'm almost always the one that takes them so I can ask the doctor questions and know how they're doing. They don't have much comprehension ability. The job is low paying for the industry, but it was supposed to get me real world experience in my field. My car is fine too. You can't tell it has any problems driving it in town. It only has issues after 1-2 hours or more of constant driving. – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 14:48
  • If anything I think it needs higher pay with the travel requirement. – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 14:53
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    @Sara nobody else in your family steps up? Why not? You need to consider your future, by the way. Ill relatives should be learning the language (i assume that is what you mean) unstead of relying on you as a crutch. That's not fair on you. Or get them occaisional help (with money from this job) , instruct the help to write down what the doctor says. – bharal Mar 01 '18 at 14:53
  • @Sara a car with issues after 1-2 hours of driving should be fixed, not tolerated. And note you're not doing the travel requirement, so maybe don't tell the boss that. – bharal Mar 01 '18 at 14:56
  • I don't have much family. It's not the language of the doctor either. It's two older relatives that both left school at an early age. They never learned to read very well due to their life circumstances. I've always been there to help them understand complex topics. Hiring someone is beyond my means. Fixing my car is great in theory but it takes money and you need to direct funds where its most important – Erik Mar 01 '18 at 14:57
  • @Sara are there community services you can use y to help out? It just seems you're selling your future short by looking after people. It might be they nice thing, but at some stage you need to choose between helping them, paying for a better car, losing your job. – bharal Mar 01 '18 at 15:01
  • @bharal if a company requires this much travel, they should provide the transportation, including a car. Hopefully if she has to provide her own car, they are paying expenses appropriately. – thursdaysgeek Mar 01 '18 at 16:39
  • @thursdaysgeek normally i'd agree with you, but given OP is already pushing back on longer flights, to me it seems risky to push for more accommodations on top of existing ones. I agree they should pay expenses for the car. She does note about rental conditions for other car uses - just my hunch is she is on very thin ice already. – bharal Mar 01 '18 at 16:48
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It sounds like this is not a company that fits your life in the long-term sense: even if you are able to convince them to exempt you from travel, you aren't going to get many promotions / bonuses / raises as the one person at the company that can't travel. You mentioned that you are working here to get experience in your field, so perhaps you just want to work things out to stay there for about a year and move on (don't explicitly tell your boss that).

I think you need to explain the situation much like you have here to your boss:

I'm worried about the travel requirements for this job; due to situations in my personal life, I can only travel occasionally for work if it means traveling overnight. I'm not sure where the disconnect happened, but I was never made aware of the need to travel as part of this job during the hiring process, or I would've made my concerns clear prior to starting. I would really like to work something out as I'm enjoying working here and feel like I'm learning a lot and can be valuable to the company despite my travel restriction.

Honestly, they did make a major blunder not discussing the need to travel during the hiring process. It's not normal for software engineers to travel 1-2 times a month, and you're correct that many positions that require that much travel both make it clear in the interview process (often in the job posting) and pay more as a result. Hopefully, your boss will recognize that and offer you some flexibility.

However, it isn't weird for software engineers to sometimes travel, and if your situation changes to where you absolutely can't travel or strongly prefer not to, then you might want to ask about travel requirements as you apply for new jobs.

dbeer
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Be honest with your boss. Explain to him from the get go that you have family members that depend on you and you'd like a reasonable time in advance to prepare things. Also, explain your car situation and ask if there was some way to limit travel.

Just explain you wish to fulfill your duties, but need some reasonable accommodations.

Dan
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