“Put your feet up!”, the cleaning lady yelled in Greek. At least that’s what we thought she must have meant. She and her colleagues were mopping the floor at the airport in Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
Sitting in the uncomfortable seats at the gate, our feet were in the way because the plane to take us back to Zurich, Switzerland, had broken down. The replacement had to be brought in, which would take most of the night.
My teenage daughters weren’t too dismayed. My 10-year-old was stretched out over a row of seats, her head close to her mother’s. My 14-year-old was on her second free cappuccino from the airport coffee shop that had stayed open past midnight to supply a planeload of angry Swiss tourists with sustenance.
If you’re reading this, chances are you are passionate about global talent mobility and know how enriching it is to get to see any location other than your own neighborhood.
If you have children in your life (and that could mean your niece you see only twice a year or your younger cousin that you don’t even know that well), give them an opportunity to travel with you, see the sights (and sites), but even more so: Let them experience what happens when things don’t go as planned.
These trips don’t have to be far-flung and costly. Take a 20-minute drive to your nearest old town or historic house. Let your young travel companions imagine what happened in this place, in another era, to other generations. Or explain the concept of gentrification. (It will be useful to them once they must pay their own rent.)
Consider whether you’d rather invest in a luxury article to impress someone you don’t know. Or else, allocate these funds toward creating an unforgettable experience for a young person that also teaches them to be patient and to go with the flow.
So, how did the Greek experience pay off for our daughters?
This spring, we were stranded in our home airport, Los Angeles International, watching an unruly crowd of entitled American tourists and confused French pensioners yell at the poor Air Tahiti Nui crew that had to tell them, as things were unfolding, that the plane to Paris had no working air conditioning and that the part needed to fix it would take too long to arrive.
The French pensioners, vacationing in French-speaking Tahiti, hadn’t selected to stay in California in the first place; it was a necessity to refuel here and return to “La Grande Nation.” As far as they were concerned, a situation like this had to be explained properly, “en français,” by informed and culturally sensitive Tahitian staff.
And I don’t know what they must have been thinking about the one, then two, then three burly armed law enforcement officers that were calmly surveying the angry crowd, which was moving in closer and closer to the two beleaguered crew members, trying to keep the mob at bay.
But my daughters were just at ease. It wasn’t a dangerous situation. They had had a plane break down on them before. They knew better than to complain to us about our lost first day in Paris.
At the same time, and not dissimilar to what they’d do during a zoo visit, they observed some alpha males in action. Lecturing the crowd loudly about their legal options (dubious advice at best) or strutting threateningly in front of their girlfriends toward the short-handed crew members, these dudes demanded that the airline have a second plane ready to go NOW.
My younger daughter, now 15 and accompanying us to visit her older sister, who is now 19 and studying in Paris, was taking it all in with open eyes. She even got off her phone.
Together in the airport hotel for the night, we later analyzed and discussed everyone’s behavior.
How did these adults react to a (mild) crisis that really wasn’t endangering anyone and was only harmful to their entitled expectations? What did these daddies tell their disappointed offspring, and how helpful did my daughter think that was?
If you can imagine both airport situations, and maybe recall some of your own travel mishaps, think of the lessons you could share (or could have shared) with a younger person.
As a talent mobility professional, how’s that for ROI on your modest (or sizeable) travel money investment? You are making memories that transcend generations.
At the same time, you offer younger travelers a master class in conflict resolution, or resilience, or in how to ask for the bathroom in a foreign language.
As talent mobility professionals, we can draw on our personal experiences to better support employees and their families, ensuring they are well-prepared to manage the complexities of global relocations. Investing in such enriching experiences not only enhances employee satisfaction but also contributes to successful assignments and stronger retention rates.