Travelling Leads to Promotions?

Tarek Musanna

Is this the beginning of a ridiculous article? Can travelling really help an individual’s professional life? Improve one’s job and career, leading to promotions in the work place? It might not make a lot of sense right now, but by the end of this article, it just might. So, keep reading on.

Germans might be one of the most efficient and productive bunch in the world, but do you know they also take more vacations than most other nations? Travelling does not only refresh one’s mind, but it is scientifically proven to also improve health and even increase creativity. The purpose of taking time off work, is to take a break from your normal routine and place yourself in a new environment, and it does not take a rocket scientist to understand that travelling serves that purpose best. 

A 2015 study, conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, showed that more than three-quarters of the HR managers surveyed, said that their employees who used their vacation time were more productive than the ones who didn’t. As for emotional health, many studies suggest that travelling can improve that too. A 2014 survey, conducted by Diamond Resorts International, found that over three-quarters of respondents reported feeling happier when they planned a trip, at least once a year. And the benefits don’t end with the trip; reminiscing about pleasant vacation memories tend to trigger positive emotions too, long after you’ve returned home.

According to Mark Twain, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Travelling has directly influenced many great writers, and there happens to be a scientific reason behind that. Creativity, in general, is related to neuroplasticity, or easily put, it is related to how the brain is wired. Neural pathways are influenced by environment and habit, which means that they are sensitive to change - new languages, smells, sounds, sensations, sights, and tastes, spark different synapses in the brain and have the potential to revitalize the mind.

Not taking vacation time can go as bad as even harming the economy, according to a research. Workers in Finland, with an average of 40 vacation days a year, happen to rank 6^th on the Global Competitiveness scale. Stress is a major health issue for workers, and has been called the new tobacco, owing to the physically damaging effects it creates for the body; part of the reason why you can see some major multinational companies offering to take their employees to paid trips.

Still not convinced that travelling does wonders? Here’s a rundown of famous travelers who owe quite a lot to this particular passion of theirs - Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks learned about the Italian coffee culture, took it to America and established a billion dollar chain. It was while travelling that Red Bull was invented; Dietrich Mateschitz founded the drink, upon noticing a special drink drivers seemed to gulp down, to stay up at night in Thailand. J.K. Rowling thought of Harry Potter when she was travelling on a train. Steve Jobs’ pilgrimage to India is very well known too. Eat, Pray, Love isn’t just a fictional book or a movie, it also happens to be inspired by real travelling events.

And if you’re still not sold, why don’t you take a break and go travelling for a couple of days, and then see for yourself if you get better at work after returning.