Ytukyg

How can I make clear that I would rather avoid the whole thing?

You could just go to your manager and say "I think this trip is a waste of my time, I'm not going." Of course your employer may well respond with "I think continuing to employ you is a waste of our time, I'm not going to do it any more."

On the other hand, I'm a junior with expertise on a small share of the product

How do you expect to ever get beyond not knowing anything about this product and client if you refuse to participate?

Most of the things that I could solve for our client could be done remotely in 15 minutes

Yes.. but this would negate the opportunities, both for you to acquire some technical knowledge from Bob and as you put it "keeping good client relations"

When faced with unforeseen issues, I'm not able to answer properly to the client. This of course it's my problem, but it would reflect badly on all my team.

It's not like you're on your own, Bob will be there to provide more knowledge as appropriate. Saying "I'm relatively new to the role so I'll have to check that with Bob" doesn't reflect badly on the whole team. Everyone was new at every job once, people understand that.

There are few reasons I'm dissatisfied with the experience.

It was a business trip, not a day trip to an amusement park, what do you want? a refund?

From the boss' point of view, the client insisting on a specific employee, rather than on anyone who can work on their issue, is a problem. Bob might leave, be sick, be on vacation, or be requested by two clients simultaneously. For keeping the client happy, your employer's bus factor is currently one, and that needs to change.

In addition to you learning to deal with the client and the client's problems, the client needs to learn your employer has other technical employees, not just Bob. One of your objectives on the trip should be to learn enough to be able to do future trips without Bob. Use some of the time on the train, as well as at the client site, to learn from Bob, including asking questions about what you need to study next. Another objective should be to convince the client that you are learning enough that in the future you will be an acceptable Bob-substitute.

Success will be when you can handle one of these trips solo, possibly with some phone calls home to get help, and the client is happy with you doing so.

I think this issue is your overlooking the reason that you're being invited to such business trips.

As a junior there is a whole learning process in not only IT but being able to communicate with clients and problem solve efficiently.

If you find that you do not know the answer, you can pass it on to your more senior colleague or say something alone the lines of:

Sorry I don't have the answer to that but I'll take it back with me and I'll email you a response as soon as I have the information.

I feel that going is your best option.

If you do feel that you would rather not go just say to your boss:

Hi Boss, I've been thinking about this business trip and along with the concerns I've raised I really don't think it's beneficial for me to go on this trip.

If they respond with anything but an acceptance of your request... Just go. They clearly want you to go whether you think you should be or not. There'll be a reason behind it.

I don’t know where are you located, but I’ll summarise some things you should consider:

1. As it is mentioned in another comment, this is work and sometimes we are tasked with things we don’t want to do. You should learn that. Also support trips to clients are usually better handled as a ‘team’: it shows dedication and investment from your company to solve the issues even if you are not strictly needed. To get to know your clients in their premises is also invaluable to build reputation and trust on yourself and not many people get this chance.


2. We are talking about work. And this is to be compensated. You don’t travel to your client as a hobby and I don’t think his offices are some kind of famous tourist destination. Travel time is working time and shall be compensated as such. On top of that you should get compensated for expenses related to travel (what they call diets) depending on country and company policies. You shouldn’t accept to travel on your own time under no circumstances.

As an example, in Germany travel time is working time and starts counting from the moment you exit your home the day of travel and your hotel the days you are outside.

So my recommendation in this case will be to offer yourself for the support but only if your travel time is working time and you get diets for working on the client’s premises as those are standard conditions for that type of work.

If you have really made your mind to not go, you should directly approach Bob and not your manager and ask him

“I don’t think I am learning or helping anyone with my presence at
client location. Do you really need me there? If not, I would rather
support you remotely”

If he still insists then it may be just wise for you to follow him and not argue much. This way you are directly talking to the person who is responsible for your trips and not burning bridges by escalating to your manager.

Having said this, as others have suggested, there may be career implications by not going (missed learning opportunities) or even resisting going. You can only judge yourself how serious the impact of this would be and if it is worth saving the travel time.

You should be proud that the company is sending you to represent it on a business trip with a customer. Marketing can only go so far. The time you spend with your customer, whether is one hour or half day, goes a long way into gathering feedback, improving the relationship and opening the way for further business: sometime the issue you were called in for can be solved in five minutes, or could only be solved by somebody else. But being there, showing your presence and full attention, is invaluable. And any good company would never send just "anybody".
One day trips like this are a great opportunity for you to show your value to your employer. Make the most of them.
To make it clear you want to avoid "the whole thing", first you need to sit down to your manager, figure out your career progression in the company and understand how these business trips will affect it. Maybe he won't care. Maybe.

I think the issue you have is that you don't want to spend 6 hours per day on a train and then arrive at the client where you're essentially the 5th wheel for another 6 or so hours depending on what tasks the client gives you. That's a waste of money for you, your client and your company.

If you normally work a 9 to 18, and on those days you work a 10 to 17 with another 6 hours around that, but you're only actively working for the client for 30 minutes of those 13 hours, your client still pays you for 7 hours while you only work 30. that's a waste for the client, because you were effectively not needed and they could have saved the cost of a billable day.

If you get sent to the client for 7 hours and your boss pays you for a full 7 hours but you only work for 30 minutes, that's a waste for your company, because you were effectively not needed and they could have saved the cost of sending you there.

If you have to sit 6 hours on the train and effectively have to spend time for your company, but don't get paid for those 6 hours, that's a waste for you, because that's nearly an extra day of work that you can't spend at home or wherever you want.

I can totally understand that. There are effectively 2 routes for you to go here: Either you try to convince your boss that your presence is not needed, OR you try to reduce the waste of money for everyone.

Reducing the waste of money would in this case be:

• For the client: actively involve yourself in the consultancy tasks. Don't just passively stand in the corner, because I don't think that's why Bob is so adamant he wants you to join him. Listen to what's going on, asks questions and suggest possible ways to do things, stay on the lookout for problems that might arise and try to preempt them. The more you learn, the better. Leave a good impression for the client and ensure that you aren't just spending 30 minutes of your day actually doing things for them.




• For you: Try to convince your boss that your travel time should be billed and reimbursed, even if only at half the normal billable rate. Checking a lot of sources online, pretty much every consultant who travels more than 2 hours per day to get to a client factors in a travel time billable item. Spending 6 hours per day to get to your client without getting paid for it is unheard of.

If you can't get your travel time reimbursed as such, you should ask your boss if it's okay to work on the train for normal billable time rates. This means you can still provide value to your employer during those 6 hours, but it's not for free, and they can still charge it to whatever client you're doing the work for.

If you can't get your travel time reimbursed and you're also not allowed to work on the train, then it's only fair that while on the train, you don't do anything for your boss: you don't talk to Bob about work, you don't do any work and you don't prepare your tasks for when you arrive. Read a book, watch movies on your phone, play videogames, Do anything but work. You're not getting paid for it, so your boss shouldn't have any expectations that you're actually doing stuff for him while you're on the train.

1) You should go on the trip. It provides an experience for you to present yourself to the client (Bob isn't the only one working on their project, and it's important that you're there too). It also provides an experience for you to learn from Bob and to network with him and also with your client.

2) You should, carefully and tactfully, mention to your boss that the client's office is really far away, and 6h travel time plus an 8-hour work day is not reasonable if this happens on a regular basis (it seems to have happened twice in a short period of time, so perhaps they are developing a pattern of behaviour). You should encourage your manager to ask the client to not require these sorts of business trips so regularly, or, alternately, if they want you onsite, then you should request your company to put you up in a hotel for the duration of an extended trip rather than taking the train for 6h per day.

If the business decides that someone needs to go (perhaps as part of a contractually obligated SLA?), then whether or not you would enjoy the trip is irrelevant.

It's called "work". Sometimes it involves doing things we don't want to do.

With that said, we are employees, not slaves. If it is possible to solve the customer's problems remotely, then show how that could be done - in other words, if you don't want to go, your best strategy is to find alternative ways to solve the customer's problems with the aim of making the trip unnecessary.

Just be prepared to be told that (even if your suggestion works, and certainly if it doesn't) you might have to go anyway. Sometimes consultancies have to keep their customers happy by sending people to visit, even if the actual visit itself doesn't appear to achieve anything. The company exists to satisfy its customers in exchange for money, not to keep its employees entertained.