I think I convinced my dad not to go to Brazil tomorrow. He was on the fence about it, and I feel a bit bad about getting him on my side, but maybe it's for the best. I know for sure my brother and sisters are going to be pretty mad at him though. It was a kinda business trip where he was going to make inaugural presentations for a university and stuff like that.
He was going to be 3 hours on a train, followed by 8 hours on a plane. My dad doesn't like travelling by plane and I think he's a bit scared about it too. On top of that, the company has been having lots of strikes lately and as a result there have been many problems with their planes since the maintenance guys also go on those strikes. As if that wasn't enough, they also use a plane with two engines for this trip when every other company uses 4. You can see how that can really stress someone who's already afraid of flying on airplanes.
Now, if that was all he'd probably still do it. But when he gets there he only has a few hours of sleep and after that he has to go on a day-long car trip to give a 2 hour lecture, and then return. I'd say that's pretty exhausting. He only found out about this today because the organisation is pretty bad.
There are a bunch more problems. First of all, a month ago he asked for his schedule for the 2 weeks he'll be there, and they only gave it today. Not all of it, just the first 3 days. My dad needs to know what he's going to be talking about to prepare for it, and he still hasn't received an answer on that either. He wanted to know what kind of audience he would be speaking to, and he got nothing on that. To me, all of this would be enough to stay put.
But apparently there's more to their lack of organisation. My dad was supposed to receive some program a year ago and they never sent it. He was supposed to be the thesis advisor of some students but the organisation never sent anything his way.
My dad gave them the opportunity to get a partnership with a portuguese university, but they took so long to send an e-mail that the university had given up on them by the time they finally sent it (I think it took 4 months). All of this screams complete incompetence to me. I don't see how things would change for my dad after coming back from Brazil. He doesn't do anything for them right now because they don't send anything his way, and I don't think it will change.
My dad is 69 years old. All of this physical and mental exhaustion for a possible (he doesn't even know if he'll receive anything for it) couple of months' salary? Not worth it. I fear for my dad's well being. Unfortunately my siblings don't see things the same way, but my dad already seems to have decided not to go.
