h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A small company employs someone who has a fear of flying. At that time the company has little overseas work so this isn't an issue but the company grows and soon there is a need for him to travel more. The only way he can get on a plane is to have a fairly significant shot of dutch courage (i.e. several large whiskies) but this obviously means he can't have a meeting that same day.
Should the company fly the employee out the night before and put him up in a hotel or force him to fly with less drink in him?

The former - if he absolutely must get out there. Do a day's work in the parent office and fly in the evening.
But wouldn't video-conferencing do for most things?
If he has to go and inspect a factory/project etc, then arriving bright and bushy tailed first thing in the morning is much more impressive to the client than half way through the day with an amount of alcohol (however small) still sloshing round the system. Also get him to switch to tranquilisers or a sleeping pill for the evening flight.

But putting him up over night would increase the cost of sending him abroad. This would make the company less likely to send him and if he was, say, a salesman this would impact his ability to earn his commission thus would be discriminatory.

A company could not ask someone to take tranquilisers - the legal liability would be untenable.

And, as yet, videoconferencing is pretty useless because you can't play golf over the phone - and that is pretty much what the big meetings involve

Perhaps he'd rather fly economy than business if he can drink and get put up in a hotel. How good a salesman is he?
To work overseas, he'll have to have some of the target language and be able to entertain the buyers. he can do that at the hotel. -to breakfast if they're Germans and he's too sloshed the night before

I think that they should fly him out the night before, either that or if their overseas work has grown considerably would they have the scope for a second salesman?

But salespeople compete against each other so adding another salesperson just decreases his own comission, so that wouldn't be good for him.
Of course, IRL someone with a fear of flying would find a different career - but it wouldn't make an interesting problem then.

I would sack him and get someone else!

Is it ethical not to mention at the interview stage that you have a fear of flying because you think this might prejudice your chances of getting a job? Assuming you aren't specifically asked, that is.

Yes. If told that the job involves overseas travel, no.

I agree, but how many people are truly honest in job interviews?

I am - but that is because they are nerdy technical interviews so there's little scope for falsehoods.

I don't volunteer that I'm colour blind however - shoudl I? What if I was asked to code a colour printer driver - I wouldn't be able to test it...

Interesting - do you use Goo or Alabaster?

Erm, Alabaster...why?

(What I see is green header part, yellow fading darker to orange menu bar, red menu buttons and white main window background)