The Ethicist

My salaried job requires much travel. When a trip extends into the evening, I turn off my laptop and read or have a drink. But during business hours I typically work, although I’ve seen many travelers in business apparel watching videos at 10 a.m. Am I overly conscientious, or are they taking advantage? Am I doing my job simply by being in motion? RACHEL BRAGIN, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

It depends on your job. If it involves smelting, you ought not attempt it in a taxi. It also depends on your mode of transportation. If you are driving yourself to a satellite office, do not use your laptop. (Especially if you are driving a motorcycle.) That is, where circumstances make it onerous or perilous to work in transit, don’t do it.

Air travel, for example, is generally so vile (at least outside first class) that the trip itself is work, as you suggest. You should be given bonus pay. Or a powerful sedative. But where conditions are conducive to work, do some — at one of those nice tables in the quiet car on Amtrak’s Acela or in your stateroom during a leisurely Atlantic crossing by ocean liner in 1927.

There are other considerations. Sometimes it is important that a business traveler arrive rested and alert, ready to meet with clients or colleagues. That can be a factor in deciding if the most effective way to do your job is simply to turn off the computer and relax. This is necessarily a judgment call. In making it, you may want to consult your supervisor.