Wondering if colleague did this on purpose

I think everyone has been a little unreasonable here.

You, for not making sure you were at the entrance ready to greet them, if they’re that important and you’ve been waiting months for this.

Her, for not delivering them to you properly once they had arrived.

Them, for leaving after 10mins and not being a bit more assertive, asking someone else to locate you.

Or, you know, just tell her you're in the office and where to find you if you've arranged an important meeting on a day you're not usually in

I don’t doubt she did do this on purpose. It’s invariably the case though that colleagues are obliging if you are suitably grateful and appreciative in return. You probably haven’t been any where near enough of either. It’s a simple transaction- just basic people management skills. You need to smile, thank and perhaps flatter her a bit. Buy her a box of chocs or a bottle of wine to show it doesn’t go unnoticed. Basically, you must try harder. Sorry Op.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Brilliant 👏

I think we're starting to understand what working with the OP might be like 🙃

Where do you normally sit?

Is it in an office? Or an open plan area.

Ie if you were not in this meeting, but sat in your office at 12 waiting, would the junior have come to find out anyway? As it doesn't sound like she went to any office to see even a colleague of yours?

No one in a normal office hangs around reception waiting for guests. Unless it's the king!

Yabu. You are annoyed at yourself for not being firmer with your senior and making it clear you would be waiting for the guests as this had taken a lot of logistical arrangements.

Ya also bu to have a hierarchical attitude to a member of staff you admit to not even being quite sure what they do, just because they are junior.

Perhaps she may be more helpful if you treated her with more respect as it works both ways.

It was unprofessional of you to start the meeting 10 minutes late for no good reason and to not be available to greet people promptly as they arrived.

Surely if you’ve been preparing for the meeting for months, it wasn’t necessary to have a last minute session with the senior consultant right at that moment? Nothing should have stopped you from being there on time.

It’s clear that your unhelpful colleague clearly had no idea that you were expecting this important meeting or that you were even in the office that day. She also behaved unprofessionally, but it was definitely your job to let her know what was happening both by email and in person.

The whole workplace sounds chaotic!

No. That is called "one of the few people who agree with you". Not actually rfemotely the same thing.

She was definitely out of order, but if the meeting was that vital, and something you had been working on for months, I'd have been standing out in reception at 11:55 waiting for them, not in another meeting that you'd have to be "fetched" from.
She's definitely more to blame, and I probably would escalate it to her manager, but you've also got a role in this.

This is very odd, I can't decide if she doesn't like you, or if you're being a bit up your arse and putting her in her place by making yourself a bit of a madam and she wasn't playing ball

Do you not have a reception area with a receptionist who would call you? Sounds like visitors are just left to wander around aimlessly?

Seeing as OP is refusing to answer I'm guessing that she didn't tell junior colleague that she was in that day.

OP massively fucked up and is trying to weasel out of it by blaming the junior colleague.

It’s a fair point but I think the reason people have picked up on this is that the colleague doesn’t seem
to have been informed that OP was in on her usual day off so it feels like blaming a junior for her own poor communication.

Also as someone who has worked in senior management the buck stops with me. If I arrange an important meeting it is up to me to ensure it happens and there is no way I would have left it ten minutes before investigating. I am perfectly comfortable excusing myself from meetings with the CEO as I have someone else booked in. The OP should have taken more ownership if this meeting was so important.

The one thing that could come out of this is a better process for meetings in the company as it sounds disorganised.

Did she see you in the office that morning? I think that is crucial information.

Because if she didn’t and you haven’t told her that you were in and having this meeting then it looks like she’s said ‘OP doesn’t work Fridays,’sorry’. They’ve thought it was a mix up, hence not looking for you and leaving quickly.

Wasn’t there anyone else in your team who saw what happened? It does sound like they didn’t even make it past reception (or whatever you have at the entrance).

You said she knows you don’t work Fridays. Did she know you were working this particular Friday?
It sounds likely she told them you weren’t in because she didn’t know you were.

This sounds odd as our office works like yours and someone would come and find you

Even if junior thought you were not in, she knows that the rest of your department is there so can get them who may or may not be able to run the meeting or know where you are.

If anyone turned up got the finance head, I as finance middle person would greet them in my bosses absence and at least sit them down, offer drinks /wifi and see if either I can help or they can take a break if there has been a screw up before heading back out.

No one would just say x is not in office, go away. We'd get their colleagues /team to assist and try and sort out the mistake.

If it is part of your colleagues role to direct visitors, to meeting rooms / offices, she should be made aware of what meetings have been arranged, the participants and the locations.

The entiire way of working seems bizarre and disrespectful on many levels.. take a step back and think about why you were not able to be ready at the time the meeting was due to start, why your visitors left, why the consultant insists on exerting their power over you and taking up more than their alloted time, why you expect a junior member of staff to do tasks for you without providing them with the information required to complete that task.

Model respectful behaviour, insist that meeting times are adhered to... and show other people the curtesy of contacting them if you are going to be late.. does no one have a phone or access to a messaging service??

Dear X... I am expecting visitors from Green building today for a meeting in the square room at 12. If for some reason, they are unable to find the room, or me, please direct them to the square room and message me.

Lack of organisation, direct and clear communication and respecting the start and finish times of meetings would infuriate me.

How her office works is that she isn't in on a Friday. And it appears she didn't bother to let junior person know she WAS in this particular Friday and where to find her when her meeting attendees show up.

It sounds like a communication problem.

We use a shared calendar for this - shows who our attendees are, who the guests are and which meeting room at which time.

Anyoe of us from the senior partners down will show an expected visitor to the room and offer a drink. Then (send someone to) find the organisor.

Unexpected visitors are asked who they want to see, ushered into an used meeting room and offered a drink while the person is found.

It really isn't rocket science.

This was not a casual catch up between teams, according to the OP meeting was important and had taken months to set up, you don’t leave anything to chance or assume people know what to do.

As for not being able to leave the previous meeting - that is poor practice. I am senior and I am managing a very high priority project reporting regularly to the CEO and Board. If one of my team told me they had a hard stop at 12 for a key meeting I would stop talking at 11:55 to let them go not keep on going and make them late. It is completely usual for people to state they have a hard stop.

It feels like the OP is upset that the meeting didn’t happen and instead of trying to learn from what went wrong she is trying to dump the blame on someone junior.

It sounds as if they didn’t properly look for you but it also sounds as if you didn’t communicate with them properly.

did you tell them that you were going into the office on your non work day and were expecting a meeting at 12:00?

if you haven’t properly communicated with them their are learns that you can take from this too

Not every department or organisation has a reception. It's really not that uncommon.

For example you could work in a large public building with multiple smaller departments/stakeholders, with no reception.

You should have been in the agreed place at the agreed time.

The meeting is at 12.00 and will be in room 2.05 in the MN Towers building.

Simple.

I don't know what everyone here is banging on about. You're working in a team, you have team mates. Yanbu to expect them to find you, and yes I'd pursue this.

She perhaps should've got you but it was your meeting and in senior roles you need to be more assertive irrespective of whether others are set in their ways. You have to be able to be firm. And how he can be unhappy with her for you I don't know, given he was monopolising your time.

Ultimately she could've been more helpful but it's on you.