On work trip abroad. Colleague gone crazy

[Eastie77]

Just that really. I'm abroad for work, 2 days in a major European city with a client meeting tomorrow morning. I've travelled with a female colleague who, like me, has 2 young DC. When we found out about this trip she messaged me to say she was desperately looking forward to it as she needs a break from the DC and is run ragged juggling everything. I said I totally sympathised and she replied that we should use this trip as an opportunity to get rat arsed on the company's money. I just laughed.

Arrived at the airport this morning for our early flight to find she had already had downed 2 pints but was at least sober. She kicked up a fuss on the plane as there was no alcohol on sale - not massively but enough to embarrass me. Landed and she bought more alcohol and has generally been increasingly drunk, hyper and shrill since saying this is 'her time'. We arrived at the hotel at 3pm and were meant to go over our presentation for tomorrow but I've had zero input from her. I need her to contribute a bunch of slides and practice a demo of the technical solution we are meant to be presenting to the client but she is not playing ball and has just been propping up the bar. I'm stressed. It looks as if I will have to do her slides and I don't have enough knowledge so emailing colleagues back home. I don't want to speak to my manager about this. She is normally quite conscientious

Hope OP updates, I wouldn't be covering for her that's for sure..

OP has already said she is presenting a complex solution which she has no experience of as an end-user. It's quite one thing knowing the facts and figures about how much licences cost and the benefits of the product, quite another being able to answer detailed questions about how the thing works from a user's perspective and its technical spec.

But yeah, just wing it OP. Sure it'll be grand.

And where is the colleague’s respect for the OP?

Best of luck. If you've done similar many times before you'll be fine.
Apologise that your colleague is in hotel with food poisoning.
Your boss absolutely needs to know.

Seems like it’s the colleague who is deeply selfish, and grabby- using the company’s time and money to get drunk and leaving her colleague in the shit n

Even this morning I wouldn't send the e-mail - unless she doesn't turn up or is clearly unwell.

And as for WWAMD - I was for nearly 20 years one of only two women on a specific team who ran training courses all over the world and I never saw a man throw a colleague under a bus like that. Explain if there is a backlash, sure, communicate change of plan if colleague is sick, yes, but pre-emptive e-mails - never saw that.

Last minute prep in situ is fairly common especially if it is the first time a team has had a chance to get together for a few days. Hotel-room work was always some of our most creative

I'm an academic. I go to conferences, which are basically the biggest piss-ups ever, and have been in the OP's situation several times.

Academia is a completely different world.

Nobody's income is riding on the back of your average academic conference. This is a presentation that is supposed to generate income.

Why are you risking your professional reputation to protect this idiot?

As someone upthread said: "think like a man who wants his bonus"

Fuck me. I'm pissed off on your behalf OP. How is she this morning? Still dead in bed I bet.

For me it would honestly be: colleague meet bus

I'm gonna be refreshing this thread all day.
Hope it works out ok OP!

Mother of God, she should be getting The Fear around now. Is this her first work trip? Good luck!

As I said before, I've been in the OP's position, several times. What I wouldn't do is to flap on a public forum instead of sorting the situation out by quietly ringing other people with the data and obtaining what I needed.

It's not an either/or. Did you miss the bit where OP said she had done precisely that? Over the course of several hours' preparation she's allowed to take the odd few minutes out to vent on here.

If you've been in this situation several times and had to cover, then you work with some exceptionally shit people and really should think about whether covering for them is doing anyone any favours.

Wanted to wish u luck OP I hope you pull it off

Good luck for today OP.

Good luck today!

Wonder if the colleague will do a presentation like David Brent's £300 for 15 minutes speech.

Good luck Op I hope it all goes well!

Hope it goes well OP
I used to work for a big Pharma company and went on lots of conferences and work trips. Some people did overdo the drinking and the rest of us did usually cover for them BUT not if clients were involved and certainly not if their behaviour was negatively impacting our own performance or jeopardising our own position
It would have been better if the presentation had been done earlier, after all a genuine emergency or illness could have arisen. I was very ill on a work trip once and rumours did go round that it was a hangover, luckily I had been for a meal with my boss and he had seen me go to bed early feeling unwell, although I suppose I could have snuck out again to get drunk (I hadn’t)

Good lord I don't know whether to hope she's brought eyed and bushy tailed and has pulled professional slides out of her arse and you have enough time for a joint run through, or that she's ashen faced semi snoring can't get out of bed without puking and definitely too ill to come.

As to the person comparing it to academia, oh do behave it's really not comparable. This is major, company income affecting at least three peoples bonus.

I’d definitely email my manager beforehand. Factually with minimal emotion.

Good luck!

Is anyone else wondering if there is a Portugal based MNer who has read this and will be going into a presentation by two woman today and seeing if she can work out if one of them was completely trollied last night (and how much rides on this presentation for various people within the organisation)

I've worked in academia and business (for an insurance Broker in The City, with Major corporate clients) I have presented at academic conferences and at client presentations. There is no comparison. Seriously, any academic comparing this situation to an academic conference does not have a clue.

I agree with saying you have to be up front with your manager. This is serious misconduct territory. Good luck today.

I've got to see how she handles this this morning OP.

Good luck with the meeting☹️

Sorry didn't mean to do the unhappy face. I'm sure it will be great 😃

The op did not leave it till the last minute. She'd done her slides, today was about including her colleagues' and having a read through, presumably together. If people are saying they wouldn't leave that till the day before the presentation they clearly don't have very demanding jobs.