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 it went well.

Give me someone who is a hot mess brilliant creative any day to hang out with over a stuffy suit.

Good luck with that. I used to work in an industry that relies on hot mess creative types, but they didn’t get sent to delivery crucial pitches to clients FFS

Compassion, like respect, is something that should be offered automatically, not something you have to "earn"

I think the prim, stick-up-the-arse professionalism and service of capital beyond all things that dominates this site is reaaaaaaally boring

Seems your automatic compassion and respect for people on this forum is failing...

Why exactly are you on this forum if you find it so boring?

Loving this thread! Can't wait to hear how the presentation went, keep us posted OP.

Give me someone who is a hot mess brilliant creative any day to hang out with over a stuffy suit.
I work with plenty of artists (visual, theatre, ....). They may be brilliantly creative but are not "hot messes" and have a high work ethic. Talent alone will get you nowhere.

All of these 'I just popped in to wish you luck' posts are reminding me of that scene in 'Airplane!' When Leslie Nielsen keeps popping into the cockpit as the ex fighter pilot is trying to land the plane 😂

IGood luck with that. I used to work in an industry that relies on hot mess creative types, but they didn’t get sent to delivery crucial pitches to clients FFS*

Me too! When we needed brilliant ideas we’d get the hot messes into a room, wind them up and let them go.

But when it came to presenting those ideas to the client, it was the reliable ‘squares’ in suits who went and sold them.

I would worry about having so much detail about a work situation on a very well known and widely read forum.

Good luck!

I have to agree with @qazxc

I spent 15 years in a creative role in a creative industry and it was most definitely NOT anything other than a business. We had to behave, dress and work professionally at all times. Anyone who spouts such nonsense about wacky fun creative types who are hot messes, but who still manage to turn around work on extremely tight deadlines and within budget (same as any business).....what on earth are you smoking, and can I have some?

gilchrist168
@AllInADay
"Tune in, turn on, drop out."
But do your presentation first in your best suit, and don't let your work colleagues down.
Right on! Remember those transparencies that you used to have to write on with felt-tip pen, then put them on one of those hot, wailing projector machines to show them on a screen (or against a white wall). Those were the days!

Fingers crossed that this all goes well/is going well/has gone well (not sure what time your presentation is or what time it is in Lisbon now).

I'm glad that your manager knows what has happened, and has been supportive - and that your colleague appears to be capable of doing a half-decent job of her share of the presentation (I hope).

I also hope she has been properly sorry for her behaviour, and carries on being sorry afterwards. And I am not sorry if she gets into trouble when she gets home, over this.

She’s a Spurs fan, I’m surprised she got in at 1am!! It was a huge night!
BUT that’s no excuse and why the hell didn’t she get all the slides done ASAP so she could have enjoyed herself without the worry. Actually, sounds like she did do that anyway and didn’t worry but it’s not on! She’s going to be in all sorts of trouble, what was she thinking of.
Do hope presentation went well for you.

Any colleague who behaves like this on a work trip needs to suffer the consequences.

Completely selfish behaviour that jeopardises the bonus of her colleagues, and potential effects the income and reputation of the company.

But yeah, it's ' Hot Mess Creative' so chill out , squares.

Anyway, back in the real world, I think a final written warning and a referral to the companies Wellbeing services are in order for said colleague.

Lisbon is same time zone as us, presentation was at 10, not sure how long it is/was.
Lisbon is a great city. Are you in the old town? If so walk out tonight and head up the hill, so many great little restaurants there and singing bars.

But late now, but why didn't you work on your presentation in the four hour journey from Lisbon airport to your hotel (in Lisbon)?

Hope it went well

OT but the phrase ‘hot mess’ makes me do a full body cringe.

Where did you get that from, Gimmie? OP says they had an early flight, presumably from the UK and reached the hotel in Lisbon at about 3pm, delayed somewhat by drunk colleague buying booze after getting off the plane.

As to why they didn't work on the flight, maybe they weren't sitting together, maybe there were considerations of commercial sensitivity.

Hope it all went well, OP.

Why would you work in the cramped and horrible cattle-class conditions on a short hop to Europe, especially when you've got hours to work in significantly more comfort when you get there?

Gimmie Assuming the pitch is confidential (which I would expect), OP absolutely couldn't have worked on it on the journey. In my industry people have been sacked for discussing confidential information on public transport!

Oh and another one coming on to say it would be completely normal to finalise the presentation the day before at the hotel. This is 'run through and check we think the slide order works and slot your slides in' not 'we need to draft 100 slides from scratch.

I'd have told my manager to cover my own back but let them know it was under control. No way I would cover for someone who has been so unprofessional as to treat a sales trip as an excuse to get plastered in advance of the main meeting. Completely difference to a conference environment where everyone would have been drinking the night before and looking a bit worse for wear on the platform would have been funny rather than career destroying.

hope the presentation wenk ok OP

"Lisbon is same time zone as us, presentation was at 10, not sure how long it is/was."

Thank you, @Janus - to be honest, it should have occurred to me to google it before posting !

Sounds like drunk colleagues DH isn't stepping up enough if she goes this mad when away from DC etc. Not an excuse though. I'd be furious if this was me.