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

She is not on holiday and your reputation is going to suffer if you let her get away with this.
Yep.

You are not there to cover up for her. You are both there to do a job. And yes, ten or twenty seconds of film might not be a bad idea.

She's being completely irresponsible and making life impossible for you.

I think if you film her you’ll just make yourself look crazy!

I can't stop refreshing this thread.

It's going to be too late to contact your manager soon if you are hoping to get a response.

One last 'get it together and give me the USB becky' then whatsapp your boss I reckon

I would give her one chance to get it together, and I'd tell her so, in so many words. She sobers up now and works with you, or you call the boss.

If she can't or won't get her head on straight... Call the boss tonight. You need to protect yourself and get his/her advice on the problem. It is your boss's job to support you in this situation.

She is being massively, massively unprofessional and damaging the company and it's every inch her own fault. You have no obligation to protect her and certainly none to go down with her. Frankly if I were your boss and found out afterwards that you hadn't read her the riot act and then called me, in that order, I'd doubt your judgement.

Penny to a pinch of pig shit she has an alcohol problem and can’t hide it from you because you’re away together.

My mum used to work with someone who always said her husband didn’t let her go on work nights out. When they separated it became apparent that the reason he did t “let” her was because she was an alcoholic who didn’t know when to stop.

Oh dear, I really feel for you. Id be honest with her and tell her if she doesnt buck up her ideas NOW you will have no option but to inform management of her behavior. I really hope it works out and she gets her head into gear

You can film her, but you wouldn't be able to use it.

Try a bit of "come the fuck on now"

And if that doesn't work have your boss call her on the pretext of hi just ringing to see how it's going for tomorrow.

All that “let’s get rat arsed” was her preplanning. I’m telling you. People don’t behave like this.

Don't approach colleagues back home looking for discretion on top of support. Be frank with them. You have to CYA here as well as do a great presentation.

You owe this woman nothing and she clearly has no loyalty to you or even self respect. Don't let her drag you down with you.

Fucking hello that’s outrageous. I’d be seriously pissed off if I was you OP.

You need to tell your manager what’s going on.

Keep us informed.

This happened to me and the person I was with had a hangover during the meeting and contributed nothing. I told nobody . How can you.

How do you get rat arsed on the company's money? Don't you have to submit receipts or have your meal allowance capped? She's getting get rat arsed on the company's time though.

Just focus on your part. It's not work time now, you said it was early morning flight then you got to hotel at 3pm... I'd be claiming work day was over too 😉
Some people are just less stressed about presentations.

Give her the opportunity right now to get the slides and go through them. If she can't/won't, ask her has she actually done them, you need to know right now.

What you absolutely must do is cover your own arse. Do what SoHotADragonRetired said.

By not reporting her behaviour you are possibly in violation of your code of conduct. You need to speak to your manager, urgently!

You can either speak to your manager now, get advice, and prevent yourself from being implicated in this or you can speak to your manager when you return and word has got back that the presentation was pretty bad.
If you do the latter your manager's first words are likely to be why in hell didn't you tell me at the time?

You won't come over as a caring colleague but you will be viewed as deceitful. This will go against you if you don't make contact with management now.

Has she definitely completed her bit of the work? Or is she trying to drink the problem away.

I'd be speaking to my manager in this scenario ... But I have a close working relationship with my manager, closer than with my peers. Also being a manager I'd be furious that she was doing this, if you called me I'd be happy to help/ support you and not hold you accountable. If you didn't I'd be furious with you too and you'd be equally accountable if the presentation is messed up.

Was the travel day paid or unpaid?
What is the company policy on being drunk in work hours
Very out of order behaviour on her part

My team used to get ratted in the evenings (we were away on masse for weeks at a time) but got the work done first

She can't just focus on her own part, ffs! They are both meant to contribute the whole thing.

TSS

You can film her, but you wouldn't be able to use it.

Perhaps not if she’s sitting in her private hotel room, but if she’s getting drunk in the lobby/hotel bar it’s a public space.

Besides, it wouldn’t be used in a court case but If she needs to prove herself to be truthful incase the colleague spins a tale.

Tell the manager. She’s using the company card and will drag you down with her. If she gets into shit well tough, it’s her own fault.

Do not contact your boss. It's not about covering for her but if you're senior enough to be sent overseas to make a clearly critical presentation you are senior enough for your boss to have a reasonable expectation that you provide them with solutions not unresolvable problems.

At this stage your boss can do nothing. So deal with it.

Give your colleague a stern warning now: you need slides in next hour and you expect to see her at 6am for run through.

Then prepare for the worst case scenario: that she doesn't turn up at all. Pull together a coherent presentation that doesn't rely on her at all. It won't be ideal, but concentrate on saving face.

Once presentation is done then decide how to respond to colleague and boss.

I can just picture you at the presentation tomorrow on your own as she will be sleeping off a hangover claiming someone spiked her drink, or food poisoning. Leaving you without the technical stuff and still an underprepared presentation.

Whatever happens will reflect badly on you unless you report this to management ahead of time.

Oh and I would be emailing her cc the manager in and ask her to be professional, sort the slides and stop using the company card to get drunk.

I would absolutely contact your manager if I were you. My loyalty would be to the company and the client, not the person letting them down and not doing their job.

I also think she might have an alcohol problem.