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

Based on what we've been told by OP she's someone I'd definitely want to keep in my team - dealt proactively with the issue, managed to mitigate any client impact and didn't present the boss with an unsolved problem.

Quite so & big clap on the back for OP from me too.

(& @rookiemere point taken, apologies. Altho no corporate I've ever worked with would have taken your more generous & flexible approach, maybe you & OP come from a more tech/product/operational perspective ... accept there could be more leeway then my environment, which was purely revenue driven.)

Has she come in this morning OP?

Maybe she has been told to stay away from work and sort herself out while the manager and HR decide what to do, unless she has replied to manager’s email personal reasons for her behaviour; relationship on the rocks, family problems etc to try and limit the damage possibly?

but once I watched Melanie Griffiths in 9 to 5 so I know how this works

Sorry for being pedantic but Melanie Griffiths was in 'Working Girl'
Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lilly Tomlin were in 9 to 5.

Perhaps that's why they're not so hot on office procedures

No sign of her today, she is on sick leave...

Profyaffle - had to Google Jen and Moss, the IT Crowd passed me by and have never seen it! It all sounds quite familiar

Thank you Rookie!

Do you think she is really on "sick leave" or is she on some form of gardening leave/suspension?

Possibly she's having some sort of mental health issues, or family problems which contributed to her excess drinking on company time.

Possibly the drinking and partying was a catalyst for her to face whatever the real issue is.

Possibly she's having some sort of mental health issues, or family problems which contributed to her excess drinking on company time.

If so, the company's policy - if indeed this employee wasn't contravening company policy - is absolutely wrong and should be changed to a zero tolerance to any claims for alcohol.

Allowing employees to claim for alcohol 'on the Company' is asking for trouble. It's open to abuse and worryingly it can exacerbate a drinking binge from someone who already has a drink problem.

There's a heavy drinking culture at the company although from what I've seen this seems specific to the UK office (surprise surprise!) and doesn't apply to our offices abroad. Our office is stocked with free snacks and alcohol. If an employee is found drunk on the premises it's a sackable offence yet we are encouraged to grab a beer or glass of wine from the fridge whenever we want If the company banned alcohol purchases from expenses I homes think there would be mass resignations, particularly from the Sales team! They must spend thousands 'entertaining' clients every month.

So yes the company must bear some responsibility and has a duty of care to vulnerable employees. However we (employees) are all adults and I don't think in this particular case my colleague can lay the blame anywhere else but with herself.

I don't think she has a MH problem, anxiety etc and I don't think she's an alcoholic. I think she's struggling to juggle work, kids, a long commute and all the stress that goes with that. Well she can join the queue as she is one of millions of women who have the same issues and it doesn't excuse her leaving me in the fucking lurch.

She isn't signed off, apparently feeling better and back today but working from our satellite office closer to where she lives so I won't see her.

Our office is stocked with free snacks and alcohol

Can I work there please?

Our office is stocked with free snacks and alcohol

Blimey, I though that stopped in about 1975.

It's like an episode of Mad Men.

In offices I've worked in it was a disciplinary offence to have alcohol on the premises.

Our office is stocked with free snacks and alcohol

Blimey, I though that stopped in about 1975

Nope, ours is too. But we're only allowed to touch the alcohol on a Friday afternoon.

Omg. Booze at work. I really thought that stopped a considerable time ago.

Do you know if she will be disciplined? When do you find out if you got the contract?

Having worked in the public sector all my life where booze at work is a definite no no, I've been really shocked to hear about DS's friends working in the City where it seems compulsory. Not joining in drink fuelled evenings where the organisation has placed a grand or two behind the bar is definitely frowned on.

This happens in a couple of places in my field - it's certainly not ubiquitous though.

DH and I suspect that it's a ploy to make you happy to stay later (beer/wine only open to all after 5pm), which frankly put me off as a parent of primary school aged DC - I didn't want to work at a place where it was viewed as normal to stay way beyond your hours.

Sorry, should have clarified this was about the alcohol in offices bit

It's extremely common in the industry I work in (not a million miles from Mad Men). In order to attract a certain type of applicant companies in the industry will emphasise the office has a free bar, games room, etc. None of this appeals to me personally as I'm long in the tooth and have kids. However the industry relies on lots of younger applicants who are willing to work long hours for low pay and entice them in with these 'perks'.

I have been in a few of these hipster offices. No amount of ping pong and craft beer makes up for no pension and 50 hour weeks

My office is in a trading estate with poor public transport links, so most people drive to work. If alcohol was kept on the premises very little would be drunk.

TBH I have never worked anywhere where alcohol was kept at work. At social events, work dos, industry functions etc heavy drinking is the norm, but never at the office.

I've worked in a number of places (all the same industry) where there are snacks and plenty of alcohol. Lots of client meetings and boozing with them, drinks on Fridays or at 5pm. We were still well paid though, it wasn't in lieu of actual money!

OP has she been back to work yet?

Come back op we need an update please

@Eastie77 - any update yet? Has your colleague come back to the main office? Any word from the client you were trying to win?
Hope things are working out for you.

So update is we do not know yet if client is renewing contract for our specific portfolio product but the Sales person attached to the account says he is very optimistic which is a relief.

The colleague has been dismissed! There was an hour long meeting with HR a couple of weeks ago apparently. Also heard that the IT team were requested to download messages from our internal messenger system that she has sent to colleagues over the past year and this was part of her dismissal I was on holiday so missed all the drama. All very cloak and dagger and our manager has literally not mentioned her name since she left