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

I'd also be preparing to present alone.

I’d be phoning my manager.
I wouldn’t be putting my job, reputation, bonus on the line for no fucker.
Your covering for her op, that won’t end well.

I think you need to be a bit more forceful

'If you don't sort this now and get yourself together, I'll be speaking with the manager. This isn't your jolly, you're going to make fools out of us and affect our bonus'

What a horrible situation she has landed you in. Totally unprofessional. In your shoes I’d be giving her one last chance to put down her glass, give you the slides and pull herself together, otherwise I’d be contacting the boss and reporting what is going on, as well as getting agreement to my proposed course of action to save the day.

Bloody hell, I like a drink and so do my colleagues, we all joke about getting rat arsed at meetings (which we did in the old days) but we got our work done first and showed up punctually and capable the next day!

See what she comes back with, which is more than generous in giving her a chance. If she doesn't buckle down to get everything sorted then you need to contact your boss tonight for advice. There's a lot riding on this and you don't want the blame if it all goes tits up.

I think you need to tell your manager. Otherwise you will find yourself ‘winging it’ tomorrow, doing a poor presentation and losing both the contact and the bonus.

She needs a massive bollocking right now.

Ok if you have a financial stake in this then the gloves come off.

I'd be telling her to fuck off, that I don't want dinner with her, that she needs to hand over the USB stick then go to bed and sleep it off.

I know you don't want to tell tales but you are potentially going to lose money here because of someone else's hugely unprofessional and inappropriate behaviour. Plus it could have longer term repercussions for you - what if the presentation tomorrow ends up being very lacklustre and that feedback ends up going to your boss? Are they going to carry on sending you out to pitch or give it to someone else?

She doesn't give a fuck about you and what's on the line, so now is not the time to worry about getting her into trouble - she did that herself when she decided to drink the place dry.

I would email your manager. Give them a very brief and factual update and tell them that you are handling it, but will be in touch again if needed and will have a full conversation when you are back in the office.

Definitely have a plan B regarding being ready to do it alone.

How much has she had?

I think if you go above her head after the presentation it will look like you are complicit.
I would be phoning someone now.

That is outrageous behaviour.

You need to plan for worst case scenario. What will you do if she isn't fit for the meeting? Can you get through it alone to a suitable standard? If not, how will you deal with that?

What will you do if her slides aren't up to scratch? Can your team at home work overnight to help you? Can you do it yourself?

You're going to have to bring your manager into this as soon as you know how bad a problem you're in, but try to go with solutions and answers to the above questions.

I think speak to her and if she can't put her act together then email your manager.

Missing the point of the thread I know but 200 a day food & drink allowance!?! Wow.

just make sure you cover your arse. I’m not sure where you stand legally filming though .........

My boss would absolutely want to be told, whether they could do anything material or not, and I'd want them to know so they had my back when if it went to shit tomorrow. Most bosses worth a damn would rather have the chance to get ahead of the situation than hear afterwards about an embarrassing farce that cost the company business.

To add- its not as if shes been working all day to ensure the success of the presentation.
Shes been drinking since early am.
With the intent of being drunk.
You have written proof.

And I agree, about complicity. If this was someone in my team I'd be bloody furious with them for not telling me. You have a professional obligation to ensure the firm is protected.

So this is a very important client for your business? No way would I just see how it goes and then contact your boss. Your boss should absolutely be informed in advance. Otherwise if the client doesn't renew the licence then it isn't just your colleague´s fault, it is also your fault for knowing the presentation was messed up and not telling anyone about it because your desire to protect this person was more important than doing your job properly.

You're a mug OP to cover for her.

Report her tonight and get some management advice tonight on how to proceed tomorrow so you both don't look unprofessional. At best she's going to be hungover, and she's being paid the exact same as you are for a job she's not going to be able to do.

Save your own arse, not hers. It isn't telling tales, it's making sure you have a job to go home to if the clients feed back that you were both useless...............

get whatever she has off her on her USB stick and skip dinner, prepare for yourself. How important is her section?

Wow how sad her life must be that this short trip is such a release for her, how bizarre. Good luck op.

I can inform the manager but perhaps best to wait to see how tomorrow pans out? Also, aware I sound like a fool but I really hate the idea of telling tales. I messaged 1 colleague and asked if he can download and send me some info I can put in to pad out the deck in worst case scenario.

NO - don't wait to see how it pans out. That smacks of desperate efforts to pin blame for a poor presentation that you and she are jointly responsible for.

That approach is a very poor decision on your part.

You have in effect decided to wing it.

Is this sort of decision at or above your pay grade?

Your conduct here now comes under the same level of scrutiny as hers does. Failure to stay in contact and inform is a serious issue when the quality of a presentation and maintenance of a contract is at stake.

It's not 'telling tales' if you have some solutions in mind to the issue. The manager absolutely must be included in decisions about how the presentation can proceed. The manager has his or her own reputation to consider too. This is not a case of telling tales.

You are also considering dragging the colleague at home into the carrying out of a plan that may result in a poor presentation.

You have a chance here to show yourself in a very good light or to show yourself equally as irresponsible as your colleague.

Tricky.

If you contact your boss, I would suggest that they may question why for a presentation of this level (facilitating an overnight stay abroad) everything has being left to the night before to put together. You shouldn’t be preparing slides at this late stage, and if you are both responsible for this poor prep for the trip (despite your colleagues obvious shit behaviour) I’d button up, grit my teeth and work with colleges instead of involving the boss.

However, if it was always going to be last minute (data delivery maybe?) then your college should appreciate that today is very much a work day, and should be reported to management.

What time zone are you in? I can't believe you haven't contacted your boss to ask how they want you handle the situation first rather than posting here.

Do not phone the manager.

I am assuming you’re both fairly senior?

I would expect you to handle it, keep me informed without dropping her in it, and maintain professionalism putting the company 1st.

Get prepared. Email your boss and say you’re prepared and waiting on input from colleague and you’ll have a blast through in the morning.

In the morning you can then make the call whether or not you can tell her to sit it out and why or she will have come up trumps. If she’s not prepared tell her she’s benched. She can explain to her boss why.

Either way you can give her a bloody earful tomorrow. Afterwards.

You need to inform your boss ASAP.