Should I believe colleague that flight from Jamaica is delayed?

[LivingOnAnIsland]

One of my colleagues was due back from Jamaica on Thursday (11th) and has sent a message to say she will be back early next week as the flights have been messed around because of Hurricane Beryl. I can't find anything online about this, and don't know if she's just decided to stay out longer and leave the rest of us to pick up the pieces or if it's genuine. Does anyone have any information?

"don't know if she's just decided to stay out longer and leave the rest of us to pick up the pieces or if it's genuine."

The comment bolded above implies that the OP is a colleague and not the person's line manager. If it were the person's line manager, I feel like OP would have written 'leave the team to pick up the pieces'. Just an assumption but that line combined with the refusal to confirm if they are colleague or manager, makes me think that OP is a colleague.

I worked with someone like this once. She was not my manager but she constantly checked up on me and made comments about my performance (when my own supervisor was completely fine with it). In fact, she was a junior colleague but as I was a very young graduate, she was still senior to me. I recognise now that she bullied me and I did try to raise it at the time but unfortunately, it was a toxic work environment all around and I was told that I was misinterpreting things. I swear, I still have a level of trauma from that job.

I might be projecting based on my experience but colleagues doing things like this is so very toxic and anxiety-inducing.

Are you her line manager? Or have you just taken it upon yourself to play Sherlock Holmes? Hurricane Beryl has ripped islands apart and those of us with family there are extremely worried for their safety. If you are that concerned speak to HR.

This sounds so toxic and nasty. I hope the colleague gets home safely. A bit of compassion for someone impacted by a natural disaster wouldn't go amiss.

I got caught up in the Scicilian heatwave/ fires/ Catania airport fire last year.

It was incredibly stressful and I'm not going abroad this year!

However, it was also a "check your privilege" moment for me. I had a scheduled flight with BA, but had the resources to book a back up flight home from Palermo "just in case" on easyJet. I was also able to just bung an extra couple of nights in my hotel on my credit card. I was also aware of and contemplated getting the train onto mainland italy and flying home from Naples/ Milan or Rome. However, In the end I got re-routed home by BA from Sicily on Iberia via Madrid and arrived home a day late.

One of my more junior colleagues also got stuck. But he didn't have easy access to cash/credit so was basically stuck in Sicily at the mercy of his low cost airline. He missed a load of work and was told to either use annual leave or take unpaid leave. It would have been cheaper to spend £200 quid on a train fare and cheap flight from the mainland but he didn't have the resources to do that and apparently no-one in his life could lend him the cash.

That for me was the sobering thing. At his age my parents would have bailed me out. I offered to buy his train fare/ flight but he wouldn't accept the help from me.

Before the pile on with OP, context would be needed. You're all assuming OP is the bad guy here, when we don't know OP or the colleague in question. You're demonising someone just on your own narrative of what may or may not have happened. The aggression and over the top assumptions of OP on here is just unnecessarily bullying behaviour. You can get a point across without the name calling.

In what context would it be appropriate for someone to launch their own investigation into someone they work with's veracity as to the cause of their delay? Searching airlines and airports and posting about it online?

If the colleague has done things in the past to make you suspect that it could be a lie and, as I said, if you are directly affected by it - eg. having your leave cancelled to cover colleague.

Why not microchip all one's work colleagues so you know where they are at all times

What? weird? I think having this leave extension affect yours would be one reason why you might act a bit batshit over it in the immediate aftermath. Just one hypothesis I was putting forward to someone saying they couldn't think of any.

It was a joke given the level of investment that the op has in this colleague's movement's

Thank you for spelling it out.

The context of someone who has form. This is a problem which big companies experience - if there's a pattern of someone taking time off randomly, they investigate. Nothing wrong with that.

Thank god I’m not your colleague! You sound awful. Surely it’s the bosses business not yours. Thankfully my team mates all work together and stick up for each other.

My comment didn't warrant you calling me a dick. Your comment, however, says a lot about you.

AND put shock collars on them.
Too long in the loo? Zap.
Mum calls? Zap zap.
A minute late back from lunch? Zap zap zap.
Plane delayed from Jamaica? ZZZAAAPPP

Unless you're her boss or her being off directly affects YOUR leave then I really can't see why it's any of your business?

This thread is bonkers

Yes quite. And as usual @MNHQ allow that to stand while deleting @AgnesChadwick comment for calling out potentially racist behaviour.

As always. Nothing new here.

Good idea but I’d avoid mirrors for a while.

Aye, been here before....haven't I @MNHQ?
I can't ask if someone is a racist yet I can be called a dick.

I was on a package holiday in the States when severe storms hit the Eastern seaboard (not even the part of the country I was in) Our flights were cancelled and because it was a package deal (rather than booked directly through the airline) we didn't get alternative flights for a week. So I'm inclined to believe her

Don't think you understand how Airports and flights work to be honest. The airport would have been closed with no flights landing or taking off on thouse days. Whst do you think would happen to all those people who should have been on those flights?? Would they then get in the back of the que of people waiting to fly out.. No... the airlines would need to fly out the people who should have flown on the days the airports were closed first.
It might be looking like it's all running smoothly now but it would be back log of people on those ✈️.
How awful of you to be more concerned of picking up the slack them the safety of your colleague.

Odd you would be running a search and starting a thread about this and not take her at her word, unless there a back story?

I wouldn’t like to be her returning to this toxic, distrusting work environment.

It must have been quite frightening to have been caught up in Beryl.

The airport would have been closed with no flights landing or taking off on thouse days. Whst do you think would happen to all those people who should have been on those flights?? Would they then get in the back of the que of people waiting to fly out.. No... the airlines would need to fly out the people who should have flown on the days the airports were closed first.

@Rollymo2050

Umm..that’s a bit of an it depends.

I can’t speak for the specifics of what has gone on here but what you describe is often exactly how it is not done.

If there’s disruption and in the wake the airline can’t generate extra capacity then if they do what you suggest - slide everybody back by x days for several days then you can end up with hundreds if not thousands of passengers off schedule and disrupted.

For the tour operators hotel bookings end up all over the place and (whisper it quietly) the airline ends up paying a fortune in comp because they are now comping several days worth of passengers instead of just those directly effected by the closure.

It is often cheaper and certainly logistically easier when the airport opens to keep as many people as possible on their original bookings. Those that are disrupted directly by the airport closure and have been displaced may end up only traveling several days later if/when space is available with the airline or might get repatriated by other routes/other carriers.

That can lead to the sort of scale of delay that @queensonia describes.