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?

‘Jamaica is ready’: Airports and cruise docks reopen for tourists after Hurricane Beryl (yahoo.com)

Of course flights will have been delayed! Airports will want to be 100% sure it's safe to fly. I'm surprised you've doubted her, it will have had a knock on effect for everything. I would be more concerned she's OK, it's traumatic and worrying planning to fly after such an event.

Obviously it should be called out IF it happens. OP did not allude to anything in her post that suggested her quote was racially motivated. You're totally projecting. The post deleted was vitriolic. Referring to OP as a 'shitty racist', with no grounds whatsoever. Did you actually read it? The poster was practically spitting venom. And MN must have also come to the same conclusion. Its easy to get a point across without reporting to hateful language against someone who, btw, has chosen not to return, which has meant people are escalating their hate filled, unsubstantiated, messages on here. Dont be a keyboard bully. It's unpleasant.

Those of us who experience racism can read the undertones. There is a reason this OP doubts her colleague and is butting her nose in to her business when she isn’t her manager. There is a reason she thinks she is lying DESPITE THEIR BEING A HURRICANE. There is a reason she want specific information about whether flights are being cancelled going out and not in. And believe me she wouldn’t be saying any of this if the colleague were white.

The lack of compassion or care for a colleague stuck in a hurricane zone is particularly galling when you realise how absent it is. Instead of being concerned that she might be in a precarious condition or struggling to get home or out of pocket etc she thinks she is lying.

of course you are going to try and gaslight everyone because the poster hasn’t gone around and said ‘my BLACK colleague is clearly lying to get a few day extra holiday in a hurricane and I don’t give two hoots about her safety so can you all help me snoop around something that’s none of my business to prove my BLACK colleague is a liar’ but her omissions and attitude makes it clear to anyone who has experienced racism.

That would be a really stupid thing to lie about as you can easily check arrivals information for UK airports.

Have you read the OPs posts? There is no indication of the colour or race of her colleague. It’s holiday season. You have absolutely no idea about what’s happened here. You’re just projecting what you think, and fitting your own narrative around it. I work alongside some less than honest colleagues, who constantly play the system around being absent. Management investigate, especially when there’s a recurring theme. All of them are white. It would be the same whatever their race. So your comments re workers only being targeted if they’re none white is just a ridiculous and made up. And there’s always the implication on these posts that if you’re not white, that you can’t possibly be in the wrong. Ever. If this person was black, and had form for skiving off work randomly, you’d still be defending her. Anyway, I’m not wasting any more of my time on this post. It’s just pointless.

I hope you know how sad and small this post makes you look.

Wow, what fertile imaginations you all have. You've managed to turn a simple question into a massive fantasy. Here are some facts if you're interested:

1. My colleague is white - why are you assuming she's not? Some sort of unconscious stereotyping on your part? Her ethnicity is of no relevance to my question.
2. I am not white (but not of black heritage). This is also of no relevance.
3. I voted LibDem, and my colleague sent off her Reform postal vote before she went on holiday. This is also of no relevance.
4. My colleague has a history of not pulling her weight - phoning in sick after a night out plastered all over Instagram, an unlimited supply of family funerals, dental appointments that seem to take all day etc. It does have an impact on me and the rest of the team. We are all fed up with it. I'm not going to apologise for wondering if she was lying about the timing of her flight.
5. Her Instagram posts for the last two weeks showed a luxury resort in the north of Jamaica. Aside from the day of the Hurricane, there has been no break in the partying. Another colleague follows her on Insta and has been showing us pictures. This is not in a bitchy way or a jealous way - just office chat.
6. Yesterday my manager sent her a friendly message asking if she was OK and was told that the colleague would be flying back on Sunday.
7. This morning she was seen by a different colleague in our local supermarket. The different colleague came in to work and said 'hey, Holiday Colleague is back' which caused our manager to raise an eyebrow.
8. My office is not toxic - we all (bar one) work hard and pull together as a team. You don't know me, you don't know my colleagues, you don't know where I work - everything you have said has been invented by you.
9. The colleague has used the disaster in Jamaica as an excuse to avoid a particularly difficult deadline. She may turn up tomorrow but I doubt it.

I won't be coming back to this post - you can carry on with your fantasies, I have a deadline to meet.

👏 👏 👏

I still think you should have thought about the fact there was a hurricane before posting your doubts. You could have figured it out on your own.

The fact that it went off the "racism rails" is not surprising. If it had been Spain or Japan, no one would have jumped on the racism angle. I guess some people cannot comprehend that people do go to Jamaica for vacation, not to visit family. Frankly, it's gotten ridiculous.

I hope you get some apologies, but I would not hold my breath.

🏄‍♂️🦈

Let’s be real she’s probs lying in her update.

Why do you think that? Because it doesn't fit a hateful narrative some are hanging the OP upon?

Since we only have one side of every story, and since I have no plans to denigrate and castigate every post I read, I will choose to believe her.

Maybe I'll be stung and maybe not.

Exactly - we only have one side. To me it’s just suspicious OP disappeared after having a pile on and then had answers for everything (which could have been answered in her OP or the replies she was originally giving). Stinks of being called out and then lying to get out of it.

But yes none of us know or will ever know the actual truth here same as any MN thread ✨