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?

@Livelovebehappy because I'm going off facts from the OP. I'm not suggesting that people don't take the piss at work btw, but his hasn't been suggested about this colleague from the OP. They are in Jamaica which is suffering a massive storm. A PP has just said to you that they live in the Dominican and the colleague shouldn't be ridiculed and hope they are safe. You've decided to jump to the defence of a very toxic colleague's post.

LivingOnAnIsland,
Having lived through 1 hurricane, and a few 120+mph tornadoes, it's something you'll never forget.

In case you didn't see the damage Hurricane Beryl caused in Jamaica, and how much fun everyone on vacation is having, whether she has form for taking extra time, here's an update.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/07/05/hurricane-beryl-damage-jamaica-mexico-photos/74312307007/

I’m guessing OP has never travelled anywhere and has no idea how air travel works. Flights are delayed/changed all the time for all sorts of reasons, some big some small. I would imagine a hurricane is a significant reason for flight cancellations and delays.

In the meantime, op’s colleague is obviously going through a very stressful time, the KIND thing to do, would be to put head down, bum up and clear colleagues desk for when she does return. Or are we planning on the spiteful route of letting the work pile up to ‘teach her a lesson’

I hope colleague is reading this, poor woman needs to find a better place to work, this one sounds awful.

🙄

I am sure she is relaxing on the beach, drinking Pina Coladas, getting caught in the rain, not doing yoga and she has half a brain.

OP must be jealous.

Despite the fact that it's clearly true, what has it got to do with you?

Why are you scouring departure boards?

Unless you're her manager, then it's not really any of your business. For all you know something could have happened in her personal life and it is preferable to tell colleagues there are plane delays rather than the personal details.

Find this odd.

That might be, BUT, this has been on the news for almost two weeks. One would have to be living under a rock to not know that Beryl has destroyed so much, lives have been lost and frankly, a fricking airplane reservation and it being cancelled is not the most important part that Jamaica needs to worry about right now. OP can feel victorious that her colleague is not having fun with mud, death and destruction as her companions.

OP has not only been incredibly rude and unfeeling, but daft as a bag of sand to even question the colleague, when she knew she was in Jamaica.

FFS! Please don't defend the indefensible. .

Why is it any business of the OP? Unless they are her manager it has nothing to do with her. And why are there all these pointless comments about crying wolf? As far as I know it means that because you lied repeatedly about something happening, nobody believes you when it does actually happen. There is no evidence suggesting she is an habitual liar about being stranded somewhere because of a hurricane. Honestly, it makes my brain hurt and I hope I don't have any colleagues who think like OP.

Not your business.
Imagine taking this concern to HR 🙄
You would not come out looking good, OP.

You sound vile

I think you are jealous of your colleague OP.
No doubt you will be acting like the concerned colleague when she returns to work.

This reminds me of when the north west had unusually heavy snow in 2009. It was upto my knees where I lived and I spent three hours waiting at bus stops and trudging to different roads to try different bus numbers.

I'd say about 80% of people didn't make it into work that day. Most buses in my area were ground to a halt, even the super regular ten minutely ones on the main roads. Trains cancelled. It was absolute chaos.

Cars were crashing left right and centre or getting stuck and abandoned.

The following day it had settled enough to be able to get into work, but there were delays and lots of traffic, but most people made it into work.

The office manager spent the entire day looking up each employees address, researching their local busand train routes and interviewing them on whether they made enough effort to get into work or just used it as an excuse for a day off.

Absolute cunt.

You are entering into the realms of low trust relationships, which don't work at home or at work. Trust your colleague u til she gives you a reason not to.

could the person in question be having a pina colada right now...YUP . BUT let her enjoy it if she cannot get a flight out yet. She will be out as soon as her tour company can get her out as they are paying for the days that her family is still there. I can tell you that she lost at least 2 full days being not allowed out of her room. Food was probably a sandwich each..pc of fruit and maybe some crackers. delivered to them as they were not allowed to leave room. I was shocked we had a hurricane this early, but we are well prepared for hurricanes here. However tourists cannot tell airlines to fly lol.

Someone questioning a colleague's story when that colleague has been on an island which has just suffered damage from a hurricane comes across as being nothing short of nasty, not to mention thick, no matter whether said colleague has form or not. As do those defending her.

If you're her manager then ask for evidence of the flight cancellation. If you're her colleague then beak out.

Considering the delays and cancellations have been on international news outlets I'd give her the benefit of the doubt.

Hurricane Irma few years ago we were stuck in Cuba from Friday (when we should have come home) to Wednesday. We didn’t know what day we were flying until Monday. When we left the airport there were two planes to Manchester and one to Gatwick all departing within 30 minutes of each other clearing the backlog.

Id say it’s very believable. Fortunately everyone at my work was super worried and I was given special leave.

edited to add - we had to eat the airport 24 hours before we actually took off, anyone whose been to Cuba and following a hurricane knows there is NOTHING to eat. We had a single bottle of water and ham roll in that time. When we boarded the plane the cabin crew apologised for the random food and little options as they only had what they could grab before coming out for us as the flights were unplanned. We were that hungry and grateful we didn’t care.

Come on now. We all know the colleague is lazing round a pool with a mojito while topping up her tan.
Or at least that is what appears to be happening in the ops head.
I feel sorry for the colleague.

Wow, that's a really good point. It didn't even occur to me that OP wasn't her boss.

OP if you're her boss then it's bad, but if you're just a colleague then this is really, really low.

That's helpful, thank you - it seems to be mostly about whether it's safe to travel there, not back, but it does say that the airports on Jamaica were closed. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt

Aren't you just lovely?🙄🤡

Oh the irony that if she's on here or someone she knows is she may actually identify you from this post and you're calling others idiots?!? Most organisations would have serious concerns about what you've done posting like this.

i think this is true. Hurricanes don’t whiz round airports.
relatives flight was also cancelled

I wouldn’t be choosing to stay longer somewhere that was just decimated by a hurricane

Let me put it in a way you will understand.

If someone was coming to London from Glasgow and their 8pm train was cancelled, they would then have to catch one the next morning.

They send you a text at 9am, saying that their train was cancelled last night, so they will have to cancel their 2pm appointment with you.

You look on the live departures board at 9.05 am. The trains are running fine now. They must be lying!

You know a plane can't fly in a hurricane, right.

And even if it did not affect her specific town/island, it can't fly THROUGH a hurricane either.

So the airline has to cancel flights.

What do you think happened to all the passengers of the cancelled planes?

That they would sit on the laps of the passengers who were on pre booked flights?

The airline needs to RESCHEDULE thousands of people. It's not all going to happen in one day.