More of a WWYD than an AIBU problem with work colleague

[Hellsbellscockleshells]

WWYD a colleague at work on another team, lower grade but in part of her role she works as a reception/gateway person for me and another. The other person does a different job to me but the same grade, they are part of a similar team are very friendly, thick as thieves and she can’t do enough for her. This is a quietish time of year for us all.
Anyway, she is notoriously moody, very up and down and obviously dislikes a number of staff at her grade on another site. She is early fifties as am I and she has got away with this behaviour/attitude for years. I see her for what she is and always try to be pleasant and friendly and hope she has gotten over what ever it is.
Anyway I don’t see many customers face to face and I don’t want to give too many details away as I don’t want to out myself. I work Part time and she has been very off with me majorly since September!!! Whereas prior to that she was very up and down. Just has bad attitude, looks like she could kill me and generally uncooperative/awkward. A customer/client booked an appointment with me by email
last week for today and she was asked to go the to reception desk a couple of minutes before her appointment and tell the member of staff on the desk let’s call her moody Margaret that she had an appointment with x my name. Margaret saw the client asked the client to take a seat and let her wait there for 15 mins after her appointment was due to take place, my door is always closed due to the nature of the work/environment and to keep Margaret happy. We are in different teams I am not her manager and don’t go to work for hassle. To be fair I was busy and completely engrossed in other work online and had forgotten about the appointment. It was the customer/clients first visit to see me so she wasn’t sure where I was located but it’s not a million miles from Margaret. When 15 minutes had past Margaret knocked on my door and bellowed at me ‘were you not supposed to have an appointment at x time today just their is a client/customer waiting for you out there!?!? Embarrassed I quickly showed the client/customer in apologising for keeping her waiting. At the end of her appointment I asked if she had told the person at the desk that she had an appointment with me and she said she had and they just told her to wait there. WWD fed up with Margaret’s attitude I could report her to her Line Manager but this may mean one or both of us gets moved to another site. I am 5 minutes walk from work now so don’t really want to move if at all possible. The other place is 20 minutes drive and parking is horrendous. Margaret also likes it here as she is out of the way her colleagues at the other bigger site also feel the same way so if she moved it would really upset them and her and if her Line Manager has a go it her it could make my working environment even worse. WWYD?

Hard to understand but it seems that your colleague is moody with you and failed to inform you that a client with an appointment with you had arrived, which inconvenienced you and the client?

Um, I think I would have gone out to see the client at the scheduled time. Checked if they were there and if they weren't, I would have said to MM, I am expecting Mrs Z, please can you ask her to knock on my door when she arrives?

Can you not just ask maragaret to nake sure she lets you know if a client arrives?

Talk to your manager about it, including that you wouldn’t want to move site.

You could ask her directly to let you know when a client arrives.

Or do nothing and monitor reception when you’re expecting someone.

Why would speaking to her manager about the incident lead to either of you being moved sites?

She behaved in an unprofessional manner which showed both herself & the company in a bad light.
This should be reported to your line manager as this is most likely not the only occasion on which she has caused such a problem.

This may not work for you but recently I had a simliar situation. I am a senior director but the only female in the team. The personal assistant for the team is all over the guys and cannot do enough for them, however for me she is difficult and even obstructive. I therefore kept a log of issues (date/time/what it was) when I had 10-ish I booked a room and a 30 minute meeting with the personal assistant. I calmly asked her how I could work better with her as she had made several mistakes (oviously not mistakes but intentional cock ups) which I had documented. I went through each with her and said that I didn't want to talk to her reviewing manager or HR but unless her co-operatation and the correctness of her work improved I'd be forced to. So far, whilst not being a joy, she has been civil with no more "mistakes". However, it does take balls to confront someone so directly.

It's a receptionists job to let u know your client has arrived. I would ask her nicely to do that nect time and if she didn't I would then take it higher

She is well aware what her role and responsibilities are she is just getting a bit too big for her boots.
Our teams were part of the same group but we have now split and share accommodation space. At the other site her equivalents make no difference and are still frontline/gateway/receptionists as before.
She used to happily let me know when people have arrived because face to face appointments are few and far between as many things are solved by email and phone now I completely forget this afternoon.
Yes I am at fault also and should have gone out to check but on this occasion I genuinely forget. Yesterday I had two appointments this same situation happened then. Then later on one never turned up and I went out the office to check whether he was there about 5 times. He turned up half an hour later.
She hasn’t made a ‘cock up’ if anything I did, but in her role as a facilitator she is there for the good of our customers/clients and she is just being bloody awkward with me which is embarrassing and impacting on the customers.
The other morning first thing she accused me of still having my ‘bloody phone switched on’ when I first came in as she could hear a bloody noise. It was two ice cubes clinking in my water bottle/flask. I explained this and smiled she was left absolutely seething.