Wondering if colleague did this on purpose

[WilloWhisperer]

Today I had an important meeting arranged which I have been organising since July. In the end I rearranged my schedule to work today (I work for this company and have my own small business where I usually see clients on a Friday so had a lot of logistics to arrange).

The meeting was at 12 and so our senior consultant wanted me to go through some things in the morning. I told our whole team where I would be, asking them to get me when the people I was expecting had arrived.

The layout is a line of offices which are tucked away. The senior consultant and I had the door shut as we were discussing confidential information, furthest away from the entrance. There is a junior colleague who always huffs that she has to show people where these particular rooms are (she is sort of part of our team but in a different capacity)

I came out of the office at 12.10 to see if the people I had a meeting with were here yet. No one had got me so I thought they might be late. After a bit of investigating, she said “I looked around and couldn’t find you, so they left”. She said she asked around. But none of my team saw her come up the corridor. All she had to do was ask my whereabouts and any of them would have known where I was/ to come and get me. They were all working with their doors open.

She has form for doing things “to prove a point” so I’m wondering if she has done this on purpose? I don’t know when I/they am going to be able to rearrange and we will probably lose work because of this.

If she is junior then I would escalate that to her line manager. It’s completely incompetent. You might get some posters saying that she isn’t your secretary and you should have been waiting for the attendees but that’s bollocks. You work as a team and she isn’t.

Why weren't you waiting to greet them at 11.50 if the meeting was at 12? I would have been in reception ready.

If It was that important, you should have started looking for them yourself at 11.55am.

You allow this happen. No one else.

Was she definitely there when the team was told where you would be? Or was she not there, but took it upon herself to 'help' even though she's not part of the team, and should have asked?
Either way I imagine a formal chat would be fitting of this.

This. What she did was wrong too but if the meeting was that crucial I'd have made sure to finish the previous meeting before time.

Ultimately this is on you, they were your guests and you just assumed this woman would do all the greeting for you even though you know she has form. Greet your own guests when they are that important!

Raise it to her line manager if you want as she was clearly immature, but those guests leaving is still on you.

I would be asking very quickly who she asked, and follow up with them to confirm whether she did.

Because when the senior consultant keeps asking you questions on a project, you answer them. They had rearranged their day too, it’s a busy time of year for us and they asked to see me so I utilised it.

its not an unusual arrangement in our offices to have a colleague fetch you for your meeting. I had everything ready.

Has she been contrite since you told her about the huge mistake she made? I'd have been furious! Was she aware of the meeting?

Did you contact the guests and is their story the same?

She certainly didn’t ask anyone on my team. They could be lying, but my team are generally pretty good at owning up to mistakes, and I will often do things for them as much as they do for me.

Why did the people go away without trying to contact you to find out where you were? Seems odd that they just left after 10 minutes when they knew there was a meeting

I'd definitely make a big deal of this tbh. She needs reining in.

It sounds like she did this on purpose so you need to get to the bottom of what happened - have you spoken to your guests?

However, a meeting that important I wouldn’t be relying on non team members who have form for being difficult. I’d have told the senior consultant at 11.55 that I was going to make sure I welcomed my guests as they arrived. Then you ensure they are welcomed properly and professionally.

You’ve been organising a meeting since July and you didn’t think to say to the senior consultant at 12 noon “I need to see where they are?”

sorry but you need to start being more forthright and assertive.

i would take up what your colleague has done as a separate issue with her boss.

This is exactly my thinking and I wonder if she has said something to them to purposefully mislead them. I contacted them and they are going to call me Monday.

Just do the meeting on teams

I did but this but let’s just said he is very… set in his ways. I was not leaving until I was summoned or the conversation was at an end and so I finally got out at 12.09. He is also not happy about it on my behalf.

She is part of our team and isn’t at the same time, she works across an area rather than a team. If it’s not technically part of her job it is expected she (and the other woman she works with) would direct people around certain parts of the building.

A meeting that important, but they didn't even wait ten minutes? Something is fishy. You need to ask them exactly what was said to them.

But you also need to say "Sorry, i have to go to that important meeting". You said the senior consultant knew about it and rescheduled his day around it, so he knew it was important.

It's perfectly normal In my office and clients I visit to have visitors brought to you. It would also be totally inappropriate to wait in Reception.

It's odd all round.

You all work for the same company and depend on that company to be busy and profitable to pay wages. So the person who has first contact with a client/visitor has a responsibility to get the client/visitor to the right person/place.

You had a responsibility to either be ready to greet in person or ensure that the receptionist or whoever knew where you were.

But also I would have expected a client/visitor to have waited longer than 10 minutes. It's annoying, but delays happen.

No-one comes out of it very well.

Surely you can't think the senior consultant would have minded if, at 12 , you'd have said "right let's go and get our attendees".

Is it part of this junior colleague's job description to help guide people to the meeting room or is she constantly interrupted from her actual work because of where she happens to sit?

If your team were on point why didn't one of them go to meet your guests?

I'm surprised they walked out only 10 minutes past time.

You should have been ready in your office meeting room, at 12pm for your meeting with clients.
Something similar happened to me as a client a few years ago when I turned up on time for a meeting.
They had to look for the person that I was to meet. I was left waiting nearly 15mins until the person turned up.
I had an hour scheduled for the meeting and at 1 hour passed the original start time, I thanked them for their time and said I needed to go. They asked me to stay on,as they weren't finished giving me all the information.

I said sorry, that I can't be late for my next appointment.
It's really annoying that I was able to factor in the journey time, to meet them on time at their office. While they couldn't even ensure they to be ready in their own office meeting room.

Yep there is more to do this story..it makes little sense. If the meeting was so important surely you had no choice but to point out the time. Or alternatively make sure someone knew where the clients were to wait and that they were expected ?