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.

OMG, Op, so sorry you're having to deal with such nuisance replies! Clearly, you're not at fault. Anyone would expect to be fetched for a meeting in your situation and that's why you felt safe in utilising every minute you had to do your job rather than sitting in reception. It's damaging to the business to not do everything you can to facilitate visitors in your place of work. Even the toilets should have been investigated. This person has notions about her status in the company and definitely needs talking to unless it was a case of her assuming you weren't in the building as it was a Friday.

This. To leave after 10 minutes without contacting you is strange.
Something didn't add up here.

You should have been ready at 12, regardless of whether they had arrived or not. You should have given them the details of the meeting room in case they had arrived early and you were unavailable. Reception should have contacted you directly when they arrived, and if there is no receptionist you should have been at the door at 11.55. Sadly you cannot rely on others to look after your guests unless it's their actual job to do so. Yes she probably did it on purpose to make a point but there are many things you could have done to avoid this.

So, what did happen then?

So you emailed or something BEFORE Friday and didn't think to go and say hello ON Friday to confirm you were in fact in on your non working day and which room you would be in? Terrible communication.

All you needed to do was find her in the morning and say hello, remind her of the meeting and ask her nicely to pop down and grab you.

She tried to contact them and they said they’d speak to her on Monday (which does seem to imply they thought she wasn’t in the office?)

But yes strange that they didn’t try to contact the OP. The only explanation for that is again if they thought it was her day off

Text to participants “Hi all, looking forward to our meeting today in room xxx ego wing!

OP, is it possible that your colleagues are fed up with you for failing to organise your time properly or learn from experience what does and doesn't work, and for refusing to take any responsibility for it?

I am really sorry that no one in your adult working life has taught you that it is your responsibility to handle your own shit.

You took four months organising a meeting and you couldn't be bothered to let reception know about it on the day, book a meeting room, or send one simple text to the attendees about where you were at the expected meeting time.

Shirking responsibility might feel good in the moment, but this sort of thing is going to keep happening to you until you take charge. Mummy and daddy can't bail you out forever.

Any of my clients who were told by a member of staff that I was t in would leave, annoyed, and go about the rest of their day. They’re not going to go ok thanks for that but I’m calling her anyway. Does no one on here work in a professional environment? If I have clients arrive I’ll continue on with my work until I get the call from reception that they have arrived. Even then I’ll finish what I’m doing if it’s 5-10 mins then head to the room. This is NOT on you OP. Who goes to wait for clients 10 mins before? Who has time for that?

>If I have clients arrive I’ll continue on with my work until I get the call from reception that they have arrived. Even then I’ll finish what I’m doing if it’s 5-10 mins then head to the room.

Absolutely respectless. This is only excusable if you have a system in place to greet them and provide drinks etc. Even then, I would make every effort to be there myself before the client.
Vendors, it's a bit different because they want to sell you something.

>Who goes to wait for clients 10 mins before? Who has time for that?

I think you're just telling on yourself for having poor time management.

Do you really leave clients waiting 5-10 minutes whilst you finish your work?

I am self employed so don’t work in an office anymore so maybe things have changed but I wouldn’t like to leave people waiting. Sounds rude to me.

I understand that it wasn’t appropriate for the OP to go and wait in reception for her clients. But she could have made herself visible - by going back to her desk and giving the employee the heads up to fetch her straight away (or let her know which meeting room she would be in).

Back in my day we’d have the meeting room all ready and be waiting for the clients. It seems things have changed.

I won’t go into details because tbh they are quite bonkers and will be outing, but -

yeah she turned them away (why/ the way she treated them still hot debate). There are definitely things she is lying about and has said different things to different people.

Luckily I have managed to smooth things over and will be able to meet with the team in the near future, albeit at considerable inconvenience (which I’m sure many of you will tell me I deserve) 🤗 Arranged for first thing so no room for chatty consultants beforehand

And it’s been agreed she will not be sent down to our department anymore.

Texting the attendees would come across as deeply unprofessional at my place of work

“Yeah, she turned them away”. Can I ask again, did you specifically tell her that you will be in on that Friday, and specifically, that there will be a meeting on that Friday, at that specific time?

Ironic as your workplace sounds deeply unprofessional anyway 😂

In OPs place of work there is no reception, just a colleague from another team sitting near the door who OP hadn’t told about her meeting or even that she was in work that day. There was nobody except OP to make sure the guests were in the right place and she didn’t bother!

Of course she didn't.

You were completely clear in your op as to what was going on. The replies you’ve received are completely bonkers. I assume most of those replying have never worked in a team where if people have each others backs things can work and run smoothly.

That isn’t what OP has said at all.

She’s said the department has a rotating set of floating colleagues from other teams (including this particular colleague) who, when they are working in her department, are tasked with ensuring visitors get shown to the right place. These floating staff have different responsibilities when they work elsewhere, but in her department, that is one of their tasks.

I didn't read it quite like that. It sounded vaguer that being 'tasked', more that it was an expectation from a member of staff who also had other things to do.
Anyway, the woman in question hadn't been told that this meeting was happening, and OP doesn't normally work Fridays, so it is unsurprising that when the visitors arrived and asked for her, she told them that she doesn't work Fridays.
My point really is that OP knew perfectly well that the system for greeting and directing visitors was far from foolproof, but did nothing herself to ensure it went smoothly, eg by texting the visitors in the morning to confirm the meeting and say exactly where she'd be, or asking them to phone her mobile if there was a problem, or even specifically asking the colleague in question to find her when they arrived. Nothing at all, but she entirely blames this junior colleague for not guessing that she'd be in on a day when she never is. It is really unfair.

What did OP say that makes you think she saw the system as far from fool proof?

From what I read it seems like it’s worked just fine until this. OP hasn’t mentioned ever needing to wait for anyone before or that she’s missed other meetings because no one’s greeted the visitors or has sent them away, nor that anyone else in her office has had to wait by the entrance in case the staff already there who normally facilitate visits decide to assume people have turned up for a meeting that doesn’t exist and just send them away without being curious enough to find out for sure or see if someone else can help them.

I think we’ll have to disagree on this one. It’s getting late. Night.