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.

No her colleague did. OP's behaviour was entirely normal.

First, I think the fact this was an internal meeting with people from a different floor in your office and not clients is key info. I expect any employee to go out of their way being proactive in order to make sure a client didn’t leave frustrated with a bad impression. But running around to accommodate for internal parties’ poor coordination? Not so much.

You told your team where you’d be, but your team sit in out of the way offices.
So did you ever bother to tell this particular person - the one apparently most likely to know the other parties had arrived despite it not actually being her job - that you were in today for this important meeting despite usually working for another company entirely on Fridays and would be back in the Sr. Consultant’s office, so if she could please be so kind as to let you know when they arrive you’d appreciate it? Or did you have a conference room set aside and let these other internal parties know that’s where you’d be meeting so they could just go there?

I’m guessing you could use your seniority to dump this on your junior colleague and avoid taking responsibility. But did you really act like a good teammate here yourself, being proactive with arrangements and showing respect for your colleagues’ time?

The OP had been preparing for this VIP meeting since July yet couldn't put her outlook on 'busy' from 11.45am that day?

She also couldn't delegate the responsibility of greeting these clients to one person?
Nope this is on the OP. She has shown herself to be unprofessional.

But you either knew that she would be responsible for this guest or that she would be one of 2 people responsible for the guest. And you knew what time the client was due to come in. Yet you couldn't be bothered to speak to her, knowing how important the meeting was?

Did no-one in this very important meeting scenario have a mobile?

Your company sounds stuck in the dark ages. Most places I have worked in use those new fangled things called a mobile to call / message/ Teams the meeting organiser to say their guests have arrived. No one has to walk around to find anyone tucked away in the office 8 down.

Use it as a learning experience and suggest improvements to your meet and greet processes.

Seems odd that they just left??

and even odder that they'll now 'call you on Monday'??

The plot thickens

First, I think the fact this was an internal meeting and not clients is key info. I expect any employee to go out of their way being proactive in order to make sure a client didn’t leave frustrated with a bad impression. But running around to accommodate for internal parties’ poor coordination? Not so much.
You told your team where you’d be, but your team sit in out of the way offices.
So did you ever bother to tell this particular person - the one apparently most likely to know the other parties had arrived despite it not actually being her job - that you were in today for this important meeting despite usually working for another company entirely on Fridays and would be back in the Sr. Consultant’s office, so if she could please be so kind as to let you know when they arrive you’d appreciate it? Or did you have a conference room set aside and let these other internal parties know that’s where you’d be meeting so they could just go there?

This sums it up perfectly.

The OP has shown herself to be completely unprofessional in this situation.

If she’s not a receptionist maybe she’s a bit ticked off with being expected to field everyone’s visitors just because she’s nearest the door? Not saying that would make a deliberate miss ok, but maybe in this instance one of your team could have been waiting for the clients.

I think I can understand why you're annoyed with your colleague's general attitude, and that needs addressing. But a few things strike me:

1. She is not a receptionist. You don't say what her job actually is but you say you think it's not technically part of her job. If she and another woman are regularly asked to perform this duty it sounds like it needs to be a formal part of the role or that your company needs a receptionist. It certainly needs a proper process!
2. And look, you have taken no real accountability that I can see for what sounds to me like your reasonably significant part in this cock-up:

a) You don't usually work Fridays and I think I'm right in saying that you didn't tell this person - the one you would ordinarily expect to shepherd guests - that, unusually you were in fact in, and where. You only told your team. If so, that is not great planning on your part and this woman is not a mind-reader. b) You did not alert this person to the fact you were waiting for important clients/colleagues full stop, yet expected her to be available to facilitate their arrival, fetch you, and understand the ramifications of failing to do so. That is also poor planning given that you knew how crucial this meeting was. c) You failed to extract yourself from your prior meeting on time on the presumption that someone else would keep your appointment and schedule for you. You've unfairly and unwisely decided to rely on nebulous "others" to ensure you link up. d) You also seem to lack polite assertiveness with your senior consultant from whom you should be able to excuse yourself for your next meeting.

On reflection and when the immediate dismay had worn off, it might prompt better processes for the company and/ or for you.

I do wonder if some part of you is actually uncomfortably aware of your part in this but because the ramifications seem so large, it's easier and more comfortable to focus on where your junior sort-of colleague went wrong than where you did. You say your team are good at owning up to mistakes - I hope that goes for you too! We've all cocked things up, sometimes with outsized consequences (and these don't sound dire in the scheme of things).

Good luck, I hope you get the meeting rearranged quickly!

I sit at reception and had this occurred at my office the person expecting Important Visitors would have stopped by my desk first thing to let me know-

a-that they were in office today (bc you're not normally in)
b-that Important Visitors were expected at noon and exactly who they are
c-where to direct them to
d-where I would be so I could be informed immediately upon their arrival after they've been escorted to conf room

It does sound like there's an attitude problem BUT you also were delinquent imho.

She doesn’t have much else to do on the day that she comes to us though? Some photocopying, light admin.

I do understand this because I think you were focusing on your meeting with manager knowing she was going to get you, rather than on the time.

If you were focused on time, it probably would have been about 12.09 pm when you started to wonder where they were, and by this time they’d left.

If you went down at 11:55 that would defeat the purpose of your arrangement. You can waste a lot of time waiting around and the whole point was so you could chat to your manager and save time.

When I’ve gone to meet lawyers it’s not unheard of that you’re taken to a room and wait for them there so I don’t think that it’s strange for meetings to revolve around the person’s schedule and for them to be “fetched”.

I think you can answer your own question though - she has a bad attitude and is lazy & maybe passive aggressive.

OP.

Did you bother to tell this person who you knew would likely be the one who received these visitors that you were (very unusually) in today, that you were expecting people to arrive at noon for an important meeting, and where she could find you?

Understand, but lots of people don’t like to do things that aren’t in their job description. Might be worth looking into (or your HR dept).

I'd guess she likes working with the other people she works with, but not with your team for whatever reason. I've had this with administrators: some concentrate on working with the teams they like (their office friend is in the team, the space is nicer, they prefer the type of work they get to do, nobody minds if they're slack, whatever) and eventually you haven't got an admin person at all. I'd be speaking to her line manager about this.

When I’ve gone to meet lawyers it’s not unheard of that you’re taken to a room and wait for them there so I don’t think that it’s strange for meetings to resolve around the person’s schedule and for them to be “fetched”

Taken by whom? The receptionist or the solicitor's PA surely?

The OP doesn't have a receptionist and she didn't speak directly to the person most likely to see the clients arrive.

You said you don't fully know what she does. Do you set all of her work on the days she comes to your team? If not, how do you know what her workload is? I've been an admin supporting multiple teams, it might be "easy" but it can be extremely time consuming when multiple depts are setting tasks to you. And if you do, why wasn't she briefed about the expectation of getting the guest to you?
I'm not saying she was right in her approach in this instance, but you have made mistakes that led to this situation and as a senior member of staff, you need to look at your responsibility in this instead of shifting the blame

How is the most junior person catching all the flak for this fuck up?

The big boss is pissed off with her but he's the reason you were stuck until 12.10. You and Big boss are at fault here.

This.

You didn't turn up for your meeting. That is rude and I would have walked too. Are you incapable of knowing what time it is?

It all sounds like a communication fail. Personally I would have told the internal meeting that I needed to be there to greet my next appointment as it was so crucial.

I wonder if this receptionist just didn’t realise you were in that day. Ultimately if you don’t have a secretary you really should have checked at midday.

The senior consultant knew she was available until the guests arrived, so he wasn't going to tell her to leave at 11:45 just because Outlook had her marked as busy.

Likewise OP could hardly say "I'm going to leave our meeting now even though we haven't finished talking and the guests aren't here yet. I just want to sit at my desk watching the door".

She was in the building, prepared, had told her team where she was and was going to come as soon as called.

OP was fine.

Very strange that these very important clients who have been waiting months to see you didn't even try to call you on the phone before they left after only ten minutes.

And it was technically an internal meeting but not casually. This company is huge, it’s now a team we usually work with directly and they don’t work in the same building, albeit they aren’t far. So I know them as much as I know any client and I still need them to be able to do this work. It is unusual that they left so quickly if they weren’t sent away. They are unfortunately very in demand across the company and seem to be stretched very thin. I’m hoping they shed some light on why they left so quickly when we next speak.

Nah.... something is off here.

You should have been ready to get them yourself.

She should have asked other people (this is standard)
They should have waited for more than 10 mins.

No office can be this incompetent.