To be annoyed at my colleague?

[PandaAndLionRoar]

I was in an all day meeting with the board/C suite in work today. My colleague/friend was in work but not in the meeting with me. It was her last day before MAT leave and it was coming up to 5pm and I was still in my meeting with the board so she came to the meeting room and interrupted my meeting by knocking on the door and then asking for me and saying “I’m sorry to interrupt but can I have a quick world please, it’s urgent”. It turns out she didn’t have anything urgent that she needed me for but she just wanted to say bye to me before she goes on MAT leave and knew that I wouldn’t be out of my meeting before 5pm when she left the building so she decide to interrupt my meeting to say bye instead. I feel a bit annoyed that she interrupted the whole meeting just to say bye to me whilst I was in a meeting with the board, fair enough if it was something urgent but it wasn’t. She could have just phoned me later to say bye if she wanted. AIBU to be a little annoyed with my colleague for interrupting my meeting just to say bye? She took me out the meeting room and just said that she just wanted to say bye to me before she goes on MAT leave and then we chatted for 2 minutes and that was it, nothing urgent at all!

Not seeing a friend again for a good while is urgent and important and worth missing two minutes of a shitty meaning for.

You need to get your priorities straight, OP.

Ack. I would t have done it and think it was possibly a little pointless to interrupt a meeting for. But in a scale of crimes this is a tiny, tiny one. I wouldn't have interrupted a meeting but I also wouldn't have given it more than about 30 seconds of thought.

I've been in enough senior meetings to know this is far from the least professional thing that goes on in and around them.

Are you really stressed at work?

She was being polite. For some reason you are important to her.

I find it really hard to imagine everyone in the meeting was pressing you to find out what was going on, other than possibly a “is everything ok?”.
It also feels as though you’re making yourself so very important with the constant mention of the board and the suite and the all day meeting.
It might not have been the most professional thing to do, but it’s not worth a single other thought.

Are you aware that Board meetings are simply meetings?

I think you need to cut your ego down a bit 🤣

It's because of the MATB1 form you give to your employer for maternity pay.

She obviously thinks a lot of you to have made so much effort to have said goodbye.
Try and focus on that.

Like a whole week or so till they do coffee/lunch? Honestly, I can think of no personal reasons short major tragedy or going into labour. I cannot imagine someone interrupting a board meeting in my job for something less than a major immediate crisis, I can understand why they all wanted to know what it is as that’s the only reasonable answer.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

You sound really self important. God forbid she interrupt your meeting with the C-suite! Not when you're on the board for a large national company! 🙄

Give it a rest. I think it was a lovely thing to do and you're totally over thinking it.

What a complete overreaction, it's not a bloody COBR meeting I work in a very similar company and the nature of my role requires frequent reporting into our exec board, including our Group CEO. They're still just regular people going to work to do a job. Most of them were probably quite glad of the 2 minute interruption quite honestly.

OP, your "friend" (I can't imagine reacting to any of my friends this way personally) was probably having quite an emotional end-of-an-era type day and just wanted a quick couple of minutes to say goodbye to you.

Yes she could have messaged later and yes she's still going to see you after becoming a mum, but this was an in the moment thing and clearly she considers you a close enough friend that you wouldn't mind. She's obviously wrong so it might be better to disabuse her of that notion now so she doesn't feel let down by it at some later point.

It was when I went back in to the meeting and everyone was asking me what the “urgent” thing was that she needed me for, that was the point when I started to feel awkward about it and a bit annoyed that she had took me out of the meeting to say bye

All you needed to have done is smile and say ' oh it is a private issue that needed adressing , thanks for asking though' I have seen that done in meetings before. People rhen just get on with the task in hand.

well you wont see her for a while now

seems odd that everyone was asking what was urgent,

Let it go, she didn't want to leave without saying goodbye. It's not the end of the world.

The issue here is that “everyone” was asking what the urgent issue was, that’s incredibly nosy and unprofessional of them.

Sorry but I agree with PPs that you sound a bit up your own arse.

You know they'd respect you more if you just said colleague was leaving for maternity leave, wanted to pass on some final information - which is roughly truthful. What generally makes successful people successful is their humility and interpersonal skills - they also prioritise moments that matter.

Odd that everyone was asking you what was urgent. Were they really that interested?

It was daft of her to get you out of a meeting to say good bye, yes.

Are you going to nurse this slight misdemeanor and carry your professional superiority with you forever?

Get over it.

I can understand you feeling slightly embarrassed when everyone was asking what the "urgent thing" was, but otherwise I certainly wouldn't be annoyed. I expect she dithered about interrupting the meeting and didn't know what to do for the best. She obviously sees you as a good friend and was so grateful for the wine and cake etc. She didn't feel comfortable just leaving without saying something. I've been in similar situations - basically damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Indeed. Used to be "execs" but now execs are the level below the c levels. Ie evp of x department.

Can I just say how much I fucking hate terms like C-Suite? Sounds like some shitty office software from 1995. I'm a director and we don't use US management speak.

Makes you wonder why they are always a focus in enquiries and investigations. Recently in the Lucy Letby and Post Office investigations. The people in these meetings and the meetings themselves, are important.

The meeting shouldn't have been interrupted to say goodbye, when she is keeping in touch anyway. As for the posters saying that the OP should have been happy to have given her a hug goodbye, that is gendered. Just because we are women doesn't mean that we need to hug in the workplace.

Wow you’re harsh.

Many posts here would serve on a thread called "tell me you've never worked at a large corporate without telling me you've never worked at a large corporate".

People should be ashamed of sneering at the OP because she wants to succeed in her career and knows what's needed, in her organisation, to do that.