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!

Firstly, your humble bragging skills are awful. Secondly, it’s nice that she wanted to do that. Thirdly, unless your exec board are morons they won’t have cared, they certainly don’t where I work. Fourthly, I hope she finds some nicer friends.

YANBU.

Have no idea why most posters think you’re unreasonable. Your colleague was unprofessional and quite self-centred.

I can't believe how many people are criticising workplace practices they know so little about.

At least she didn't stick her head around the door and say "Bye bye, I'm off on maternity leave now." That would have been unprofessional.

I hate it when people pretend something is urgent and only I can deal with it though (they probably think that's the case). That's the bit that would have annoyed me, not that she interrupted the meeting. And it was an all day meeting. I'd have probably been glad to have the opportunity to step out.

Fair enough.

OP, are you really as highly educated as you make out? Your posts suggests otherwise given the grammatical errors, lack of punctuation and repetitiveness of certain words. For example, ‘in to’ rather than ‘into’, ‘took’ rather than ‘taken’’.
For anyone who has taken a university degree or above, academic writing becomes habitual and is part of cultivating a professional formal tone for life.
Your posts do not lend credibility to the level of intelligence that one would require to be in a senior position. I’m thinking your post is some kind of joke or written for attention.

I've seen all kinds of howlers in informal emails from our execs. They weren't appointed for their command of written English; they have other people to tidy up their official communications.

Doubt it’s AI, it would be written with more professionalism.

OP has said she's not on the board, she was in the meeting as a Project Lead.

C-Suite is a completely normal corporate term.

YANBU OP, it wasn't professional at all of your colleague. Completely different to choose to step out for 2 minutes at a suitable time, to having someone interrupt mid-meeting for no good reason.

C-suite?

I've worked in large corporations most of my life and it's not a phrase that I've ever come across.

We all just say "Board meeting".

It sounds like a pretentious Americanism.

God there’s a lot of sneery judgmental responses on here.

It’s not worth holding a grudge over (and maybe not worth posting on mumsnet!) but I agree she shouldn’t have interrupted a board meeting with a non-urgent personal matter.

I work in the charity sector and attend trustee meetings as part of my job, I wouldn’t interrupt them to say goodbye to a colleague.

@SeAmableSiempre I'm not sure the OP has claimed anywhere to be highly educated? Nor particularly senior for that matter? I think the only reference to role is that she is a project lead so I would assume not necessarily particularly senior.

But whatever, what an incredibly snobby and shortsighted post to suggest that intelligence must always go hand in hand with educational attainment. I really hope you’re not responsible for people management/development in your own role if that's your attitude.

I worked for a huge international (and well known) company.

Years ago our MD's wife phoned and asked his PA to interrupt the board meeting he was in. The wife was due to take their son to Scouts and couldn't find his badges to see on his top and wondered where her husband had put them.

His PA wrote the message on a note, knocked on the door of the board room, and slipped the note in front of the MD. He smiled, read it out loud in front of all of the board, and simply asked his PA to ring his wife back and tell her they were on the mantelpiece!!!

We are all human with families!

Completely agree.
Being invited into this meeting appears to have gone to OP’s head, I think she aspires to be further up the ladder than she is, and there’s nothing wrong with that, however looking down on colleagues and alienating them whilst climbing the corporate ladder is not the way forward. I certainly wouldn’t want her for my boss.
‘Don’t look down on anyone unless you’re helping them up’.

OP is not an executive, she’s finally admitted it, but it was pretty obvious from the start given the grammatical errors etc in her post.

I agree. I am cringing at the self important nonsense of this thread.

Unless she got in the middle of OP and the amazing c suite (😂) saving someone’s life, then OP YABU.

He'd have left everyone thinking his wife was a bit useless though! I could understand it if the scout badges been squirrelled away somewhere but she could have checked an obvious place like the mantelpiece, and it's hardly urgent if their son has to wait till the next meeting to wear them - fancy ringing someone at work for that, let alone making a PA interrupt a meeting.

All I can see is the word "bye" so many times. Is this a game?

There are 252 words in the opening post, of which 6 are 'bye'. I'd suggest you might be overdue a visit to Specsavers 😆

With respect this isn’t the issue, her attitude towards her colleague was certainly suggestive that she deems herself well above her, like, ‘how dare she disturb ME during this meeting’. OP is making a massive deal out of nothing, senior management would simply brush it off.
Yes, before retirement I was responsible for a large team in a senior management role. I treated them with ultimate respect and it was reciprocated. I counselled them on the rough days, we had a great relationship, and no one ever had reason to fear me or my position, my door was always open. I was rewarded with a workforce who enjoyed their job and wanted to do their best for the company everyday. I’m still in touch with some of them, they call them ‘The good old days’.
It appears that management have a different outlook in the current climate.

I completely agree.
Honestly I have been to so many meetings that people have thought were super important.
They really weren't in the scheme of things they were insignificant and forgotten
Good friends though have remained very important to me.

@UndeniablyGenX I maintain it is bye heavy on the end part 😂

I would have just said that it was something personal. Not anything for the company to worry about

I agree they are clustered more at the end!

Totally unreasonable. You need to get over yourself and your awe of the big bosses. You werent in a meeting with God and the angels, just people the same as you and your friend. I'm sure their Very Important Minds could stay focused despite the interruption of a knock on the door and that you wouldn't have missed much.