I was off work for the past two days due to illness - pretty sure it was norovirus and I felt absolutely dreadful. I was in no state to work.
I knew I had a meeting with a particular stakeholder on Monday and assumed my manager would have covered me (she’s usually ‘on it’ with things like this).
My manager did attend the call but wasn’t up to speed and didn’t give accurate updates, so a meeting was re-scheduled for this morning. My senior manager was also invited by this stakeholder, who it was clear within minutes of it starting was unhappy.
My senior manager, who is generally quite ‘direct’, challenged this stakeholder and explained I was unexpectedly absent. Their exchange then went something like this:
Stakeholder - I would expect there to have been a handover.
Senior Manager - she was unexpectedly absent.
Stakeholder - in my department, this wouldn’t happen and if someone’s absent and there’s an important meeting, they’d ensure they were correctly represented.
Senior Manager - for goodness sake, she was pissing out of her arse, what did you expect her to do.
All present were women, it is a corporate company and there’s a sort of ‘say it as it is’ culture, but within respectful boundaries.
AIBU to feel a bit put out by the comment? I did mention to my Manager who felt she was just sticking up for me and not to read anything in to it.