WWYD? Team member getting a lot of bad reports

[Lushmetender]

We took a person on in in our team - she’s part of my extended team. She’s new and had a bit of a rough start. It has taken her a while to settle in and many people do not seem to have much patience with her. Then recently she went to a client meeting which apparently went well but one of key team members said this team member showed a lot of inappropriate behaviour. On further investigation our team member had a hard time as she does look young for her age. While she was at the meeting she was verbally assaulted and robbed which obviously caused great upset so clearly she was in tears. But the team she went with inferred they didn’t believe her! The person asking to take her off tells us she didn’t deliver material for the meeting despite repeated attempts. Apparently our team member turned up to the internal meeting until 4 hours after it started. When she was asked to give her material again by the team they said it didn’t change. Then the assault happened and was crying a lot (team members seemed to infer the hotel said they don’t have muggers in that area. Later they claimed she called her colleague asking if she could help her with the meeting material at 1130 pm in her bedroom before the meeting to which they said no (our team member said they were really horrible to her, saying she looked like a kid and shoved her out on her own to work on her meeting material), the actual meeting went well with the client and they have not complained but the head of the team wants her off. WWYD? If that happened ie the assault then that would upset anyone and I cannot imagine anyone would make that up but many team members have complained about my team members odd behaviour and want her off. My team member sounds legitimate and I have no reason not to believe her. But I do know this team mate is struggling generally! The material she gave us look ok but the person complaining gave us a different set our team member apparently gave her so it all seems a bit he said she said. My immediate boss knows my team member from a previous job and vouches for her and is mad a team could treat her that way. My boss’s boss feels it would take too much for our team member to build credibility but the client didn’t complain. I do know this girl has been struggling generally and I’m wondering if the job is truly right for her which I haven’t said to my boss yet. WWYD?

[BrokenWing]

The person asking to take her off tells us she didn’t deliver material for the meeting despite repeated attempts.

What does this bit mean as your post is not very clear what the context is? What was she delivering, a presentation/data? Was it the material that was incomplete, or her delivery of the presentation lacking?

If she is new and inexperienced I would expect someone to be validating her material before presenting to clients and someone at the meeting specifically to support her, give her feedback and identify any training needs until there is confidence in her work. Who was responsible to support her?

If she is not as new as your post implies and she has not been performing ("rough start") who has been managing her and validating her work before putting her in front of clients?

From your post it sounds as if a very young inexperienced new employee has been thrown under a bus!

[LIZS]

When you say "a lot of bad reports" , do they all relate to this one time? Break it down - poor prep and communication, behaviour at the meeting, demeanour etc and decide what is worth raising. If she is new there should be a regular review process, with two way feedback. How did she feel it went? What could have been done better? Did she need more support, training or resources to prepare than the organisation gave her? As to the incident, if it was reported to police and venue perhaps she needed some sympathy, support and tolerance, although it sounds as if you have already decided it did not happen.