Coworker made me miss our flight

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I posted a while back about having to take a new coworker on a business trip with me. She is brand new to business travel - any kind of air travel, really - so I made sure we had plenty of time.

1. She woke up late
2. Was at the airport and hour and a half later than we agreed to
3. Left her laptop bag in her car
4. Didn't know you couldn't bring liquids through security
5. Wore these ridiculous 4 inch heels so she could barely walk through the terminal.

I basically dragged her as fast as I could through the airport, and we still missed our flight. Our manager is furious with me because I didn't explain to her about the liquids and that she couldn't carry on a giant suitcase, etc, or explain to her her decent travel attire. I guess I am wondering if this is really my responsibility? I travel 150,000 miles a year and it never occurred to me to tell someone in 2015 that they can't bring a huge bottle of shampoo or a giant suitcase on the plane. I was at the airport almost 3 hours before our flight, but there wasn't much I could do besides call her when she didn't show up on time.

How do I fix this in the future? I am not her manager.

Sorry, can't believe any of this. You say you travel a lot --why did you show up 3 hours before the flighr?

Really? To make sure I had time to deal with any issues - of course, that three hours became just over an hour and ten minutes once she finally got there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is she sleeping with this manager or something? Or the manager's manager? I don't know why the manager is babying her like this.

It's extremely difficult to get a headcount increase at our company. We finally did after four years of begging and she was promoted internally. She is capable at some of the work, but is not...well traveled. I guess the short answer is, we need warm bodies to do the easy stuff.

I do not travel much but that is all common sense and on the airline website. You can check in large bottles in your luggage not carry on. I would have gotten on the plane without her.

[Anonymous]

If you knew in advance that she had little experience in air travel then logically, you should have known that she would be unfamiliar with its idiosyncrasies. How could you spend time talking about appropriate wardrobe but not about how to actually show up for the client? Your boss is mad because he gave you explicit instructions and you failed to do the minimum. She will not be blamed for any of this.

[Anonymous]

Sorry OP, but I'm not on your side. It sounds like you were made very aware of her situation before the trip, and told to babysit her. You didn't do that. If she's as inexperienced as she sounds, you should have known to really dumb everything down on her. You should have erred on the side of over-explaining EVERYTHING, which you didn't do. It might feel like a waste, but apparently babysitting is part of your job title, so do it well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry OP, but I'm not on your side. It sounds like you were made very aware of her situation before the trip, and told to babysit her. You didn't do that. If she's as inexperienced as she sounds, you should have known to really dumb everything down on her. You should have erred on the side of over-explaining EVERYTHING, which you didn't do. It might feel like a waste, but apparently babysitting is part of your job title, so do it well.

It's actually part of my job title (that would be engineer).

I'm not trying to make excuses, but I honestly had no idea people wore shoes that high. Fashion isn't my thing, and I didn't know they existed. How can I be expected to tell her not to do something if I don't know the thing is question exists? Honest question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted a while back about having to take a new coworker on a business trip with me. She is brand new to business travel - any kind of air travel, really - so I made sure we had plenty of time.

1. She woke up late
2. Was at the airport and hour and a half later than we agreed to
3. Left her laptop bag in her car
4. Didn't know you couldn't bring liquids through security
5. Wore these ridiculous 4 inch heels so she could barely walk through the terminal.

I basically dragged her as fast as I could through the airport, and we still missed our flight. Our manager is furious with me because I didn't explain to her about the liquids and that she couldn't carry on a giant suitcase, etc, or explain to her her decent travel attire. I guess I am wondering if this is really my responsibility? I travel 150,000 miles a year and it never occurred to me to tell someone in 2015 that they can't bring a huge bottle of shampoo or a giant suitcase on the plane. I was at the airport almost 3 hours before our flight, but there wasn't much I could do besides call her when she didn't show up on time.

How do I fix this in the future? I am not her manager.

So, is you manager furious with you that she woke up late and was an hour and half late getting to the airport and forget he laptop?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I posted a while back about having to take a new coworker on a business trip with me. She is brand new to business travel - any kind of air travel, really - so I made sure we had plenty of time.

1. She woke up late
2. Was at the airport and hour and a half later than we agreed to
3. Left her laptop bag in her car
4. Didn't know you couldn't bring liquids through security
5. Wore these ridiculous 4 inch heels so she could barely walk through the terminal.

I basically dragged her as fast as I could through the airport, and we still missed our flight. Our manager is furious with me because I didn't explain to her about the liquids and that she couldn't carry on a giant suitcase, etc, or explain to her her decent travel attire. I guess I am wondering if this is really my responsibility? I travel 150,000 miles a year and it never occurred to me to tell someone in 2015 that they can't bring a huge bottle of shampoo or a giant suitcase on the plane. I was at the airport almost 3 hours before our flight, but there wasn't much I could do besides call her when she didn't show up on time.

How do I fix this in the future? I am not her manager.

So, is you manager furious with you that she woke up late and was an hour and half late getting to the airport and forget he laptop?

He told me I should have had her meet me at the airport earlier and I should have called her (which obviously I did). And I did catch the fact she forgot her laptop....

[Anonymous]

WTH?

Alright then. Next business trip print out an incredibly detailed itinerary for her. Including what time to wake up, what time to leave for the airport etc.

Remind her of appropriate travel attire, and email her a list of "do's/do not's" for packing. Treat her like a child who can't figure it out.

Your boss must be a real treat. Did he hire a 12 year old?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTH?

Alright then. Next business trip print out an incredibly detailed itinerary for her. Including what time to wake up, what time to leave for the airport etc.

Remind her of appropriate travel attire, and email her a list of "do's/do not's" for packing. Treat her like a child who can't figure it out.

Your boss must be a real treat. Did he hire a 12 year old?

Early 40's.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately you have to take the fall for this. You missed the flight, and boss blames you. As a PP said, next time treat coworker entirely like a baby. Heck, give wake-up calls and send a taxi or whatever.

[Anonymous]

I did a less bad version of this when I first started in big law. I brought luggage too big to carry on, so I had to check it. We didn't miss the flight by any means, but once we got there, the partner had to wait for me while I picked up my luggage.

The partner wasn't really mean, but made sort of impatient jokes about my lack of experience with business travel, and made it clear he didn't like waiting for my luggage with me. I never fucked up again.

[Anonymous]

I think some of the posters are being a bit harsh (it's your job to make sure a grownup wakes up on time??), however I would have at a minimum pointed her to the TSA website. That could have avoided some issues like the size of the suitcase or the liquids. If you don't travel much, I can see how you wouldn't have a clue as to what the current rules are. Do you pay attention to what the current requirements are to get a visa to, say, Russia? Probably not, unless you travel there.

We were almost in a similar situation once at work when there was a semi-last minute need for someone to go to the London office. The person chosen by the boss was happily making plans when it came out that she didn't have a passport (it was literally like - "hey don't forget the xx file and your passport" and she said "I need a passport? I never had one". She'd obviously never travelled abroad and it didn't occur to her that she would need it. Good thing she didn't show up at the airport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately you have to take the fall for this. You missed the flight, and boss blames you. As a PP said, next time treat coworker entirely like a baby. Heck, give wake-up calls and send a taxi or whatever.

You know what really irritates me about it? We weren't late for our meeting, and we didn't accrue any additional expenses but he's still pissed at me because I "let it happen".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some of the posters are being a bit harsh (it's your job to make sure a grownup wakes up on time??), however I would have at a minimum pointed her to the TSA website. That could have avoided some issues like the size of the suitcase or the liquids. If you don't travel much, I can see how you wouldn't have a clue as to what the current rules are. Do you pay attention to what the current requirements are to get a visa to, say, Russia? Probably not, unless you travel there.

We were almost in a similar situation once at work when there was a semi-last minute need for someone to go to the London office. The person chosen by the boss was happily making plans when it came out that she didn't have a passport (it was literally like - "hey don't forget the xx file and your passport" and she said "I need a passport? I never had one". She'd obviously never travelled abroad and it didn't occur to her that she would need it. Good thing she didn't show up at the airport.

I do not understand how it's even possible to not realize you need a passport to go to another country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. She woke me up late.

Not her responsibility. It's yours. The rest? Well, not yours. Should have left her behind (just kidding, kind of).

I think you misread.

I did!! Sorry! Snark fail!