Vent: how not to treat business guests

[raindance]

I believe I may have met the very rudest PA ever!  

The directors of my company (and there are quite a large number) have just attended various events in another part of the United Kingdom.  I spent several weeks working on this project arranging travel, speakers (some of them very high profile indeed), a formal dinner and visits - to say nothing of the meeting itself.  My contact "at the other end" was PA to one of the really important people in the company that were hosting these events.  For the purposes of this post, I will call her "Jane" (and my apologies to any "Janes" who post here).

I had bad vibes from Jane right from the start of this project.  It didn't matter that I was polite and indicated how much I appreciated her help at every contact I had with her.  I even arranged for flowers to be sent to her, as a "thank you", to coincide with our arrival at the venue.  

On the second day of our events, Jane had the opportunity to come and meet me.  Her first comment to me was "I wondered what you looked like" (my surname is slightly unusual); her second comments - well, really a stream of remarks - was how our events were not part of her job description and she really had other more important things to do etc etc.  The icing on the cake of this charming individual's utterances was that she confided in me her company had just gone through a job evaluation process.  She and her fellow PAs had "lost out" in the process; their posts were fixed at a certain grade and they would not be given the opportunity to progress through the admin grades.

I was so surprised - and disappointed - by this avalanche of inappropriate remarks.  I couldn't get away from her fast enough!  

Raindance

[gee4]

Highly unprofessional and I'm not at all surprised at her moan - just the fact she relased this information to you.  Even if this was the case, she should never have divulged this information nor bad mouthed her company.  Do you know long had she been in her job or with the company?  

[raindance]

Far too long, Gee, by the sound of it.  Actually, I have spoken with a friend of mine who works in the same company (and is a director of that company) just to try to understand whether I was over-reacting.  He's assured me that Jane is extremely difficult.  

Now, it may be that her own boss is difficult and she has cause to be aggrieved, but rule number one in business when you are hosting something is never to betray family secrets or speak badly of your employers.  She was, effectively, one of the hosts of this event and also an ambassador both for her company and her boss.  

Oh well, I only met her briefly; she has to live with herself 24/7.  Now that IS bad!

R.