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First business trip with a new hire… and I’m already questioning myself
Is this a new norm?
I'm a technical manager with this is new sales hired under me for venturing into the market.
I recently went on my first business trip with this new colleague who reports to me, and honestly, I don’t know if I’m overreacting or if this is just wildly unprofessional behavior.
First red flag: she showed up with an ancient soft-fabric luggage that looks pre-COVID, maybe even pre-smartphone era. Unsurprisingly, after our flight (which was already delayed over an hour), one of the wheels broke.
Instead of moving on quickly, she queued at the airport to report the luggage issue. After \~20 minutes of waiting, I had enough so I told her I’d grab a cab first because I was rushing to the hotel — drop luggage, grab a quick lunch, then head straight to a trade show with pre-arranged meetings. While waiting, I explained how per diem works (transport and meals are covered).
The moment she heard that, she quickly left the queue, came to me as I'm still waiting for my cab to arrive. She understand from the gojek staff that it can take up to 1 hour for the car to arrive so she happy left her faulty luggage with me.
While she was gone, the cab arrived. In Indonesia, ride-hailing (gojek) does matches drivers via a code word, so if you don’t board quickly, the driver can take another passenger. I let others board first while waiting for her.
Net result?
It took almost one full hour after landing just to leave the airport.
At the hotel, I said I’d settle in quickly and head out for lunch before meetings. She replied that she needed to shower and change first and wanted me to wait for her as it's dangerous for a girl to be in the city.
At this point, I genuinely thought: What kind of alien colleague did I hire?
Later that night at dinner, I was networking and chatting with other attendees. She came over and told me there was a bus to catch back to the venue. I told her we could just take a cab. She didn’t seem to understand and insisted she’d come back later to “get me” when it was time.
We were seated at different tables, socializing separately.
When she came back again, I told her clearly: Please sit beside me first, I’m still finishing this conversation.
She immediately responded with things like “I’m a girl, it’s dangerous at night”, etc. It was incredibly awkward — especially in front of other people.
The other guys eventually told me to go ahead and they’d see me the next day.
To be fair, I get that she was probably tired. Flying in on the same day as the event isn’t ideal — normally SOP is to arrive a day earlier. But we did have a company event the day before, on a Sunday, which everyone else attended and enjoyed. I really don’t see that as something worth complaining about.
So… am I being unreasonable here? Or is this a serious lack of professionalism and situational awareness?
TL;DR:
First business trip with a new subordinate turned into chaos — broken ancient luggage, slow airport exit, zero urgency, expecting me to wait for showers, awkward safety comments in public, and poor understanding of basic business-trip norms. Am I overreacting, or is this a red flag hire?
