She's right, and you have poor management.

If she has higher expectations than she should, or is not comprehending things, that falls square on management. They are failing at teaching, managing, and making sure the team understands their expectations.

I have a roommate who is fresh out of college and started working at a local museum. I can tell you right now, she knows her role, what is expected of her, which is to manage herself cos her manager is tied up with controlling the volunteers and they have seen she is competent enough to manage herself, which also lends to giving her more responsibility within months of starting there cos her manager is good enough to actually recognize that length of time there doesn't necessarily equate to competence or lack of it..

She also knows exactly how long it will be before she is promoted, has already received a raise int he 6 months working there. She is brand new, but management can recognize talent, instead of suffocating it with protocol.

She knows she has job security for at least 2 years while the historic home is undergoing restoration, as well. And she already knows she is likely to hit another raise within this year.

She is from Ohio. She moved here for this job. She told me she was intending to leave with x amount of time if she didn't see progress, but not only did her manager make sure she understood everything so well she is killing it with the company, but she already has enough input to not only not be asking for things out of turn, like raises, but also, to plan to stay with that company long term.

That is a damn good manager.

Jonathan is trash as a manager.

Demote or at least re-train him.

As far as travel..it's not the free flow, roomy, exciting adventure it used to be. It's long lines, extreme security to work thru, cramped painful seats, upending your routine to go be miserable. More and more of us are finally being diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders with high anxiety. We don't like travel. We don't like leaving our house. If the company genuinely gave a damn about saving a buck, they'd do online meetings instead of making staff travel. They're just jerks making a person go thru all that. She is already better than your management enough to point out the company's poor money management, being wasteful and disruptive for staff with unnecessary travel. Yet you fired her. That, in itself, is very poor management. I can see why the higher staff is incompetent. You are getting rid of the employees with logic. "It's fun" is not actually a legitimate reason to blow money on travel.

Neurodivergence is an issue, too. My org specializes in teaching staff in companies like yours how to recognize, hire, train, and reasonably accommodate people with neurodevelopmental differences (down syndrome, autism, adhd, etc). Many are undiagnosed still, and they struggle, and it is so unnecessary, cos corporate culture is just not adjusting, even tho the adjustment is free. This is costly to us. Autistics, for example, have an 85% unemployment rate. Primary reason? When you interview us, you write us off for being fidgety, lacking eye contact, and being so nervous in the interview we do not speak clearly and show confidence. Why are these things we are denied jobs for? It's a standard set by arrogant men in the 1950's. We are well past due for companies to get with the times and stop following biased harmful outdated standards.

Your company's practices and management need an overhaul, it seems.