(or naive) in thinking that 12 years professional experience is not diminished by working part-time...?

[misspollysdolly]

Or have two periods of maternity leave...?!

Have recently had contact with an ex-manager who floored me slightly by snidely saying that 'in real terms' my 10+ years since training in my chosen profession doesn't count for all that much because for most of those years I have worked part-time and I have also had two periods of maternity leave. She therefore claimed that I am still relatively 'new to the field' (which is why she did not re-employ me, but gave the job to a newly qualified person...the context of this conversation was me questioning how a newly qualified individual can win out over 10+ years of professional experience)

Am I being unreasonable to a) be a little hurt/confused by her statement...? and to b) think she is actually wrong...??! The conversation has reminded me of all the reasons why I left a position where she was my boss, so I guess it serves some purpose...!

MPD

Mayisout why would she feel resentful for working full time? Obviously her career has gone further than the OP's. IMO there are 2 types of part time working mums, one that's just filing time and earning a wage but constantly has time off because of childcare issues/illness/school holidays etc or two the part time worker that's building up to full time hours when suitable to kick start their career and do not bring there child care issues/school holiday issues etc into the work place. The first type are very annoying because we are constantly picking up their work and covering for them.
Ultimately you do not have 6 full years experience.

I qualified as a solicitor two years ago but spent nearly a year of that time on maternity leave. So I cannot say with any truth that I have 2 years PQE.

As for the part time, that depends on how part time you are and whether there are any parts of the full time job you simply do not do because it wouldn't fit in your hours. I work five days a week but shortened days, however I do as much billable time as full timers and would resent anyone suggesting a year for me is worth less than a full time year.

Basically you don't have 12 years PQE but you are darned sight more qualified than a NQ and what she said was bang out of order.

Reposting with some of my own stuff removed and hopefully the right words in the right order

Whilst in absolute 'hours worked' you may not have the full 10 years, I would be staggered if you don't have significantly more experience than a newly qualified person who presumably has been in the role

The conversation has reminded me of all the reasons why I left a position where she was my boss, so I guess it serves some purpose...!

I think you have your answer there, it sounds like she didn't want to hire and said something pretty hurtful, did you get on when you worked for her? It sounds pretty spiteful as though she wanted to hurt / knock your confidence.

FWIW I think her reasoning was wrong, other posters have made lots of good points on how much commitment, actual experience you obtained during your working years etc. Only you can know the answers, but as someone who worked part time for part of my working life, I think my experience added up to a lot and would be gutted if someone said this to me. (But then I would probably ignore it and 'position' my experience for future interviews.)

I too think it is discriminatory. But I also think it is not an uncommon view.

When I was getting a passport for my newborn dd, I asked a friend who was an accountant to be the counter signatory. My dd's app was refused as my friend was on a career break, (currently staying home with her four year old, yet a paid up member of a professional body). I was beyond outraged!

Bluegingham's right, this kind of attitude is actually discriminatory and hence against the law. Stupid cow could get her employers into a LOT of trouble with attitudes like that.

"It sounds pretty spiteful as though she wanted to hurt / knock your confidence."

Yes I agree. She's trying to get one up on you.

I do think mat leave and working pt mean you can't claim 12mo years experience. I am 11 years post qualification. I have had 2 years mat leave. That means, to me, I have 9 years experience. I am lucky to work in an industry that reduces the number of outputs I am required to achieve according to mat leave etc.

I think she could have said it better, and it sounds like she was rude and dismissive. I think your experience is obv greater than that of someone nq, but you should be realistic too and accept you have less that 12mo years experience too.

Discriminatory most definitely but OT uncommon at all. I have worked part time since having children in a professional job.......last on the list for courses, ditto for promotion, ditto for EVERYTHING.

Unfortunately it's part time equals part brain

I don't understand how some of you claim it's discriminatory. If someone doesn't do the coursework, would you award them the qualification? It's like me saying I've played tennis for 30 years because I first played then. Nonsense.

The attitude that this isin some way discriminatory is exactly the reason why women get a bad rep in some work places. I qualified as a professional in a profession where for the first few years you move up through pay grades automatically to recognise your increasd experience. I qualified at exactly the same time as a colleague and five years later we were earning the same despite the fact that I had done 5 years full time and she had 3x maternity leave for a year each time and only returned 2.5 days a week after the first being born. It wasn't remotely equitable and she had barely any experience yet to look at her pay grade or cv she wou
D show as having 5 years post qualification experience. Some maternity rights in this country are a joke.

Agreed, londonone. In many ways, experience should be measured by hours at the coalface rather than years since qualification (although that risks favouring inefficient workers, so not a perfect measure by any means).

People are saying it's discriminatory because the OP was told that the job had been offered to a newly qualified person instead of the OP, because the OP's experience didn't count for much on the grounds that she had been part time/taken mat leave etc. Now, that might not have been the real reason that she wasn't offered the job, but on the face of it, it certainly appears to be discriminatory - the OP cannot claim 12 years of experience in my view, but that's not to say that the experience she has acquired is worth nothing.

but do you think she might have said that as an excuse because you asked her directly and it was something to say rather than 'I didn't want to give the job to you'

Let's not forget that some part-time workers cram lots of work into their shorter hours, and some full-time workers are less than efficient. So experience gained is not necessarily best measured by the time spent sat at a desk. Hopefully a good manager would be able to note this and offer jobs/promotion to the best applicant, regardless of their working pattern.

I realise this is a pipe-dream.