Aibu mat leave shouldn’t count as a year of work on cv?

[windygallows]

I’m currently Interviewing candidates including an internal colleague who claims to have 3 yrs experience In a particular skill/role. However over 1 yr of those 3yrs she was off on mat leave.

I think it’s okay for her to say she was employed in the role for 3 yrs but she can’t really say she has 3 yrs experience doing it, can she? Really she’s only been doing the tasks involved in her role for 2 years. This fact is important since the role requires significant experience and I think 2 years is not enough.

I’ve been on mat leave twice and not trying to discrimate, just trying to be logical about it. Would welcome thoughts on whether I’m BU or not I’m thinking 3 yrs employed does not equal 3 yrs experience.

I haven’t checked with HR but pretty sure they wouldn’t agree with me!

clairemcnam - I've worked along side a colleague who had nearly a year out of the office after finding a tumour, they stayed with the company after that. Other people with long term health conditions keep their careers going, often going part time or being given less work load, which again, wouldn't be reflected on a CV the OP would know about.

The OP's colleague's mat leave is a known reason to be out of the office for a long period, all other CVs she gets might also state 3/4/5 years in a job, it doesn't mean they did those jobs full time and didn't have extended periods of absence.

snowflake I am not talking about maternity leave, that is different.
But your work experience sounds unusual to me. I have a long term health condition/disability and can not manage working full time. I basically had to leave a full time job as I could not cope with the hours and got a part time job. Every employer I have ever worked with would get rid of anyone with a serious health condition before the end of 6 months off sick, unless the person was going to die soon.

I don't know if you've had bad experiences or I've had good ones, but I've worked 3 different companies (all private sector) where there have been colleagues who have been out for long term sick (1 for a year), and they have kept their jobs, coming back to work afterwards. I've worked where those who's health means they can't work full time, they've been allowed to reduce to part time hours, sometimes job sharing.

these things wouldn't be listed on a CV as breaks in employment.

Have you worked at multinationals? These are the only places I know where this would be okay. I have worked in public sector and small private sector. All got rid of people before then.