To be furious about this work situation

[rose789]

I’m going back to work in a few weeks after mat leave. I will be working 30 hours so dropping 7.5 hours. I was so excited to go back as I love my team. It’s a mix of ages and genders but we all get on really well, both in and out of work.
I have a few KIT days next week and my manager called me on Friday for a chat and she told me that I’m being moved to a newly established part time team. She’s furious that I’m being moved but it’s not in her control.
The new manager is someone I don’t really like for a start, she works 24 hours a week. The rest of the team are all women who work part time because they have small children. I’m friends with a few of them on social media and they were posting all excited about being “in the yummy mummy team”
I text one of them about it and she is thrilled because we can all share advice on the kids and get support.
I don’t go to work to talk about my kids, or anyone else’s. There are other staff who work part time- people that are semi retired for example and they have not been put on any special teams.
It seems like they have literally formed a team of people who have returned from maternity leave within the last 2 years.
I’ve mulled this over all weekend and I’m getting more and more angry over it.
AIBU or would this bother you?

Sounds reasonable, they put all the pt in the same team.

It's not management's fault if the staff has nickname for their team!

why is it discrimination? The alternative could be to refuse to change the contracts to part-time, and keep you all in the same full-time team.
It's up to you really.

I thought discrimination was treating someone differently than you otherwise would have, just because they got pregnant / had baby. So if they've moved everyone that's returned from maternity leave to a team of similar people, then that is definitely not random and seems directly related to your maternity leave.

It also seems to fly in the face of their policy on having mixed teams

I'd be questioning it, definitely.

Only reason I can see is if a lot of people have come back part time and are job sharing, that comes with it's own issues and maybe needs managing in a different way? In trying to give the benefit of the doubt though!

What are the different teams for? Is it just about who manages a group of people or is there a difference in the work that each team does?

What are the different teams for? Is it just about who manages a group of people or is there a difference in the work that each team does?

No Everyone does the same job. 10-15 people on a team under 1 manager and 20-25 teams on department depending on staffing levels.

If you all do the samr job what difference does your team make
In fact I'd argue that's not a team, it's a group of people with a common manager

It makes sense for all part time staff to be managed by the same person.

Why sackrifice?

Are there other teams with just part time staff included and what about male part timers?

I don't think there is necessarily an issue in separating part time and full time staff when organising teams but as long as this applies to ALL part time staff, not just mat leave returners/mums.

If it’s a call centre, doesn’t that mean shifts? So even if someone is full time it doesn’t mean they’re doing M-F 9-5 does it? They could be doing 10-8pm or whatever the shift pattern is so I really can’t see how separating full timers and part timers makes any difference.

I worked in a bank call centre as a team leader when they did the same thing, OP.

I’ll be honest in that the women on that team were absolutely fantastic at their jobs, but were often overlooked for promotional opportunities and their development was never really pushed too hard. There was an assumption that they came in, did their hours and left again, and they weren’t interested in gaining any new skills or looking at the next step on the ladder.

That might have suited some of them, but I cringe when I think of the potential of some of those women who were never encouraged past the dip in their confidence, sometimes years after taking maternity.

Why sackrifice?

I'll turn that around and ask why do you think it is a bad idea for all part time staff to be managed by the same person?

I'll turn that around and ask why do you think it is a bad idea for all part time staff to be managed by the same person?

no, you made the statement, I asked you to explain it. Can you not?

Btw I didnt say it was a bad idea to have all part time people managed by the same person.

That would bother me too OP. Half the pleasure from a job comes from your team (especially in a call centre). I'd be driven insane if I had to spend child-free hours (i.e. work) with people who were genuinely excited about getting even more opportunity to blather on about kids all the time.

I'd also hate being on a non-diverse team. I love working with both female and male colleagues and working with a wide range of ages and experiences - it makes the job so much more interesting.

I used to work in a call centre - the team does matter, since the job can be emotionally draining (talking to irritated customers all day). Those 10 minute breaks with your colleagues make all the difference between 1) coming back to work for another day full of energy or 2) feeling like quitting.

If I were you, I'd gently raise it with your manager and request to be on a different team. Highlight the fact that you like working within a diverse team, or highlight what you bring to your current team that they would be losing out on. Don't ask, don't get!

so you want management to send a memo banning everyone from talking about their children?

I am sure that it would put them into A LOT of legal trouble if they did that!