To feel annoyed that I missed out on a job because I am a woman

[curtainsy]

I've just started back at work after 12 months off for maternity leave. Before I went off I had a meeting with HR and my manager to go over my rights etc. One of the things HR said was that they have to keep me informed of job vacancies.

I have now started back and found out that a promotion came up within my team 2 months ago. Four colleagues applied and one of them was appointed. AIBU to be absolutely raging that I wasn't informed?
I don't actually know what to do about it as it's all been done now and he is in this new job so I feel like complaining is pointless.

we are all entitled to our opinion, and have various experience of being on maternity leave ourselves.
I second the opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. Doesn’t make you special, and your having an opinion doesn’t somehow override facts and the law. The op’s employers are required to act lawfully and they have not.

No wonder women are still disadvantaged in the workplace when demanding equitable treatment is viewed as demanding special treatment.
It's sad to see so many women still conditioned to 'know their place' and not make a fuss.

why would I be checking work emails when I am on maternity leave looking after a baby

Why would you be applying for jobs then? Or prepping for an interview? You don’t get to have it both ways. There was nothing stopping you accessing your work emails and skimming through them once a week. You chose not to. Yes they had your personal email but why would they sent you job vacancies and nothing else? When does it become ‘being harrassed’ by work as opposed to ‘keeping you informed of opportunities’? Learn from it and move on.

why would they sent you job vacancies and nothing else?

Because that is their legal obligation as employers.

We are all entitled to our opinion, and have various experience of being on maternity leave ourselves.

You're entitled to your own opinion, but neither that nor your experience of being on maternity leave has any relevance to the situation. There are legal obligations that weren't met here, regardless of what you or anyone else might think of them.

Also, the only women letting the side down here are the ones daft and egotistical enough to think their incredibly important opinions trump what the law says.

I don't think we should base our opinions only on what is legal but also what we feel is moral and fair.

why would I be checking work emails when I am on maternity leave looking after a baby

why wouldn't you if you are that interested in your job and possible promotions?

How much effort is it really to have a quick look through your emails once a week. You can't have it both ways!

No wonder employers think some women and some new mothers are a pain in the ass frankly. Half get offended to be contacted, the other half want a special delivery.

I suppose the solution is to make each employee sign a document specifically agreeing or opting out of receiving job ads and various on their personal emails. At least everybody would be equal then, or have a chance to choose.

The thing is AnAC1 is that people are entitled to rely on their legal rights. When those are withdrawn without notice, it isn't moral or fair.

So even if for some bizarre reason one thinks it isn't discriminatory and is absolutely fine to expect employees on maternity leave to come into the office every 6 weeks to reset their email password in order to be informed of vacancies, the point is that OP had a legal right to be told, with the onus being on her employers not her to facilitate this. This means morally and practically she was perfectly entitled to act on this basis. Had it been made clear to OP that nothing would be done and she would have to come in herself to investigate, that would have been illegal and unfair, but she would at least have known it was those things.

There simply isn't any argument that this was acceptable, as evidenced by the utter idiocy of the arguments against OP.

where does it stop?

Mother on maternity leave is informed of possible promotion, goes for the internal interview, fail because she is not up to date and then complain that it was because she was out of the loop for 10 months and she should have been given a fair chance but only when back at work?

If people can't be bothered to keep a vague eye on things happening in the office for 12 months, then sorry, I think they are taking the piss if they complain. You can't have it both ways.

Blimey, people who got their imaginary law degrees from Handmaiden University really do expect to be taken seriously when giving opinions. MN is an eye opener sometimes.

The entitled attitude of some people is another eye opener, legal or not.

When you have to start calling people entitled for understanding what the law says and what their rights are, it's a sure sign you're losing the argument.

What a cheeky fucker eh? Expecting her employer to do what they had explicitly promised to do. Almost like someone expecting the terms of a contract to be honored! What silly shiftless twit would expect that? Just do everyone else's work yourself, you lazy mare.

But hang on. Maybe the head of HR is a woman. Let's imagine that for a moment, shall we. Now, who's for laying in to that silly HR girl for not knowing what she's doing?

In real life, if anyone is interested by what's happening at work, promotion included, they vaguely keep in touch, that's all. No one is expecting an employee to log in every single day for hours, but keeping an eye on things weekly is reasonable.

If you are not interested, fine, you don't have to be, but you can't have it both ways.

we are not talking about the law here, just about attitude. And yes, it's called being entitled

we are not talking about the law here, just about attitude. And yes, it's called being entitled
So are you saying if someone doesnt log on etc it is ok for an employer to break the law?

Having read a number of work related threads on MN recently, and seen the attitudes displayed by so many, I can well understand why a) so many workplaces are so shitty to be in and b) why so many women simply don't think it's worth returning to work. Some employers and managers really are utter cunts, aren't they? And a lot appear to be on MN.

OP - I hope you spoke to HR and they are looking at your case seriously. At the very least you are owed an explanation and a pay rise.

I'm saying if the OP was really interested in possible promotions, she would have kept in touch.

That's what normal workers do.

People who expect paid employees of an organisation to do the thing they said they did are responsible for all the sexism in the world, and complying with legal obligations is optional. I am supremely qualified to make this assessment because, despite all the disadvantage of legal qualifications, I have been on maternity leave.

Entitled is the word, you're right about that. She had a right or claim to expect her employer to honour their commitment, thus, she was entitled to expect this.

It would be a laugh to see an employer trying to justify to the ET the claim that its reasonable to expect employees on long term leave such as maternity and presumably also paternity to come into the office every 6 weeks to reset their passwords, in order to enjoy their legal right to be kept informed.

I can understand it’s frustrating but you were off on ML enjoying time with your baby. You could have checked in but didn’t. Even if you were working there’s no guarantee that you would have seen the advert and no guarantee that you would have got the job.

Of course OP should have been informed.

How she should have been informed is the issue.

When I was on mat leave (some 10+ years ago) I was provided as part of the mat leave policy, the external link to the internal jobs intranet page, and expected to check for vacancies myself. Local Goverment.

I don't think that was unreasonable.

I also don't think being expected to check work emails for job vacancies is unreasonable if she was able to do so from home, and she had been told that any vacancies arising would be emailed to her work address. Just sending an email to a work email address that the OP wasn't able to access during mat leave isn't enough.

That said, there was no guarantee that OP would have got the job if she had applied for it, so I'm not sure what the remedy would be once someone else has already been appointed. OP says she doesn't want an apology. Presumably she likes her job and doesn't want to go down the constructive dismissal route. She can't be offered the job as someone else already has been appointed. So I'm not sure where she could go from here.

Some of the responses on here are seriously depressing and show a complete lack of understanding around maternity and the employer's responsibilities. I really hope those commenting so negatively aren't managers.

I am a manager and any significant change in the team would be something to notify an employee about whilst on mat leave. It's not rocket science and the onus is on the employer as we know when changes are happening. The employee having to keep checking just in case is utterly bonkers!

All this talk of ‘legal obligation’ were does it say they have to send possible job opportunity emails to personal accounts?

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/parental-rights/rights-while-youre-on-maternity-leave/

mancklfe1
It say in here about the employers has to keep in touch and inform of any promotions.
Right back at the star of the thread the OP and her manager made an agreement they would keep in touch by email and even did a test run.