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.

YANBU. they are supposed to keep you informed. I'd write to HR to flag the issue.

You shouldn't have to do a KIT day every 6 weeks just to reset a password though @notacooldad

And not to mention KIT days are not compulsory.

You don't have to do your KIT days, I didn't and they kept me informed of any structural changes and vacancies through my personal email and i work for a massive organisation

I’m aghast at some of the responses here. It’s like we’ve flashed back to the 1950s. It’s shit like this that means women are under-represented at senior levels.

OP I also recommend checking out pregnantthenscrewed.com and contacting ACAS for some advice.

You don't have to do your KIT days, I didn't and they kept me informed of any structural changes and vacancies through my personal email and i work for a massive organisation. In this case something has gone wrong. It doesn't do any harm to be proactive and look out for yourself.

And not to mention KIT days are not compulsory. I know , I just asked a question!

You shouldn't have to do a KIT day every 6 weeks just to reset a password thotacooldad I know that as well, so did my colleague but she was taking a belt and braces approach if in case anything slipped past her. She wasn't thinking about a promotion but there was a lot of changes going on and she knew things may get over looked.
I'm not blaming OP, just asked a question how things worked for her.

Also no offense but you were on maternity leave when this happened and you have only now just stared back at work. Get your feet back under the table. Unlikely you would have got that job anyway having been out of work for a year

Have we slipped back into the 1970s while I wasn't looking?

notacooldad Good for your colleague but she shouldn’t have to do that. I wasn’t kept up to date during either of my maternities so it is happening to women up and down the country.

I'm just curious...if you are supposed to be notified of vacancies, should it be any vacancy in your organisation or just those you might be an obvious promotional candidate for?
I had zero contact from HR whilst on maternity and doubt my manager would have considered alerting me to change of role posts. I returned to a lot of new appointments, none of which were in my department, but there is no reason I couldn't have wanted to apply for a different role.

notacooldad Good for your colleague but she shouldn’t have to do that. I wasn’t kept up to date during either of my maternities so it is happening to women up and down the country.
I totally agree with you and I must admit I probably wouldn't have had the foresight to do this but as this case shows mistakes are made so perhaps it's something for other women to think about . it is wise to look out out for yourself as much a single possible.

Private sector blue chip - director rang me on mat leave to inform me of vacancy. I didn’t want to apply for a variety of reasons so didn’t... oh and I felt GREAT returning from mat leave. A year out of office politics energised me, I had none of the shitty jobs/tasks that you accumulate during a working life to distract me from my core role as they’d all been reallocated, my child was in excellent day care with generous hours that allowed for some time alone albeit brief; in short, I was on it! Not everyone’s ability or resilience is reduced by mat leave.

notacooldad But it appears that your idea of “look out for yourself” is go in and check emails. That’s not reasonable.

A woman is on maternity leave. She shouldn’t have to enter the workplace regularly to check her emails if she can’t do it remotely (and even then she isn’t expected too)

Reading some of the responses on this thread I am amazed that this is a predominantly female forum. These attitudes are ridiculous and do so much damage to women and specifically mothers.
It doesn’t matter whether the OP would have stood a chance at getting the job or not. But that whilst on maternity leave she has the same opportunities to job vacancies as colleagues. She can then choose whether to apply or not and if so he judged against all other candidates.
There should be a mechanism in place within the company to provide job information to all colleagues on parental leave. As some that manages people and has been on maternity leave this is not the colleague on maternity leave regularly checking emails. It should be a push to the colleague from the company. Whether the colleague chooses to opt out of this or not should be agreed with the line manager (and HR) before maternity leave commences - it should be part of the KIT plan. In our company access to systems is suspended whilst on maternity leave to prevent fraud. Even if not it is ludicrous to expect someone to check emails on the off chance there is a job advertised they may be interested in.
I despair of these attitudes. It’s not wonder that companies think it is acceptable to discriminate against women.

If it's such a plum job, being advertised internally, surely the manager of it would have made sure the person they wanted applied. It may not have been in their gift, but it sounds like OP wasn't their preferred candidate.

None of which changes the fact of illegal discrimination, but I wonder if the manager can say that to mitigate damages.

FML I am so depressed by these replies. Definitely push back at your org op. I'd expect contact via personal email or by phone, like I would on sick leave.

Certainly understand why we've not fixed the male-female pay gap if this is women's attitudes to other women's.

*notacooldad But it appears that your idea of “look out for yourself” is go in and check emails. That’s not reasonable.

Awoman is on maternity leave. She shouldn’t have to enter the workplace regularly to check her emails if she can’t do it remotely (and even then she isn’t expected too). I agreed it wasn't reasonable it wasn't right however if I found myself in a similar position I would assume that things may slip through the net, I may inadvertently get forgotten about or someone was supposed to inform of something but thought some else had. It's not right, it's not fair but it's something I have learned both from a colleague and this thread is that the person you can rely on the most is yourself.

Just in case you didn't understand what I said before and what I have said now, I don't think it is reasonable that someone Should Have to go in but in light of human error it may be wise to do if it is possible. I know it's not always possible.

You absolutely need to complain about this, so that HR are aware of the problem. They can’t fix it, for the benefit of anyone else who may be on parental leave and be in the same situation, if they don’t realise it needs fixing.

notacooldad Please don’t patronise me. I understand what you said. You are spectacularly missing the point. Did you expect your wife to make the journey to work weekly/fortnightly/monthly with your child to check emails or do you expect her to be treated lawfully?

When I was on long term leave I set up a rule on my work email to forward internal Comms to my personal email so I wouldn't miss anything.

Some of these replies are ridiculous. Some of the attitudes on this site are so backwards and depressing.

OP I’d definitely raise it and consider raising a grievance. If nothing else, they need to know how to avoid such potentially discriminatory conduct in future.

@Bottledate I think it depends. In mine I can access all of the vacancies, but also set up alerts for different criteria so only get emailed about relevant ones. If an organisation isn't able to do something similar then they absolutely should inform you in my opinion; especially in OP's case where it was made sure that they had her personal email. I guess if you told your line manager you definitely didn't want any contact or access then that may be different I guess, but the option should still be there. Wondering if in this case others who were applying saw OP as competition so made no effort to let her know.

It's not because you're a woman. Maternity does not define womanhood.

Holy fuck. How has this happened if it’s NOT because the op is a woman. 😂?

There is a case about this - it's sex discrimination - I think the case was against barclaycard - that being said if you've just gone back to work so you want to fall out with your employer? So sorry op this happens op it's rubbish and it happens a lot

If you haven't been staying in touch with the office, and haven't even bothered to stay connected by email, then YABU. Resetting your password once every six weeks is a very small price to pay. You might have spent some time during that year nurturing connections, reminding people you are there, possibly being helpful, etc. Completely disappearing for an entire year and expecting a promotion is fucking ridiculous.