AIBU to be furious that Jnr colleugue's salary now exceeds mine? discrimination?!

[WhatTheActualBeep]

To give some background/context here: I have a decade of experience in my field. My current company was taken over by a much larger company in 2020. This same year I fell pregnant and took a year of maternity leave. Just before my leave, I hired an Assistant that supported me and the Director within my team. My maternity cover didn't work out, and whilst I was away, the Director decided to give some of my duties to this Assistant, whilst covering the remainder of my role themselves.

During my leave, the company was taken over, the Director was made redundant and the Assistant was given the same title as me (no Assistant role existed in the bigger company). Their salary was increased, but still approx 10k below my own.

Fast forward, and I return from maternity, the role I return to is vastly different,
the same title but much of the responsibility/seniority removed. 6 months later
the team gets a new Manager who becomes very buddy-buddy with the Assistant andother team members, and doesn't bother getting to know the team, their experience and work history etc.

I take another period of maternity, and return to find out that the 'Assistant'
has received an 18.5% salary increase, and their salary now exceeds my own (not
my much, but still), and they received a bonus of 15% salary, whilst I, on
maternity, got a 6% increase and a 7% bonus. I have never, in 10 years had a
bonus this low and chalk this up to not being in the 'in crowd' with this manager.

The Assistant has half a decade of experience less than me, does not outperform me in any way (whilst we have the same title, there are many aspects of the role
they are inexperienced in, and these tasks fall to me).

In a recent conversation with the manager, I learned that they have no knowledge of the fact that I actually hired the Assistant in my previous company, they used to report to me, and I have 5 years more experience than them! the VP
actually said 'oh really? I thought you were doing the same role at X company'
when this came up in conversation. Is this not the first thing you do as a new
manager - check out your team's skill-set, strengths and experience?

It's worth mentioning, that whilst I have had two DC, this Assistant has been VERY vocal about their views on motherhood, how they want to ‘live life for themselves’ and don’t ever want children.

I am seeing red about this whole situation. I was effectively demoted on return
from 1st maternity leave to a more junior role and got a whole new team, and
now this junior colleague’s salary is higher than my own despite my experience
exceeding theirs by 5 YEARS. I need to raise the bonus issue with my manager
anyway, as I didn't want to deal with that on maternity but AIBU about the
salary issue?!

How do I even raise this?!

It's worth mentioning, that whilst I have had two DC, this Assistant has been VERY vocal about their views on motherhood, how they want to ‘live life for themselves’ and don’t ever want children.

How are those two statements a view on motherhood? They appear to be a position on whether or not they want to be a parent, which is a personal choice and not an affront to mothers worldwide.

You have a right not to be discriminated against. You do not have the right to be promoted above another colleague just cos you're a mum and they're not!

I agree with the above and it is unfair because you had more experience and were senior to the assistant, but now the assistant is the same level as you and presumably has an extra couple of years working in the team doing your duties, while you weren’t gaining experience or skills for the job. If everything was exactly the same as when you left I would think you’re not BU but things are very different and you’ve unfortunately been overlooked because you weren’t there. I don’t think you’ve been punished for taking maternity, the outcome would be the same if you were ill or on sabbatical or similar

If you want to be taken seriously by your manager when you discuss this, leave the words “junior” and “assistant” out of it. Or infact any reference to any person but yourself.

Sorry OP, but sometimes people join who are less experienced but better at their job so they progress at a faster pace.

When I wanted my last promotion, I pushed and pushed for it and worked my arse off, and ended up being promoted before male colleagues who were more qualified than me and I was also on maternity leave. At the same time, there’s someone several years junior that me but he’s on the same salary and had a much higher bonus because of his performance over the past couple of years. Years experience does not automatically mean more pay.

You sound bitter. Stop referring to this person as an assistant. They are not anymore!

The experience you have is only meaningful if its resulting in you out performing this person and doing higher level, more value adding work.

In my team at the moment i have a lady reporting who has 5 years more experience than me, and 10 more than her direct line manager (who is my direct report). She works hard but lacks certain leadership qualities (in areas like communication, workflow management people development) that mean she has essentially got "stuck" at that level. I earn around double what she does.

So in four years (20/21/22/23) if i got it right, you were away for two years on maternity leave?

The staff member who was initially an assistant has spent the last few years developing her knowledge and skills and as a result has been promoted. Sounds pretty normal to me. Having more ‘years’ experience ( on its own) should not automatically mean being paid more and an employer would be foolish to adopt this stance.

They have been promoted and have 3 years less experience not five assuming you have had 2 years off for maternity leave. They may have worked really hard in your absence which has been recognised. You have received a bonus despite not being at work is not to be complained about

I agree with pretty much everyone. This person isn’t an ‘assistant’ or ‘junior’ to you but very much your peer.
By law, your job is protected. And it has been. But you can’t expect to have been promoted when you weren’t even there so the ‘status quo’ of you having once being senior to this person could remain.
Good for them - it sounds like she’s slogged and done a great job.
If you would like a pay rise, discuss that but don’t mention this other woman once or it’ll be a terrible look for you.

"The assistant " does outperform you in some ways though. Her relationships with senior management and negotiation skills sound better.
There are many jobs where people can rise quickly through the ranks. More experience doesn't mean better. She will probably be your boss soon so tread carefully.

I'm afraid I agree with everyone else.

This person isn't a junior colleague, nor are they your assistant - they're your equal. It's also not their fault you took two lots of maternity leave in a short space of time. You can't expect the workplace to grind to a halt just because you're no longer there.

OP just because you’ve been in a role longer doesn’t mean you’re better. Your attitude stinks.

She has risen based on merit. She may have less experience, but you have had time out of work due to maternity leave. Your pay rise and bonus are excellent, considering you have been on maternity leave. I haven't had this sort of pay rise or bonus and I haven't been on maternity leave.

Agree with everyone else. She is not an "assistant" now, she is your equal. And the fact that she doesn't want children is entirely irrelevant, I cannot fathom why you think it worth mentioning?

Eek just because you have more years of experience doesn't mean this person isn't any less competent. They might just be exceptional, harder working, brighter, going to take over the world etc. harsh to judge how good they are purely based on number of years.

Also bear in mind you have had two years out of the role. Things will have progressed and you will need to catch up on the changes within your industry. Just focus on yourself and your own role, get back up to speed with things and I'm sure it'll all be fine. This other person may shine and go on to be the HoD but that is just something we all have to accept in the workplace, some people are just fundamentally better at their roles than others.

This is not your assistant; this is your colleague.

If your ego can’t handle that your former assistant has performed well and risen to your level, perhaps a change in direction for you might be the best course.

Well for a start they are not the “Assistant”
they are a peer of yours

You made the CHOICE to go on two long term breaks, they made the CHOICE to advance their career during the same time period

So let’s say for talking sake you took 18 months/2 years off total, that means their experience gap compared to you is now less than what it was when they joined

From the outside looking in you come across like a petulant child and if that’s the way you come across with your colleagues then I am not surprised your bonus was lower as any type of compensation is not always about what you do but how you do it I.e., your behaviours

Legally, when you returned from maternity leave, you had the right to the same job that you had when you left. It isn’t legal to take away most of your responsibilities and permanently given them to someone else and it sounds like you have an employment law case against your employer. But that depends on research that I haven’t done.

If your company has a HR department I’d suggest you do a lot of research into your legal rights, maybe speak to an employment lawyer, then explain to the HR department (or manager) that what had happened is unlawful discrimination and ask what they’re going to do about it.

That said, companies break the law and get away with it very often.

It seems to me you need to stop reacting with emotion and be a grown up. Using words like “furious” with all the ?!!s, misspelling colleague, referring to them as junior, yelling for discrimination… I would find that hard work as a manager tbh.

Gather your facts re bonus criteria and if you have a question about it, go through the proper channels. But take the post maternity chip off your shoulder first.

I also think you’re muddled. The assistant is no longer the assistant. They have been promoted . This is allowed. And they have been carrying a lot of the work when you have been away, you are two seperate people. The fact you’ve more experience is irrelevant. They clearly value the other persons experience and performance.

you need to focus on you. Not look enviously at what they get, petulantly call them the assistant and refuse to acknowledge they are no longer in this role.

That’s not quite true, it’s true if she took less than 26 weeks, but not true if she took more. They need to keep the terms the same, same level of seniority, pay etc, which they have done, (they promoted the assistant, not demoted her) but they can change the responsibilities if the org change requires it,

If you are doing similar roles to a similar level of pereformance you should be paid similar salaries.

That is the starting point. Forget all the crap about previous history, years experience, what you did in some company before this - that is all water under the bridge.

Focus on here and now. If you do the same role, have the same respionsibilites and perform to the same level, you deserve to be paid the same. Raise it like that. Ask them to help you see why there is a discrepency in your salaries considering you are both doing comparable roles.

Be prepared to answer how you know that.

I will also just add that in my experience, often when someone accuses someone of 'buddying up the management' they have a total blindspot to see that buddying up is, in fact, just being easier and more effective to work with. Maybe ask yourself a hard question about whether that could be the case here too.

Legally, when you returned from maternity leave, you had the right to the same job that you had when you left.

That's not strictly true. It depends how much maternity leave OP took.

Any company I’ve worked at that offered bonuses did it on some metric e.g. output so if your colleague got more, then it’s likely they are out performing you.