To be annoyed work posted this job in this way?

[7stripybaskets]

I’m on annual leave from work this week for half term by chance I logged onto our companies’s intranet.
There is a job advert for a job within our department that I wasn’t aware of this would be the next step up from my current role there is 8 or so of us in a similar role to mine that would probably want to go for it. I haven’t been told it was coming and it’s advertised for internal department applications only and with an opening application window of 4 days which closes today. So, obviously they had someone in mind which wasn’t me but I think that’s not good practice for half of us that are off with children this week it was a well timed way of reducing applications I suppose. I feel really demotivated I suppose.

This happened to me recently. Job advertised internally - only me and a colleague had the necessary skill set for it. I was on leave for a week. Job advertised on the Monday with a closing date of the Thursday. Interview happened on the Friday as I returned to work on the Tuesday to a message to all employees saying she has the job!

I was furious. I wouldn't have applied for the job as I am winding down and the job hours are longer than I would want. But thats not the point - I couldnt apply for it even if I wanted to as they waited until I was on leave.

I am now quietly quitting and am doing my job half arsed. As they have just let me get on with it over the years and have no idea what I do they also have no idea how much damage I could do to the company by not really giving a toss about my job!

What goes around comes around!

Time to move on if you’re not valued.

I'd email HR and alert them to the fact that the advert appeared with such a short deadline in a week when a number of people were on leave. It could possibly be regarded as indirect discrimination, as women were more likely to be on leave. Ask whether the deadline can be extended.

Maybe it was a deliberate ploy to avoid any of those with younger children applying, or maybe it was just thoughtlessness, but there's definitely a case to be made for the deadline to be extended.

Loads of companies will only advertise for a short period of time when they know there will.be lots of applications. Particularly internal roles.

Again, the OP saw the advert. She chose not to prioritise it.

Well, this is the obvious conclusion to draw, though…

It was widely advertised, the op saw it, she chose to spend the day out with her kids after seeing it, rather than apply.

All well and good, but if this has been engineered to reduce the chances of the OP applying (or someone else's), the job is already someone else's; this is just a 'show' for when and if the OP raises this with the higher-ups.

Why would it matter if you’re on leave or not? You’re not meant to use working time to apply for jobs even if internal

Surely there are various half term weeks. Round by us avoiding half term weeks and school holidays would mean they couldn't advertise for 3 or 4 weeks for each half term and long periods around main holidays. Especially with WFH where they may have to be taking into account the very different holiday patterns in Scolland/England and possibly Wales (not sure how different Welsh holidays are) as well as private schools who often do completely different things.

OP was on leave when the post was first advertised and still on leave when it closed.
If she had not checked her work email during her AL she would not have seen the post.

So you advertise for a fortnight and the issue is reduced.

Because you can't see the job ads?

I certainly wouldn't be allowed to access internal systems whilst not at work, and many people wouldn't be able to ie no laptop at home.

But the OP could... and did.
The point is irrelevant. She chose not to prioritise

There is a much wider issue than just the OP though. I'm astonished so many people cannot see it.

Minimum 2 weeks advertising is mandatory where I work and makes sense

She can see the job ads though she just wasn’t looking for it.

But this thread is relative to the OP... and that's what I'm commenting on.

Hard to prioritise when you only see something by chance a few hours before the deadline. The job has already been given; this is now a formality to show that it was advertised and the company followed 'procedure' if and when a complaint is made.

OP, if you truly believe this is the case, and you've fallen out of favour, do the best thing for you now and start your exit plan.

People should not be expected to view anything to do with work when they are on leave. Indeed quite the opposite, as one thing I was told years ago that can raise suspicions is someone who does not take leave as they are hiding something.

Amen to this

JFC Im ancient and even I have email alerts set up for jobs that might interest me.
Its not hard

It isn't "to do with work" though.... she hasn't been expected to reply to emails or write a seminar.

She has noticed a job application that she may like... she can apply. That's not directly to do with her work. If she saw an external post for a job elsewhere the day of / before the application deadline, its the same bloody thing.

If your employer goes through this whole charade, ie require people to apply for 'a job vacancy' in order to progress, as opposed to making the decision in a sensible way such as observing you do your job day to day, good appraisals etc and thinking 'she's a good employee who's outgrown her current role, she deserves a promotion' and that is it, then applying for new jobs and preparing for interview absolutely is 'work' as opposed to something you should be doing in your leisure time.

It is not about being picky. Accepting applications after the deadline can be discriminatory and mostly systems are automated to automatically reject them. However, I think OP has a good case for indirect discrimination as it was announced and completed during a time when mostly parents would be off for half term. Arguing for an extension on those grounds would probably succeed.

But this is presuming that most parents have children who go to the same school or in the same area. Half terms vary widely. If you have staff who work in England and staff who work in Scotland (which is possible with WFH) their half terms could be 3 or 4 weeks apart.

And for the umpteenth time, nobody is saying that vacancies shouldn't be advertised during school holidays. All that's required is to allow sufficient time from the advert being placed to the closing date for applications. If the organisation has policies designed to level the playing field for groups with protected characteristics, then they should be implementing them, not just paying lip service to them, and that means giving everybody a realistic chance to apply. If managers are advertising posts with such a tiny window for applications that most eligible people won't even see the advert, never mind have time to put in a decent application, the policies are a waste of time. We might as well go back to the bad old days when a manager picked a favourite, with no objective criteria applied at all. Guess what, that will mean that women of child-bearing age will fall even further behind men than they currently are.