Role Changing without discussion

[Feelingscrewedover]

Hi, it would be great to get thoughts here on my current situation before I start any discussions with HR.

I work for a large US company and have been with them for around 8 years. I was hired for a specific role and to manage a team of 8-9 people in performing this role.
After returning from extended maternity leave in Jan 23 my role was significantly changed in that I went from a team of 8 to a team of 1 covering a very small scope of my previous role and with a new manager who essentially added in an extra reporting line between me and the Snr Director (previously I was reporting to them directly). With hindsight I should have raised this at the time but I’d just had a close family bereavement and wasn’t in the headspace to discuss this change. With hindsight again the role was a down grade with no real focus area and no responsibilities I was more of a ‘go see what you can find to do’.

Fast forward to Oct 23 and there was a restructure in the team and redundancies made. My ‘role’stayed and I was put into a new sub team that was going to be a new area of focus with new responsibilities. There was no consultation here and the roles weren’t defined. The director who was due to lead this new team ended up not coming back after maternity leave and it took 6 months of waiting to hire a replacement (I did apply for the role but wasn’t successful).

The new director is now in place and is mapping out the roles and having discussion as to what the focus of these roles in the new team will be. As I’m having these discussions I keep coming back to this not being the role I applied for/where I see my role going. It’s an entirely different role (all be it the same team) as what I did before and a different title.

HR have never discussed any of these changes with me and Snr management are all in the US. Also to flag I’m in Ireland.

Im basically wondering if anyone has been in a similar scenario and what my options are here as I’m effectively being moved into a new role that I didn’t consent to.

Ive you’ve got this far then thankyou and any thoughts/advice are very much appreciated.

Also apologies for any typos - definitely shouldn’t post after a glass of wine :)

When you say extended maternity leave how long were you off for?

Thanks for replying. In total probably about 19months. I took the full statutory allowance (paid and unpaid), holiday allowance the took 6 months parental leave. Not sure they have parental leave in the Uk but it is effectively unpaid leave that you’re allowed to take before your child turns 8 and your employer can agree or postpone it. In my case they agreed to me taking it.

Do you have a Uk contract?

Hi, no it’s an Irish contract I actually moved from the Uk to Ireland when I started the role.

I think because you took that amount of time off you aren't promised the exact same role on your return, just an equivalent

Thanks @dammit88 i did think that might be the case regarding the returning from extended maternity leave.

Where I’m probably more concerned now is what’s currently happening regarding being pushed into a new role with new title that has no similarities to my old role, and what my options are if any.