Not sure how to deal with this - on mat leave, passed over for promotion

[conflictedgeek]

Not sure what to think about this, and mainly want to be able to talk it over and figure out how I feel before I get blindsided with it at work.

Currently on mat leave, and have just heard a colleague got a promotion I had gone for last year (went to another colleague). I had been hoping to be able to apply again for the next manager role that opened up (at the time I was encouraged to), now it's gone. I am pretty gutted about this, and feel pretty hurt that I apparently wasn't even considered. Or maybe I was, but had come second to this colleague when we were interviewed last year? At any rate, the first I heard about it was the announcement.

Regardless of whether it's true or not, I feel like I've missed out due to being on mat leave. I am not really sure what to do now: I don't want to go in wearing my heart on my sleeve "waah you left me out!", because I would feel like a fool, and think it would damage my relationship with senior management (which has always been pretty good). I do want to understand why, because I need to know when I return whether to forget the whole thing and pursue other opportunities. I did have rather a lot of "unofficial" authority and responsibility, so I don't know how all this will have changed my role. I don't really know how to ask "have you mummy tracked me?" without offending.

Any ideas, comments, suggestions for dignified ways to handle this?

Was it a properly advertised post? And if so, were you made aware of it while on mat leave and given the opportunity to apply?

I think legally they should have let you know about the opportunity.

I can understand how you feel- you feel out of the loop on mat leave as it is and it doesn't help if you the also feel sidelined.

I'm sure an expert will be along any minute ...

It wasn't advertised at all that I'm aware of, I think I would have heard as I'm in touch regularly with colleagues and still have access to email etc. We have had people just appointed to role without an open opportunity to apply - generally when they've been doing the role for a while and it's basically just confirming their role has gradually changed. I don't mind that, they'd earned it. I also feel the person who got this role is a good candidate and will do well. I'm unhappy about not knowing where that leaves me though.

how di you hear about the announcement? If it was via e-mail, I'd forward the e-mail to your boss and HR saying that you're disappointed to have missed the advert for this promotion and could they plese confirm for you when and how the post was adviertised, so you can be sure not to miss other such adverts should they appear again.

Then chase it up if you don't get a reply. and if they still don't reply, phone HR up and ask them why they won't tell you how this post was advertised.

I think it's worth clarifying - I don't want this role, it's clear that's gone now and to a good candidate. So what I'm interested in is rather more low-key ways of talking this through - jumping to HR with an email to my boss (who made the appointment) is to my mind almost like an accusation straight off?

It's not a big corporation either, so going to email rather than just talking to people would be seen as aggressive I think, and obviously if I'm interested in a management role then handling potentially sensitive situations gracefully is an important skill to demonstrate! At the moment, what stops me is that I really, really, don't want to go into that conversation and get tearful and upset in the middle of it. I need to sort my head out first, talking about it here is helping with that.

Does that make sense? Would appreciate other viewpoints, I'm too close to see this clearly.

Where I am promotion and appointment procedures are a lot more formal and you would be expected to log on and apply if you were interested. Likewise your manager would be expected to alert you of promotion opportunities within the team etc.

It sounds like things are very different where you work and you are, on the whole, happy with that. I think therefore it would be wiser the next time you see your boss to say, looking forward to coming back / being back, as you know I'm eager to get on / be promoted, could we arrange a short meeting to discuss what I need to do / how I can best prepare etc. I don't think your boss would relish being put on the spot to explain the recent promotion but this tells him you don't want to place yourself (or be placed) on the 'mummy track'.