Am I being taken for granted?

[theaveragebear1983]

I'm 4 months pregnant and have recently applied for a 3 month secondment to a manager position at my current work place. I haven't got the job, on the grounds that they feel that I may find the responsibility too stressful. D you think this is a round about way of saying 'because you're pregnant' without having to break any rules? The person who got the job is, in my opinion, weak. I have carried her in her current job role for several months, and the interviewer knows this because she is our current manager. I am currently doing different duties to normal ( I can't give too much detail because it could make me too identifiable) and many of these duties are actually the role of the manager position ( that I have just been tuned down for). on the phone today, my manager has asked if I will continue doing these duties to support the new manager in the secondment. Am I being taken for granted? I feel as if I've been told I'm not good enough for the job but will be expected to continue taking on a lot of the workload anyway. I feel like I've supported this girl and now I've been overlooked and will be expected to still carry her in her new role. What I want todo is refuse to do anything that is part of the management role, but I know I'm not that argumentative and it won't do my reputation any good if I want to go back after my maternity leave. I feel really cheated and let down by my employers over this and don't know what to do.

Are you in a union? If so, speak to them. It does sound like they have turned you down due to pregnancy and that screams discrimination. If it is only 3 months then I can't see why you couldn't do it.
You shouldn't have to carry this other person. A similar thing happened to me when I was pregnant and I ended up training the other person on my return from maternity. I went part time though so I felt I had no choice. I left a year later though (after 13 years solid service)!
See what union recommends.

So this is utterly bizarre.

The secondment is for three months. You are already carrying out many of the duties of the secondment already, there be no-one in post.

But not only would you find the secondment 'too stressful' (based on exactly what answer in your interview?) you should carry on doing a large share of the work as the successful candidate can't do it? Err ... are we through the looking glass here?!

Unless your employer can point to other examples of where you have not coped well with stress, particularly the stress of greater responsibility, this reason seems completely bogus to me. Can you ask to see the scoring from the interview process?

You certainly need to raise this with HR, and I think you do need to be firm - if the other candidate is right for the job, that should include all the responsibilities of that job. It would be undermining her for part of the role to be taken away before she's even started it. (This is a more politically correct version of 'you gave her the role, you live with the fact she can't do it.')

Certainly raise with HR. Ask for a specific explanation of what too stressful means.