Sorry - this is long so bear with me.
I'm a secondary Eng teacher and I've been at my present school 10 years in Sept. I started as 2nd in dept then went p/t (3 days a week) after having dd1. The Head at the time was very supportive of part-timers and he let me keep my management pay for other duties as I didn't want to do the 2nd on dept at the time.
Whilst on mat leave for dd2 last year a new Head was appointed. He used to be the Dep Head and was popular with most people but known for being 'a Man's Man' or as we call it, Bertie Big Bollocks (sexist pig in other words) but I'd always got on well with him and wasn't wary about him being the new boss. After my mat leave with dd2 I decided to go down to 2 days for 1 year, so that's what I've been doing since last June.
Over the last year I feel like I've got my 'MoJo' back at work: I feel really motivated and I've done LOADS - not just the duties I'm paid for but lots of extra work as well. My HoD is really chuffed with me and said I'm doing more on 2 days than the present 2nd in dept does in 5! It's always been my intention to go back to 3 days from this SEpt. Recently the HoD told me that the 2nd in dept is relinquishing his responsibilities as he doesn't feel he can do the job properly anymore. After he'd gone to tell the Head this, we spoke and he told me that the Head asked him to stay on in the role for another year as there was 'no-one suitable tle to do the job' in our dept. I was really surprised to hear this as the HoD had said I was ideal and I sincerely believed I could do the job, even on 3 days a week. I really wanted the Head to think about asking me to do the job but I couldn't get an appointment with him, so I decided to send him a letter. It was handwritten, very informal but written from the heart and sincere. It said that I was passionate about the job and I listed all the stuff I'd done over the last year that had helped develop the department and the other staff (I'm a mentor to the 3 NQTs in the dept). I said I really hoped he's reconsider his decision to keep things the way they were, as I was really keen (and the bloke relinquishing the post was definitely NOT!).
SO I posted the letter and waited.... this was 3 weeks ago and I kept seeing the HEad round school and each time he saw me he'd promise to catch up with me 'later' but never did. I made an appt but he cancelled it. SO I made another one this week and went in to see him. HE had one of his deputies (female) in the room (as a witness I suppose) and although I wasn't sure he'd ened up giving me the job, I thought it would be at least a chance to discuss my future and what management role I might work towards over the next few years.
HE started the meeting with "The trouble with you women that go off and have your maternity leave and then come back part-time is that you think you can have it all - and you can't". I was gob-smacked. He spent the next half an hour telling me that he would never employ a part-timer as a middle manager in my subject area (even though there are p/t HoDs elsewhere in the school); he wasn't going to change his mind; I was wrong and disrespectful to have sent him that letter; my extra work ws 'irrelevant' and didn't mean I could do a good job as 2nd in dept; part-timers in teaching are never ideal as they let the pupils down due to split classes; part-timers caused him a lot of inconvenience because they aren't always there when he wants them.... and so it went on.
The deputy just sat there throughout and didn't say anything. I was just in shock!!!! I think I actually held my own throughout quite well, as I answered every point he had with a good reason why he was wrong, but he was obviously really annoyed 1) for me being so impertinent in his mind for writing the letter 2) with part-timers and 'women like me' in general.
Fcking OUTRAGEOUS!!!! I spent the next day crying after the impact had sunk in. I also rang my union who told me it was a 'blatent' case of discrimination and I have to send them my notes (I write it all down when I got home). I was very scared thinking about starting a case though.
Then the next day in school I was summoned to his office with an official type letter. He'd obviously had some legal advice and was told he's been well out of line so he'd changed his tack completely and said that, shoukd the job be advertised I was welcome to apply and the decision would be made on the calibre of the candidates, not their hours. He was obviously shitting himself as he knew he'd acted very irresponsibly but he spent the whole meeting trying his best to undo the damage and try to get me to agree to 'draw a line under the whole thing' and start afresh. I spent most of the meeting crying and felt much weaker than in the last meeting. And I feel GUTTED that the job I love is now not what I want. No matter what he said in the 2nd meeting, I now know what he thinks of me as a part-timer and that my work can never be good enough for him. I don't want to work for someone like that, even though I love my colleagues and the kids. I feel so screwed up now. I@ll still write it all donw and send it to the union but I really don't know what to do now. It's too late to get another job for next eyar now.