I’ve worked for my employer (a charity) for four years in a senior management role and have just returned from a year of maternity leave.
Before I went off, there were two key strands to my work. One strand in particular had really kicked off just before my maternity leave started and become very busy and stressful. Anyway, I did the best I could but issues arose with our regulator while I was off and it was agreed that the two strands of my job would be split. It was discussed with me and to be honest I was pretty happy about this change as the workload was unmanageable previously. For context, the strand I am no longer responsible for is now being done by 1.4WTE.
An interim was employed to cover my remaining strand of work and he remains in post during this handover/transition period of me returning to work. I have reduced my hours to three days per week and planning to find a job share for the remaining hours.
Yesterday I was basically told that the interim is better than me at my job (he should be, he has 20 years more experience than I do) and that they want to keep him. There isn’t enough work for both of us to do “my” job. They’ve told me they want to keep me in some capacity as I’m “well liked”. There is another role that is two days a week which might be suitable but a) I’m not sure if I want it, b) I’m worried the line manager is being told to take me but may not actually think I’m right for the job and c) it’s only two days.
I feel totally humiliated and stressed out. There is no doubt the interim has done a great job but he was working under very different circumstances to how I was working before I went off and as I mentioned he is very experienced.
I would appreciate any thoughts or advice anyone may have