Do I have a case here? I just can't move on

[Rolypolybird1]

Hi all, I'm really struggling with how I was treated by my now ex-boss, and I'm looking for a bit of advice. I have no idea if I even have a case here, but if anything I just want to expose thie behaviour. Key thing here is I went on maternity leave, and came back to find my role had been diluted with my career progression completely dead in the water.

So, in the lead-up to my maternity leave, I was on a clear promotion path to head-up a function. I needed more line management responsibility for it, and was finally being given the opportunity to hire staff. I wrote the job spec; however, the timings meant that I ended up going on mat leave before the job went live. I said to my boss I was happy to still interview people, given they'd be reporting into me, but he didn't take me up on the request.

I end up taking 6 months off work and come back to find they'd hired someone new who had been there about 4 months. I ask my boss if they'd be reporting into me as planned - he said no. He'd remain their line manager. In fact, he'd never geared this person up for reporting into me. This person had 4 months of me not being around, and had basically decided that she was in charge of it all, not me. I no longer ran the meetings I previously did, and no longer had clear responsibilities at all. My boss didn't address this, just welcomed me back and said "get yourself settled back in". But, I didn't have a clue what I was supposed to be doing now. My job was suitable for one person, not two, and suddenly I was sharing all my responsibilities with her...

I raised this with my boss on multiple occasions, saying he needed to set out a clear hierarchy so there was no confusion over responsibilities. He agreed, but never did it. To make matters worse, this new hire really didn't like me. She went out of her way to belittle me and honestly I felt bullied. My boss never took action. I raised about the promotion and my career progression, but he never had any answers for me. He tried to steer me onto other work in fact - but after 4 years there, I finally found something I was passionate about and I didn't want to let it go.

Things got too much there and I finally left 9 months after returning, to go to a much better job. One week after I leave, he promotes this new hire and gives her the job title I wanted. Two weeks later, she's hiring staff.

I felt forced out, and to me it's clear that had I not gone on maternity leave, this person would have reported into me as always planned and my career wouldn't have taken a turn. My role was diluted, I felt bullied and forced out, to then have my boss reward that person with my promised promotion. I always got on really well with my boss, we had a great relationship and I was consistently a high performer with excellent performance grades. But coming back from mat leave and this new staff member just changed the whole dynamic.

I've been gone 3 weeks now. Is there anything I can do? Is there any point? I just hate that this has happened but nobody seems to know about it :-(

Thanks all for reading

There's a similar tribunal case with citibank yesterday which you can Google. Is this new person paid more than you?

@ByQuaintAzureWasp thank you, I'll check that out now!

Re pay, no I don't think so. I'm fairly certain they were brought in on quite a bit less than me (roughly £20k less), but I have no idea what they're now paid following this promotion.

Yes, constructive dismissal, I suggest you speak to ACAS. You might also want to consider discrimination if you can show it directly relates to maternity leave.

Thanks @movingstars. I do feel it was discrimination, but I'm not sure how to prove it. The promotion was never promised in writing, but verbal promises were made. I was on a very clear path, and that was torn away when I came back

I’m sorry you’ve been through that.

You’d have to claim constructive dismissal, which is a hard claim to win, and the burden of proof would lie with you to prove you were discriminated against. I’m not saying you don’t have a case, they just have a reputation as being hard cases to win.

if you are serious about it I would get some initial legal advice and go from there.

Going to tribunal isn’t for the faint hearted. But you have a new job, so in a way you have nothing to lose.

Good luck whatever you decide!

@GirlInterrupt thank you, that's helpful. More than anything I just want an admission of fault. Can't imagine getting that!

I reckon my employer would argue that when I left, it provided an opportunity for internal promotion, which the new hire got, which then made it possible for her to hire staff. That's a sound argument, it's just not really what happened. They already had their two members of staff...they just refused to formalise any sort of hierarchy or job title that reflected the roles. If they were prepared to do it when I left, they should have been prepared when I was there!

You can speak to Acas for free so I suggest talking it through with them in the first instance. The first thing you will have to do will be to raise a grievance against your former manager; this will be heard and do not be surprised if they say no evidence of any wrong doing. This doesn’t mean it’s the end, it’s just the first step of bringing a case.

Do you have notes from conversations or access to emails where the structure was discussed before you went on mat leave? Do you have specific examples of where you were sidelined after your mat leave? These are all evidence.

Few businesses will take a case all the way to tribunal because of the work required in preparing a case.
It is stressful, especially with a new baby and a new job, so you need to be really clear on what you want the outcome to be.

Your starting point has to be: what do you want to achieve by taking action? What do you want the outcome to be? Obviously you don’t want your job back as you have a new one (congratulations). Do you want financial recompense? To hold them accountable somehow? People will tell you that “the best revenge is living well” and there is some truth in that, moving forward and putting this behind you could give you some peace of mind, or it might niggle away at you for years.

There is absolutely no doubt that you have been treated badly. You took a relatively short maternity leave and had perfectly reasonable expectations of returning to your substantive role. Acas and Pregnant then Screwed will both be helpful in these early stages as you figure out what your options are.

Did they advertise the promoted post this person now holds - so you knew about it and could apply? Is the person make or female?

@ByQuaintAzureWasp not advertised no, and they're female.

It happened one week after I left, and I suppose they may argue it wasn't a promotion but a change in job title to now include senior? I'm not sure if they can argue that or not. But it suddenly has line management responsibility, which it didn't before.

This is what I was supposed to have before - at the very least, a senior title with this person reporting into me. I didn't get it, have left the company, and the person who was supposed to be my report is given everything that was promised to me.

You could contact pregnant then screwed.

Hi, I would think you have a fairly strong case for Constructive Dismissal and Maternity Discrimination.

Given that you made multiple attempts to resolve the situation and genuinely felt that you had no other choice than to leave the foundations for Constructive Dismissal are in place. Do make sure you have some documentation to support this part as that is a critical aspect.

the maternity discrimination aspect is harder to prove but given that you are both
female with (I assume) a similar skill
set then the assumption that
the only difference is your recent maternity leave shouldn’t be too hard to articulate.

the guidance you’ve been given about submitting a grievance after leaving is an option but given you’ve made multiple attempts to resolve it’s not a prerequisite to progress formally.

id suggest you go straight to ACAS. You’ll burn all bridges with your previous employees but it sounds like you may feel that way already. Unless they have a very different recollection of events then I would imagine they’ll try to settle.

you could add in the promotion as supporting evidence that you were being sidelined following your maternity, role diminished, feeling excluded and this was confirmed when just one week after you left they were promoted, it’s just not reasonable for your employer to suggest that they
had not considered this plan before that

@PilchardsonToast thank you. What I suspect they'll argue is that her promotion was filling a perceived gap following my departure. Because there's absolutely no clarity around role levels and responsibilities, I don't know if she's been promoted to my level, or a higher level. What I do know is she's been given a senior job title, which is what I had requested (for consistency with the similar jobs in the sector more than anything), and the opportunity to line manage, which is what was taken away from me when I went on mat leave.

I have evidence of the promotion pathway I was put on prior to my maternity leave, but I have little evidence demonstrating what went on when I returned. But I can certainly paint the picture of how my career stagnated due to opportunities being taken away following my mat leave.

There'll be records of conversations I had about recruiting before I went on mat leave; and it'll be clear this didn't happen when I returned. I'll be able to give dates and times I had conversations about the issues in the team, and my request to formalise the structure, but there won't be much else. The fact they promoted her, even if it wasn't to a level above mine, shows willingness to formalise the structure and create a hierarchy of responsibilities - which is what I asked for to begin with. Their refusal to address the toxic team culture and deliberate attempts to undermine me, combined with the opportunities being taken away, made me feel forced out.

The more I write this down the more I feel like it'll be difficult for me to prove, even with this person's promotion. They'll just claim that when I left, they realised they needed to formalise responsibilities and it opened up an opportunity to hire more staff, with them reporting to the new hire. Even though they should have done that for me as part of my promotion pathway, they didn't, but it was just "poor management", not maternity discrimination...

Definitely sounds like you have a case - particularly returning after 6 months but it's a case of getting the right advice and arguements in place.
If you had a clear career progression outlined before you went on maternity leave and it changed when you returned, then this is discrimination.
If this person was hired to cover your maternity leave and then kept on, despite there not being enough work for both of you, what was going on?! Why were you being pushed into other roles rather than being allowed to do your own role?
Good luck

@Mumofoneandone thank you for this, yes I think I'll definitely be getting advice.

So the person hired was the person who was supposed to be my direct report, so was hired on a permanent basis. I also had mat cover, who stuck around for a year. So for 6 months after I got back, there were 3 people doing one person's job.

They could argue that the person brought on permanently was "more junior" to me and my role was broader (because I was more senior), but in reality that wasn't the case at all. I was involved with one particular aspect of work, my career was being built around that aspect of work, and they came in and took it over. I came back and there was little to no work left in that area for me to do. Every attempt I made to try and carve out a position for myself never gained traction, because she just ignored me and my boss never backed me up

Sounds like a total mess, badly managed with you as collateral damage....

I've been reading that I can't bring a grievance now I've left the organisation (I've been gone 3 weeks), but I also can't take them to tribunal if I haven't exhausted the grievance process. Is that right? I raised the issues with my manager multiple times, but I never took it through a grievance process as I didn't want to burn my bridges. It's only since leaving and seeing the promotion that I've now decided it's time to take action. Am I limited in what I can do?

https://www.warnergoodman.co.uk/site/blog/news/do-i-need-to-hear-a-grievance-raised-by-a-former-employee
Looks like you can raise a grievance after you leave..... particularly if you didn't feel able to whilst still in employment......

There’s no time limit on when you can raise a grievance as a former employee, but if you want to raise a tribunal claim you have 3months (and 1 day!) after the act of discrimination has taken place. You could send a letter to your former employer saying you want it considered as a grievance, and they shouldn’t ignore it you can in parallel go to ACAS which is a prerequisite for a tribunal claim- although in my experience claims are often accepted without having gone through ACAS and out of time but it’s best not to push that.

you have 3months (and 1 day!)

Three months LESS a day - not and!

I recommend calling the Maternity Action helpline. It's staffed by amazing employment lawyers who know everything there is to know about maternity discrimination. They'll give you good advice.