TLDR: HR found no discrimination occurred after I was explicitly told I wasn’t put forward for promotion because I took maternity leave.
This is hugely outing but I don’t really care at this point.
In my annual review earlier this year, my manager told me “I had you marked down as ‘excellent’ but because you spent most of the year on maternity leave, the guidance was to mark you down as ‘meets expectations’.”
I was also not put forward for promotion and she said this was “because you only came back in September, and there has to be half a year before you can be put forward.” (No such policy exists, which HR have clarified)
I followed up on both of these with her in writing and she accepted the substance of them, and suggested I follow up with HR if I thought it was unfair.
I raised a complaint with HR and have just had the outcome which says no discrimination has taken place.
They did say my performance rating should have been left blank, and there were poor communication issues, but in essence none of the things she told me actually happened and so it isn’t discriminatory - that despite telling me so, she didn’t have guidance to mark my performance down; my pay rise and bonus would have been the same had my performance been left blank initially so there’s been no detriment to me; and there was never any intention to put me forward for promotion so it’s not because of mat leave that I’ve been denied. And that it was only the two of us in the call so they can’t know what was said (which was the point of me following up in writing but hey ho).
I feel such a massive sense of injustice but I’m not sure it would actually be worth my while to pursue it legally.
I like my job and before this happened I would have never considered leaving. It’s fully remote and flexible, and the company itself is an innovative and exciting one to work for. Truth be told, I think unemployment and a difficult job market would be terrible for my mental health right now.
Equally the people I complained about are my manager and her manager and the whole thing has made me quite paranoid, so I do worry I will be ‘marked’ now and targeted for redundancy as soon as it’s an option - so I might as well try and get out now with a settlement. This paranoia may be undue, I don’t know.
There are some other issues I’ve posted about before which I won’t derail with but a Previous thread is here.
I have spoken with a lawyer who said my case and evidence base is good. I highly doubt my company would let it get to tribunal, I think they would settle.
I only have a week left to register the issue with Acas so need to decide asap. I am good at my job and really upset about being put in this position.