Work colleague (currently on mat leave) is being outperformed massively by temp replacement

[Workplaceconundrum]

A potentially tricky situation has cropped up in my workplace and I'd like to ask for MN's thoughts about it. A colleague is currently on maternity leave and isn't due to return for another 8 months. A replacement has been drafted in on a temporary basis. While they have only been here for a few months, the difference in their productivity and performance (compared to the colleague on ML) has been astonishing. I myself would say it's been a night and day difference in performance between them, and I am quite certain most of the other staff would agree. I would say she is a nice enough person, but can be prone to slacking and underperforming. She basically does enough not to get sacked (just about), but doesn't exert herself compared to other staff. All of this was true even before she was pregnant, but the pregnancy made it more egregious.

Now I understand that you can't sack staff just for being pregnant, but my boss has seemingly got themselves into a pickle. They have been openly discussing with myself and others that they wouldn't mind if the mat leave colleague didn't come back. They can't get rid of her now though, as that would be an unfair dismissal case waiting to happen. What other levers could they potentially pull if they wanted to get rid of her without getting into any ethical hot water? Could they offer her voluntary redundancy? What if someone tried to gently persuade her to resign?

Both the options you've described are still unfair constructive dismissal.

Have none of you considered supporting her to improve her performance in the first instance? But only after waiting to see how she works after coming back from maternity leave, obviously (maybe not obvious!)

Bloody hell. What sort of company is this? This woman’s performance was not dealt with sooner and your boss is now discussing this issue with you. It sounds like a completely unprofessional environment and I’d be looking for another job if I was you. I’d never want to work with people like that.

These are two distinct situations

One is a (potentially) underperforming employee. Here - you need to deal with this in the right way - the obvious question is why no-one bothered to capture or act on the historical underperformance. Now you know the right route here - flag underperformance gaps versus role expectations and see where it goes

One is a good talent you have now been exposed to as a team - yet - is this even the right role for them? Just because they are doing this role exceptionally doesn’t mean it’s the right role for them in the longer term - will it be boring and they move on/up rapidly? what other roles / options are there? If it’s easy for them - is there a more stretch assignment they could have

Taking the lazy non-compliant route typically bites back

How big is the company you work for?

My understanding is that if someone takes over a certain amount of time off for mat leave, the company should obviously bring them back to a role, but are under no obligation for it to be the same role. Is there a different role she could be offered?

My first bit of advice is to hire a trainer in HR who can teach you and your manager about discrimination, and then one that can train you all about 'people management'. It would be a lot cheaper than the tribunal.

They have been openly discussing with myself and others that they wouldn't mind if the mat leave colleague didn't come back. You work in an openly toxic environment. That's appallingly unprofessional from the manager. Never drop your guard as they (manager or company or both) could move on to treat you badly next.

Your manager clearly is an equally apparent under performer since they lack any understanding of employment law, employee confidentiality or employee performance management.

1. The person on mat leave doesn't need to do anything but perform her role at the MINIMUM as set out in her responsibilities. Absolutely no one has an obligation to do anything other than that.
2. If she has infact not being meeting the minimum expectations, again you have a shit and ineffective manager who has failed in their responsibilities to have addressed performance standards prior to this.

3.Every company will have a bell curve of performance amongst staff. Its up to the company to decide if they feel staff have skill sets that they can develop and attempt to retain even if that is in another role. 4.There are zero options that dont equate to constructive dismissal.

1. If you had any sense you would be questioning why you would want to work for such a shit employer who would be engaging in this type of stuff.

I’m a manager.
We all know that some people are slower and less productive than others. But we hired them so they’re ours. My job is to get the best out of the person who it is my responsibility to manage.

Occasionally this may be to put in a performance improvement plan which has the ultimate sanction of being managed out but a PIP is extremely difficult to manage. Very damaging for the manager and employee relationship and stressful. More likely to result in a grievance and absence than any improvement.

When we have sacked people it has been for misconduct. Much easier even if it still takes months and lots of effort.

One of the hardest things I deal with as a manager is staff moaning about other staff. Employees have rights. Choose them carefully!

This is more common than people think. If mat leave colleague is really that bad she'll have to be performance managed in time, but clearly allowed to return and settle back in..they can't do anything retrospectively.

Of a similar level with the same terms conditions and pay and only if its after extended leave.

And considering the circumstances they couldnt offer redundancy because her role still exists they just want to give it to someone else.

I have no clue what happened to the formatting of this.

@Workplaceconundrum assume from the way you have written this that you’re the boss? Otherwise you’re asking on a forum how a colleague can constructively dismiss an employee with a new baby and you’ll feed back to them your findings. Not sure the new mum is the right employee to be under the microscope in this scenario!

What’s it got to do with you? If any of this is true it just looks like you are conspiring with a weak, ineffective manager, and consulting a public forum so you can go back to your boss and say “look I’ve found a solution”. It’s got school bully vibes.

my boss has seemingly got themselves into a pickle. They have been openly discussing with myself and others that they wouldn't mind if the mat leave colleague didn't come back.

They haven't "got themselves in a pickle".
They've been bloody stupid. They should say absolute zero about this and create zero paper trail in case of an SAR.
They sound like a crap manager tbh

Fascinated to know what this looks like...
What if someone tried to gently persuade her to resign?
I'm envisioning a Phil / Grant Mitchell impersonater siddling up to her at the coffee machine on 2nd...

The company can 💯 have a conversation without prejudice upon return which may result in everyone agreeing to part ways for ££££... she can/may decline that.

Your manager should take advice from HR and stop gossiping with subordinates.

@Workplaceconundrum will the person on maternity definitely come back? I know someone who came back and desperately wanted part time but the role just wasn't. They offered lots of alternatives and eventually they resigned, the replacement was offered the role the same day. Or can the company keep the temp on as well to do other tasks till something else comes up internally?

So your manager is openly discussing it with you and you’re gossiping on an open social media site? Shame on all of you. I hope she gets wind of it and takes action.

Well she’s not underperforming if she’s doing enough to not get sacked, she’s just not over performing. If she’s meeting her outcomes and her hours, she’s not underperforming. She can’t be placed on a PIP if she is performing.

If she isn’t meeting her targets, then her manager should have confidentially addressed this ages ago. Let me guess it’s the type of place that promotes people to manager based on how long they’ve been there rather than their actual people skills (and don’t bother to give people leadership training).

I wonder if this is a culture thing. Given you’re all happy, including your manager, to walk around saying how she’s underperforming. That is so toxic. Do you all put in extra hours to reach and exceed your targets? If a whole team needs to stay late to reach their targets and not be accused of under performing, you not only have a manager problem but you have a senior leadership problem too.

What can you do? Hope that the environment is too inflexible for her to stay and manage childcare so she has no choice but to quit. If she comes back, your manager needs to actually manage her. If she’s meeting her targets and doing her hours (enough not to be sacked), maybe the rest of the team should consider why you are pushing yourselves so hard for a company that clearly doesn’t care about you as they will openly discuss your performance in front of everyone when you’re not there.

I had a front row seat to a situation like this in my first proper job after uni, and then again a few years later at a different company. The person on ML in the first case was my line manager and the difference between having a competent and talented line manager vs a lazy one was transformational for my own career. In case 2, it was a team leader for a team that was next to the team I led in the department hierarchy.

In case 1 - about 3 months before the maternity leave was due to finish, the manager on mat leave put in her flexible working request. It was quite a cheeky one, with a massive reduction in hours such that a huge part of her workload would have to be reassigned. Senior management said no, and stayed firm on that, and had a tight business case for why it wouldn't work. People returning from mat leave have the right to return to the same job they left but do not have the right to return on new terms of their own preference. She resigned and the new manager stayed on.

Case 2 - in this case the person who had been on mat leave wasn't lazy, jist way less talented than the mat leave replacement. She did end up returning and was reasonably competent, and senior management created a new role to keep the replacement person on in a related capacity.

warning - in both cases, the brilliant and talented mat leave replacement then handed in their notice within a year. They were on their way up in a meteoric career trajectory and the mat leave role was only ever a springboard to them - a line on their cv saying they came in to do 12 months temp role and were subsequently offered a permanent role gave them the kudos they needed to catapult into something bigger, better and more lucratively paid. You willnot keep yoir marvellous replacement-colleague for long. You can of course try to keep her as long as possible but you'll be better off trying to learn from her while you've got her. Senior management may be able to create an upward trajectory career path within your business but she's not going to settle into that role long-term.

As someone due to go on maternity leave in coming weeks (and who is exceptionally career driven) - I find this post a highly triggering level of offensive. Women’s rights have been fought for in the workplace and we STILL have equality issues, and the fact this cliche post is being written makes me despair.

Your boss is unprofessional openly discussing their view, incredibly no-one seems to have raised the performance issue while she was in employment pre-pregnancy and managed it professionally at this time either, and you’re ready to lean into the bias that someone in a honeymoon period (who is possibly giving 150% in an unsustainable in the long-term manner for all you know) is the better choice.

No wonder women get anxious about leaving their work posts for maternity and the subsequent return when this attitude hasn’t been stamped out. Messy tribunal written all over it, which the company will be deserving of based upon its current behaviour.

Be aware that any documents (including emails, messages sent on any messaging platform within your employer’s control, such as WhatsApps sent on work phones and potentially even on employees’ personal devices, minutes of meetings, essentially any information recorded on any media) created within your company discussing this preference for colleague B over colleague A, and comparing their performance, will be disclosable as relevant documents within the ET or High Court claim colleague A will probably bring when her return to work is poorly managed by the company’s management. So I’d make sure that any such discussions are held orally only, in un-minuted meetings.

If your boss is saying this about one person what are they saying about you ? Honestly stay out of this its really toxic and no one is winning here.

The problem is she’s doing the absolute bare minimum so on paper she’s not particularly doing anything wrong

when she returns they need to performance manager her or if she’s off longer than 12 months they could give her a different role

Got to love posters who pop up asking how to break the law 🙄

Surely your manager should know that you can't make someone redundant, voluntary or otherwise and then recruit someone else to the post?

The only thing that they can do is put this colleague on a Personal Improvement Plan when she returns from mat leave if her performance is clearly falling short of the requirements of the role. However, it also doesn't show your manager in a particularly good light that they didn't realise how poor this colleague's performance was until they recruited someone else to the role. Has your manager spoken to HR about her? They should be making sure that your manager doesn't do anything illegal that could result in a financial loss and bad publicity for your company.

What @Shedmistress said. You are sleepwalking into an employment tribunal that I hope you lose. Shape up and to start with, shut down backchat against a pregnant colleague.