For the last year or so I have been looking for promotion opportunities, there has been a massive backlog of people ready for promotion and also some roles not being replaced so it’s been quite a long wait to even have the opportunity to apply for a role. But the last few months some roles have come up.
I have applied to three roles two of which I have had interviews for, I wasn’t successful but I was grateful for the experience as it’s been a while since I interviewed etc. and I felt the process was fair.
I am pregnant and at the time all these roles were advertised I was in my first trimester and hadn’t told many people.
One person I had told was my old manager as I was working quite closely with him at the time and I had had a couple of days off for morning sickness. I trusted him.
I deliberately only told people I trusted about the pregnancy because I knew I felt ready to start applying for promotions. I wanted to keep the circle small to protect both myself and also hiring managers from unconscious bias or discriminating against me. I essentially wanted a level playing field and didn’t want to be treated differently.
One role which came up was actually in the exact area I work now and a team that we work with frequently, until not that long ago we were actually one big team. Weirdly this is the one role I didn’t get an interview for instead the hiring manager rang me and told me how great I was, that everything I do is amazing… all very positive. This was then caveated with “I’d love to invite you to interview… but it just wouldn’t be fair to you. I know how much effort goes into preparing for interviews but it wouldn’t be fair when there are much stronger candidates.” A slightly convoluted way of rejecting me but I accepted it thinking they must have had some really strong external candidates already working at that level.
Maybe a week or so after applying for this role my old manager who knew I was pregnant dropped into conversation that he was have accidentally told someone I was pregnant. I was upset as I’d told him many times who was “in the know.” I then pushed to understand who he had told. He had told the hiring manager for the role I’d just applied for.
I explained this was the worst possible person he could’ve told as I wanted my application to be considered on merit and independent of the fact I am pregnant. I said as my old manager he knew I was actively applying for promotions and he knew about the vacancy in this team. I felt really let down.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I hear who has got the role. To my shock it has been given to someone internal who was the same grade as me (so also promotion) with no direct experience in the field. I cannot tell you how shocked I was when I didn’t even get an interview and no one has ever told me I’m not doing a good job or told me I’m not ready for promotion etc.
My manager actually rang me and asked me how I felt about who got the role, I was actually just going to kinda try forget about it, but the fact she asked I think showed that she was shocked. I have also had two other colleagues who I am close to say they think it’s wrong I didn’t even get an interview. Which has got me thinking have I been discriminated against for being pregnant?
Where I work I feel nothing is actually taken seriously, when my ex manager first told me he had revealed my pregnancy I told my manager and said I wasn’t happy. I was just given the usual stock answer of “it’s not in our culture to discriminate against pregnancy and that having worked here for a while I should know this blah blah blah” but I have no idea if there were consequences for my ex manager.
I suppose I am looking for any experience others have had of pregnancy discrimination and whether what I’ve written sounds like it? I’m a member of the union so was going to speak to them or ACAS as I kinda want an impartial view on it. I’m worried I’m overthinking things and maybe I’m just not as good as I think I am etc. good to hear others thoughts/experiences.