Maternity leave and impact on career progression - is my manager discriminating or am I being greedy?

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I am due to go on mat leave in 5 weeks or so, and just before I go, have asked for an appraisal. A focus of this will be whether and when I can move up a professional grade.

My history with this post is:
started in March 06. Notified manager that I was pg in summer 06, started mat leave in Feb 07, returned to work Nov 07.
In Feb 08, notified manager that I was pg. I did this early on in pg as I was due to be allocated as manager to a trainee and didn't want their placement to be disrupted by me going off on leave. I had a m/c in march.
I then fell pg again, and told my manager when I was 6 weeks or so (same issues around trainee, also wanted her support because of mc)
She decided not to place the trainee with me. Which is fine with me, the trainee would only have me for 2 months out of a year's placement and it seems better for him to have the same manager all year.

But. Now she is saying that I can't progress to the next grade (which requires that you 'can provide opportunities for placement of trainees') because of my mat leave. I HAVE had trainees before and as such have skills to support a placement, it is just that due to my mat leave, I've been unable to see these through in my current post.

I guess it depends on how you define 'can provide opportunities' - in terms of skill and experience I can, but in terms of practicality I can't.
I personally would define it in terms of the former, because I would see progression in career as being based on having the appropriate skills, not necessarily whether you have the chance to use them.
Does that make sense? Am I deluding myself??

Its sort of borderline isn't it. I think if you could fine a similar case where someone did not take on a trainee because he was going on sabbatical or something you would be in a strong position. But in the absence of such an example I think i would simply accept their reading of it but make sure that you get in writing that this was the only reason that you failed to move up a grade and that after you come back from maternity leave you can move up as soon as you take on a trainee.

But you've been having trainees already, so if you move up a grade it won't be so that you can have trainees. Is it just that in the next grade up you must be able to have trainees all the time?

I'm struggling to see your manager's problem on one hand as presumably you will be able to have a trainee when you return from maternity leave, so it would just be a case of not assigning one to you for the next few weeks? You would be perfectly placed to provide opportunities to a trainee and indeed fulfil all other requirements of the role when you return to work.

Leaving your upcoming maternity leave aside for a moment, would you normally be having an appraisal and requesting promotion at this point? Have you met all the normal criteria? If so, then the fact that you will be on maternity leave for the next six months or however long is no reason not to give it to you.

My other comment/observation is, if this appraisal/request for promotion is not usual now, why not wait until you return anyway? Then you can go into your new upgraded role firing on all cylinders and making an impact, rather than pottering about with it, not being able to fulfil all aspects of it for a few weeks, then being out of action for a few months. You'll have to start again when you get back anyway, so why not just do that?

Thanks - witchandchips, I think the getting it in writing is really important as my manager has a tendency to vagueness and can forget important things that have been agreed.

And that kind of leads to what you were saying, flowerybb - the appraisal IS due now, and initially manager said we should leave it til I return. But because of above-mentioned vagueness, I want to document what I have been doing, above and beyond my job description (putting the trainee aside for a moment) BEFORE i leave, so that it doesn't get 'lost' while I'm away. I also want to do the appraisal now so that when I get back I hit the ground running - the appraisal should help us come up with a concrete plan for what I need to be doing to secure the next grading.
I think seeing as there is a trainee issue, I need to make sure she agrees to placing a trainee with me as soon as I get back. The potential problem is that there is a lot of competition for trainees (providing placements is a major part of securing promotion here) and I really don't want to get into the position of being stuck when I come back because I've been forgotten about, and trainees have been allocated elsewhere.

The trainee thing is sadly, just a hoop to jump through. At the next grading I will be managing qualified staff, and not trainees, but to do that I have to be seen to have the skills to manage a trainee. What grates is that I have demonstrated that in the same organisation, but just in a different post (and under a different manager). So I'm a bit frustrated as to why it is an issue...

Well if it's due now, definitely do it now. Appraisals are obviously looking backwards at what's been achieved over the last few months, as well as forwards. Looking backwards to the last few months in six months' time will be tricky to say the least!Agree with all you've said about getting
all your over and above stuff documented, plus sorting out concrete plans for your return.

Is she meaning that because of your previous mat leave you don't have enough experience of supervising trainees? Or that you won't be gaining more experience over the next few months because of upcoming mat leave? Probably both.

Having an appraisal now will certainly give you a chance to get your managerial skills gained elsewhere recorded, as they are of course valid.

Just for the record, it is illegal discrimination to treat a woman less favourably in terms of promotion prospects, pay rises and appraisals because of her maternity leave.

I would be inclined to have your appraisal and be pushy, make the points you've made here and get everything recorded that you need to, then see how you feel about things when you come out of that meeting.