Overlooked for promotion (long thread sorry)

shuga

Hi

I'm hoping someone here can give me some advise on the problem I have in work.
I am working full time and part of a small department (within a big company) which consisted of 2 staff and 1 manager

My manager handed in his notice 3 weeks ago. As soon as this happened the department seemed to be split in two. My other colleague was made manager of his own section and given more responsibility.

I'm kinda flying solo at the moment and now answering to the office manager. I have 15 years experience at what I do and felt that I would have been considered for the managers role. During a conversation with the office manager it was suggested that I would be given the oppurtunity to take this role on. However, later in the week I had a meeting with both directors and it transpires that they are actually looking outside of the company for someone else... now one of them mentioned that I would be considered for the job but this would depend on my "situation" . He then asked me what my situation was.(i'm a single parent) . I was a bit shocked and ended up telling him about my daughter etc... He went on to say they wanted someone who could be 100% committed to the job and be seen to be there all the time especially when problems occur.
At no stage was my capability or experience spoken about. I could do this job with my eyes closed and with 10 kids..

I feel like they are using my family situation against me. It's never happened me before and I am really upset. We have no HR dept and I feel like i have nobody to turn too. The only solution I can think of is to leave and at that i would probably have to take a pay cut. I'm at the high end rate of pay for my work and was actually head hunted by this company

i've contacted employment rights & equality.ie and getting nowhere.

Anyone any suggestions... :(

Xcellor

That sucks. Does sound like you have been descriminated against due to having a family. This is wrong.

You should wait and see what the equality people come back with. Of course any action you take against them will most likely result in you having to change work anyway... and take a pay cut if you move to another company...

Management is a headache. If you are earning good money where you are stay there... Less sh*t to deal with when things hit fan.

shuga

[Management is a headache. If you are earning good money where you are stay there... Less sh*t to deal with when things hit fan.[/quote]

Your dead right... Just sucks that they used it as an excuse tho. I 'll hold out until the equality come back.. if they ever do :rolleyes:

AARRRGH

It seems they are being unfair, but I would have my doubts that any sort of complaint will lead to you being made manager!

Were you happy in the company up until this point?

shuga wrote: »

During a conversation with the office manager it was suggested that I would be given the oppurtunity to take this role on.

By "office manager" do you mean the receptionist/secretary or some sort of actual manager?

Darragh29

shuga wrote: »

Hi

I'm hoping someone here can give me some advise on the problem I have in work.
I am working full time and part of a small department (within a big company) which consisted of 2 staff and 1 manager

My manager handed in his notice 3 weeks ago. As soon as this happened the department seemed to be split in two. My other colleague was made manager of his own section and given more responsibility.

I'm kinda flying solo at the moment and now answering to the office manager. I have 15 years experience at what I do and felt that I would have been considered for the managers role. During a conversation with the office manager it was suggested that I would be given the oppurtunity to take this role on. However, later in the week I had a meeting with both directors and it transpires that they are actually looking outside of the company for someone else... now one of them mentioned that I would be considered for the job but this would depend on my "situation" . He then asked me what my situation was.(i'm a single parent) . I was a bit shocked and ended up telling him about my daughter etc... He went on to say they wanted someone who could be 100% committed to the job and be seen to be there all the time especially when problems occur.
At no stage was my capability or experience spoken about. I could do this job with my eyes closed and with 10 kids..

I feel like they are using my family situation against me. It's never happened me before and I am really upset. We have no HR dept and I feel like i have nobody to turn too. The only solution I can think of is to leave and at that i would probably have to take a pay cut. I'm at the high end rate of pay for my work and was actually head hunted by this company

i've contacted employment rights & equality.ie and getting nowhere.

Anyone any suggestions... :(

This is a case for the Equality Tribunal. You have been discriminated against on the basis of your family status. What I would do if I was in your situation is forget about sitting down with your manager and appealing to his better nature or his sense of fair play.

I'd go to your solicitor immediately and tell your solicitor to write to your employer and outline the facts so far:

1) There is a vacancy in your workplace

2) You are happy to apply for it and consider yourself suitable for the position in respect of your work experience with the company.

3) When you discussed this with your manager, the subject of your family status was unlawfully introduced into the conversation by your manager.

4) Following this, you were informed that you were considered unsuitable for the position and a situation now exists where you cannot apply for this promotional opportunity within your workplace, by virtue of the fact that only applicants from outside the company can now apply.

5) That if the situation is not resolved to your satisfaction and you are not in a position to apply for this vacancy and be considered for it in a transparant, fair and objective fashion, you solicitor will file a complaint with the Equality Tribunal for investigation and decision.

What you can also do is complete the form by following the link below to formally ask your employer why they consider that they have not discriminated against you:

http://www.equalitytribunal.ie/uploadedfiles/AboutUs/ee_2.pdf

I highly suggest taking a good look at this website over an evening OP. You can see the case decisions of folks who have been taken down this road and the awards made in favour of claimants who have had their cases upheld...

www.equalitytribunal.ie

Also, while you can deal with a solicitor, this service is entirely free.

Good luck, I've been down this road with an employer before so if you need any advice at all, just PM me...

AARRRGH

Darragh29 wrote: »

I've been down this road with an employer before so if you need any advice at all, just PM me...

What was the result of your situation, if you don't mind me asking?

shuga

[By "office manager" do you mean the receptionist/secretary or some sort of actual manager?[/quote]

An actual office manager. The company has several deparments which each have a department / divisional manager and then there is one overall Office Manager who is everyones boss... complicated I know

shuga

Equality guy called me today. Very helpfull. Will mull over all the info you have posted too Darragh29! Appreciate all the help I can get...

Darragh29

AARRRGH wrote: »

What was the result of your situation, if you don't mind me asking?

After taking legal action our solicitors came to an agreement that I was very happy with, which involved me resigning my position with the company in question and dropping the case I had taken.

AARRRGH

Darragh29 wrote: »

After taking legal action our solicitors came to an agreement that I was very happy with, which involved me resigning my position with the company in question and dropping the case I had taken.

Did you get any sort of compensation, or did you simply resign?!

Darragh29

AARRRGH wrote: »

Did you get any sort of compensation, or did you simply resign?!

Before the case hearing, my solicitor got a call from their solicitor asking was I open to settling this case before the hearing. My solicitor rang me and put this to me and I said I would hear their proposals, but she warned me before we met up that one requirement of their's was that if we agreed to settle this, I would no longer remain employed there.

They were concerned that I was firing other people up to take the same course of action and was the cause of others starting to question management and basically there was a situation starting to develop in the workplace where we were now fighting for a cause and all sorts of subtle forms of protest started being designed by us to frustrate management in any way that we could.

There was extremely poor morale where I worked and I kind of became a conduit or an outlet for this negativity when I took legal action against the company. After I took the case, I told all those that I worked with, what I had done and why I had done it, and a "them and us" scenario was starting to become evident between management and staff.

Anyway, we all met up one fine day down in the Four Courts and we haggled over how much the settlement figure would be and when we agreed what that would be, they went off and drafted up an agreement. We all signed it and that concluded my employment there with the stroke of a pen, effective immediately!

The funniest thing was that after these guys paying me a fortune to leave my job immediately and stop harassing them with legal action, the first thing I worried about was whether or not I had to work a notice period!?!?!?!

I can't talk about who my employer was or what the terms of the settlement amount were due to a non disclosure agreement being part of the whole settlement...

AARRRGH

Sounds like an excellent outcome, well done!

shuga

good for you...

Did it hinder you in getting another job after the action?

The guy from Equality told me today that there are so many grey areas in cases like mine. Although the Investigators are wide to how employers try to wriggle out of things they can't always prove cases.

I never thought I would have to deal with something like this. I;ve been working full time in this business since my daughter was 2. She is almost 14 and nearly going out to work herself...

Darragh29

shuga wrote: »

good for you...

Did it hinder you in getting another job after the action?

The guy from Equality told me today that there are so many grey areas in cases like mine. Although the Investigators are wide to how employers try to wriggle out of things they can't always prove cases.

I never thought I would have to deal with something like this. I;ve been working full time in this business since my daughter was 2. She is almost 14 and nearly going out to work herself...

Well after this experience, I had made a decision that I was done with PAYE jobs because I had in one employment seen enough corruption and people covering up and lying to save their own arses, than most people would see in a lifetime. I wouldn't work for someone else again, so the issue of whether this situation impacted on my career is I suppose academic now.

I didn't realise this at the time but subsequently I came to understand, after having to spend some time sitting down with a psychiatrist to find out why I was the one person in the place that I worked that felt compelled to bring about change, why I had to go down a legal route when everyone else just accepted the very negative situation we were all in and came up with their own way of coming to terms with the unnecessary difficulties that we had to endure where we worked.

I decided that I had to understand more fully what had happened where I worked so I made a few enquires about workplace stress and bullying in the workplace, after having settled my dispute, because I felt some of the sh*te that was going on there had also left the place with me and I wasn't able to shake it off as instantly as I thought I would, and I was extremely lucky to be able to talk to the one man in Ireland who I would consider is the leading expert in this particular area.

We sat down over several consultations and I told him my story and he told me something that I never had been told before. He said that I was what is known in his profession as a "change agent". I had become stuck in an environent where change was badly needed but equally not tolerated. This guy helped me become my old self again and leave behind the bitterness and anger I had gotten used to harbouring while employed in this workplace.

The sad thing is that in Ireland 2008, we still have this backwards and unethical approach to simple things like promotion where we work.

If you do decide to fight for your rights with regard to your situation, just be advised that your manager will lie to your face about having any prejudices regarding your ability to be promoted, and you'll be played and manipulated to the point where you will have to remind yourself sometimes that you felt wronged at all in the first place.

Darragh29

Just listening to Joe Duffy here, a woman has been awarded 50,000 Euro today for treatment similar too your own... She worked for MBNA...