Quick background info below - I'd just like a few opinions or if anyone thinks I should specfically mention (or not) anything else etc. I'm rather nervous about the whole thing but feeling better that they are finally taking me seriously.
I work for a company of about 30 people although we are owned by a much larger company based in London (which basically means HR, payroll etc are all done at our parent company rather than onsite).
I have worked for the company since May 2006 and am (albeit only in job title at the moment) within the second most senior level of management within our office. With one other person I look after a team of about 10 people and I do lots of the client facing work. It was a good job, I really liked, it pays well and I liked all the people.
I was a bit nervous about telling my boss I was pergnant but he was over the moon and incredibly excited about the prospect. I told them when I was 13 weeks pregnant.
I then went on holiday for 2 weeks which had been booked previously and when I came back my line manager (different from my boss mentioned above as he is generally only in the office for 1 day in every 10) and when I returned all my clients had been taken off me and redistributed between my line manager and my colleague who I had previously looked after our team with (it's sounding rather confusing now!) I was also not being invited to any of the management meetings any more.
When my boss was next in, I said I didn;t like what was happening and didn't think it was appropriate for them to basically demote me (and then promptly burst into floods of tears!
) He said he would have a word with my line manager. He did mention that she had said to him that she was going to 'take all my work off me and use me as a resource' and maybe he should have picked up on it then! (I was too upset and shocked to comment at the time but this has stuck with me and still hurts ).
That was at the beginning of August and basically it has just become worse from then on. My line manager and colleague that also looked after our team have assumed all my workload from when I went on holiday, have refused to give me any new clients and treat me as an operator. My line manager even got one of my team members to delegate work to me the other day - he got quite upset coming over to me and telling me he'd been told to pass on some of his work to me (bearing in mind I'm still essentially his boss) and although I tried to play it down to make him feel better and not cause too much of a scene I had to go to the toilets for a good cry. My line manager and colleague that looked after our team with me are good friends outside of work and have become incredibly bitchy and pretty much ignore me at work now unless they are dishing out work. Work, especially with women, can be bitcy at the best of times so I would normally just put this down to office politics, albeit horrible, but as one is my line manager and the other is meant to be running a team with me (ha!) it is making life very hard.
I got to the end of tether the other day when my line manager started questioning my antenatal appointments (I decided to go to aquanatal - if work was still as good as it had been pre pregnancy I probably wouldn't but the thought of half a day off in the middle of the week to be in the pool and with nice pregnant women was no competition!) and making a thing about how I was taking too much time off.
Ignorance I can cope with, but when I saw her showing other colleagues my email and saying I was taking the mickey I lost it a bit.
I emailed the HR director at our parent company on Thursday and basically listed everything here, included that my line manager and boss had done nothing depsite me raising the issue over a month ago and how I was finding it difficult coming to work with the way I was being treated. HR director, emailed me back almost straight away, apologised and said she would come and see me on Monday to discuss things further (either in the office or elsewhere if that was too much to be in the office).
I'm pleased that HR seem to be taking it seriously but I'm really worried I'm just going to cry the whole way through or just accept everything she says because I will be so grateful to someone being nic to me at work for once.
I'm sorry for the huge long essay (HR got one even longer so I'm surprised they're not still reading it now! ).
If anyone has made it this far (well done!) do you think I need to emphasise anything in particular? What can I expect them to do? I have said I want my old job and responsibilities back but with only 13 weeks until maternity leave I'm not sure how feasible this is? I don't want to dump everything on me so I won't be able to cope and then turn round and say well, you asked for it. Also, I don't want it to make things with my line manager any worse (well, it couldn't be much worse but I'm not sure how fmuch longer I can cope with it being the way it is!) Oh dear, I am in a pickle! Maybe I also shouldn't have bottled it all up until midnight the night before too!
Thank you if you did get this far!!! xx
I work for a company of about 30 people although we are owned by a much larger company based in London (which basically means HR, payroll etc are all done at our parent company rather than onsite).
I have worked for the company since May 2006 and am (albeit only in job title at the moment) within the second most senior level of management within our office. With one other person I look after a team of about 10 people and I do lots of the client facing work. It was a good job, I really liked, it pays well and I liked all the people.
I was a bit nervous about telling my boss I was pergnant but he was over the moon and incredibly excited about the prospect. I told them when I was 13 weeks pregnant.
I then went on holiday for 2 weeks which had been booked previously and when I came back my line manager (different from my boss mentioned above as he is generally only in the office for 1 day in every 10) and when I returned all my clients had been taken off me and redistributed between my line manager and my colleague who I had previously looked after our team with (it's sounding rather confusing now!) I was also not being invited to any of the management meetings any more.
When my boss was next in, I said I didn;t like what was happening and didn't think it was appropriate for them to basically demote me (and then promptly burst into floods of tears!
) He said he would have a word with my line manager. He did mention that she had said to him that she was going to 'take all my work off me and use me as a resource' and maybe he should have picked up on it then! (I was too upset and shocked to comment at the time but this has stuck with me and still hurts ).That was at the beginning of August and basically it has just become worse from then on. My line manager and colleague that also looked after our team have assumed all my workload from when I went on holiday, have refused to give me any new clients and treat me as an operator. My line manager even got one of my team members to delegate work to me the other day - he got quite upset coming over to me and telling me he'd been told to pass on some of his work to me (bearing in mind I'm still essentially his boss) and although I tried to play it down to make him feel better and not cause too much of a scene I had to go to the toilets for a good cry. My line manager and colleague that looked after our team with me are good friends outside of work and have become incredibly bitchy and pretty much ignore me at work now unless they are dishing out work. Work, especially with women, can be bitcy at the best of times so I would normally just put this down to office politics, albeit horrible, but as one is my line manager and the other is meant to be running a team with me (ha!) it is making life very hard.
I got to the end of tether the other day when my line manager started questioning my antenatal appointments (I decided to go to aquanatal - if work was still as good as it had been pre pregnancy I probably wouldn't but the thought of half a day off in the middle of the week to be in the pool and with nice pregnant women was no competition!) and making a thing about how I was taking too much time off.
Ignorance I can cope with, but when I saw her showing other colleagues my email and saying I was taking the mickey I lost it a bit.I emailed the HR director at our parent company on Thursday and basically listed everything here, included that my line manager and boss had done nothing depsite me raising the issue over a month ago and how I was finding it difficult coming to work with the way I was being treated. HR director, emailed me back almost straight away, apologised and said she would come and see me on Monday to discuss things further (either in the office or elsewhere if that was too much to be in the office).
I'm pleased that HR seem to be taking it seriously but I'm really worried I'm just going to cry the whole way through or just accept everything she says because I will be so grateful to someone being nic to me at work for once.
I'm sorry for the huge long essay (HR got one even longer so I'm surprised they're not still reading it now!
).If anyone has made it this far (well done!) do you think I need to emphasise anything in particular? What can I expect them to do? I have said I want my old job and responsibilities back but with only 13 weeks until maternity leave I'm not sure how feasible this is? I don't want to dump everything on me so I won't be able to cope and then turn round and say well, you asked for it. Also, I don't want it to make things with my line manager any worse (well, it couldn't be much worse but I'm not sure how fmuch longer I can cope with it being the way it is!) Oh dear, I am in a pickle! Maybe I also shouldn't have bottled it all up until midnight the night before too!
Thank you if you did get this far!!! xx
