Applying for promotion while on maternity leave

Catdog88

I'm currently due to go on maternity leave starting mid July with my baby due at the beginning of August.
However, my perfect role within my company has just become available. These jobs do not come up very often. I am definitely qualified for the role and think I would have a good chance of getting it if I wasn't due to go off.

Is it a wise idea to apply for this role? Can the company overlook me for it due to my maternity leave?

I'd be happy to return to work a few months earlier if I got this role (say December/January vs April) as the hours are far more suited to my childcare needs.

Thanks

FBaby

Legally, they can't refuse to consider you for the job on the basis of the pregnancy, so they would have to be very careful how they went about it if they didn't want you to get the job and would have to evidence that it is because you are not meeting the standards to do so or that another candidate was better than you.

If you are well respected and working for a company that don't look down on women who believe they can juggle a career and being a good parent, and the role can wait, or can be picked up by someone else until you start, then you might have a good chance. It has happened in my team once, the woman was an amazing worker, very dedicated, hard working, all the right attributes and definitely the right person for the job, so we were all surprised when after 6 months off, she said that she loved being a mum and couldn't bear coming back to work!

Go for it, you have nothing to lose.

unforeseen

Some problems I foresee

How would you cope if a handover is required? KIT days? Would they be sufficient for that?

What if they need somebody to be physically doing the job from the word go?

theoretica

If you are the best candidate they should appoint you and then get someone else in for maternity cover. A colleague of mine started a new job only a month or so before maternity leave so it does happen.

Catdog88

The job is home based with training at head office and a remote handover.

The way I'm thinking of it is that if the company hired an external candidate, once interviews, negotiations, acceptance and then approximately 12 weeks of notice period (average for the sector/level) I won't be that far behind an external candidate.

xapprenticex

No harm in trying, not sure how they would view it though.

Snakey

You probably have a better chance while away on maternity leave than if you were still in the office.

I have seen on two occasions in the last three years, with two different employers, a person who had been off on maternity leave for the entire appraisal period get a promotion while others at the same grade and on the same merit rating who'd been in the office actually doing their job for the full year were told they had not demonstrated the skills required to get to the next level. Maybe they had and maybe they hadn't, but one thing's for certain, the person who wasn't even there definitely hadn't been in a position to demonstrate anything - and yet they got the benefit of the doubt (the assumption was made that if they had been there then their performance would have been fantastic, even when there was no historical reason to suggest this).

Employers are petrified that they'll get sued, and will bend over backwards to accommodate you in a way that would never happen to anybody else. I mean no insult here - it's just the way things are. If you're lucky enough to be in that position, make the most of it while you can!

If both parties are sufficiently keen to make things work there are few obstacles that genuinely cannot be overcome with common sense, flexibility and compromise.

Takeaway_Addict

Snakey wrote: »

You probably have a better chance while away on maternity leave than if you were still in the office.

I have seen on two occasions in the last three years, with two different employers, a person who had been off on maternity leave for the entire appraisal period get a promotion while others at the same grade and on the same merit rating who'd been in the office actually doing their job for the full year were told they had not demonstrated the skills required to get to the next level. Maybe they had and maybe they hadn't, but one thing's for certain, the person who wasn't even there definitely hadn't been in a position to demonstrate anything - and yet they got the benefit of the doubt (the assumption was made that if they had been there then their performance would have been fantastic, even when there was no historical reason to suggest this).

Employers are petrified that they'll get sued, and will bend over backwards to accommodate you in a way that would never happen to anybody else. I mean no insult here - it's just the way things are. If you're lucky enough to be in that position, make the most of it while you can!

If both parties are sufficiently keen to make things work there are few obstacles that genuinely cannot be overcome with common sense, flexibility and compromise.

Or it could just be that they both were the best candidates...

TELLIT01

Catdog88 wrote: »

The way I'm thinking of it is that if the company hired an external candidate, once interviews, negotiations, acceptance and then approximately 12 weeks of notice period (average for the sector/level) I won't be that far behind an external candidate.

I'm not sure how you work that out. Job advertised now with say 3 weeks for applications, takes it to mid May. 2 weeks for interviews - end of May. 12 weeks notice - end of August. That's 3 to 4 months earlier than you say you would be willing to return. Even if the process takes an extra month it's still 2 to 3 months difference.

Andypandyboy

A friend's daughter applied for new external role when she was seven months pregnant. They were happy to wait for her mat leave to end and she got the job.

Paully232000

Catdog88 wrote: »

I'm currently due to go on maternity leave starting mid July with my baby due at the beginning of August.
However, my perfect role within my company has just become available. These jobs do not come up very often. I am definitely qualified for the role and think I would have a good chance of getting it if I wasn't due to go off.

Is it a wise idea to apply for this role? Can the company overlook me for it due to my maternity leave?

I'd be happy to return to work a few months earlier if I got this role (say December/January vs April) as the hours are far more suited to my childcare needs.

Thanks

I would go for the role, as my other half did this very thing a few years ago. About 2 or 3 months before went on mat leave, applied for a job (an internal promotion), got said job, and then a month after being accepted went on mat leave for about 9 months. She is still in that role just under 3 years later.