Infinity Ltd is a large multinational consultancy company, with a head office in Dublin. Dakota works in the Finance Department of Infinity Ltd as a Business Analyst. She has been working in the same position for the past 9 years. Although her performance reviews have been consistently good, she has never been promoted.

Six months ago, following her return to work after giving birth to her third child, she questioned her manager about potential promotion opportunities. Her manager informed her that he had not considered her suitable for promotion as she has spent too much time on maternity leave in the past few years, and as a consequence, she was not viewed as a reliable worker for the purpose of promotion. After this meeting with her manager, she made a complaint to Infinity Ltd’s HR Department.

Following this complaint, her manager started giving Dakota unrealistic deadlines. Because she was unable to meet them, she was given a does not meet expectations rating in her latest performance appraisal. When she queried this rating, the manager told Dakota that it was his opinion that if she spent less time having babies and more time focusing on her work her performance would vastly improve.