Returning to work after a lengthy period of absence is daunting for most people. I’m due to come back from a year-long maternity leave to a team I had only joined a month before going off to have twin babies. Daunted is an understatement!
I’ve forgotten all of my passwords and log in details, I can’t remember how to use systems and programmes I was once familiar with, and I need to relearn the names and faces of the new colleagues I was introduced to during my short time with the team back in early 2020.
However, this time around I don’t feel like I am completely alone in my experience. My back-to-work anxieties may also be mirrored by the feelings of my colleagues, and many workers around the country, who have been working from home or furloughed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Government continues to outline the country’s gradual emergence from lockdown perhaps there are many people who are daunted at the thought of heading back into their offices and to ‘normal’ ways of working.
Not to mention that, for many, the success of working from home will mean there won’t be a back to ‘normal’ but instead we will be learning to adapt and fit into new flexible patterns of work, getting familiar with remote virtual team meetings and learning new technological skills.
Thankfully, I’ve got a great line manager and colleagues who have been very supportive throughout and done their best to put my mind at ease. Keep In Touch days have helped me put my toes back in the water gently. Also, the HR department has put together useful tips and resources for returning parents.
I suppose we are all in this together. Returning to new ways of working post Covid and maternity will be challenging for many of us but also opens up new opportunities and innovations that will transform our industries and work-life balance.
Shirley Morgan - Conference and Events Manager