Confidence at work after mat leave

[1Wanda1]

I am about to return to work. During my mat leave, my boss has hired new people and given one of them my old job. He says he hasn't replaced me, but the effect of the new structure is that this person now has all of my old responsibilities and sits in the role I used to fill. He has also moved the team to another location further away, which means if I don't go there, I will become even more marginalised in the team, but if I do, I won't be able to do my share of the nursery pick-ups.

I used to be my boss's right hand person before mat leave and since finding out about these changes, have felt completely lacking in confidence about returning to work. I've been looking for another job but haven't found one. After months off on mat leave, it's like my head isn't in that "work" zone and I'm just not impressive at interviews. This makes me feel even more unconfident.

Any tips on how to get your confidence back at work after maternity leave? I feel like I've failed already and I'm not even back yet.

Just try to go with the flow. Go back, see how it is and reassess the situation in day three months.

Legally they're not allowed to replace you whilst on mat leave so if you feel you've been stripped of responsibilities then you're within your right to request these back.

Are you returning on the same amount of hours as before?

I'm going back on 4 days. I was planning to go back full time, and a bit sooner, but after boss told me about the changes and I expressed my concerns about effective demotion to HR, it all turned rather sour and left me absolutely dreading returning to work.

It sounds like a difficult situation, I am sorry you have to deal with this when returning from maternity leave. As PP said you could challenge the change to your role. Or alternatively focus on finding a new job (which id probably go for in your shoes, to get out of a toxic workplace). I find I get a confidence boost when I take on responsibility for a chunk of work outside of my usual role, so you could think about whether there may be opportunities to lead a different project or something like that? Particularly if your main roles have been handed to someone else, you'll need to try and make sure you are pro active at maintaining a level of responsibility and leadership rather than taking a back seat to their lead.
But at the same time, go easy on yourself. It's a huge transition for you, and you may need a few months to get back into work mode before you want to fully tackle this.