Help me repair my career

[Howtosolveit]

I need some help to fix a career mistake that I made during the pandemic. I was very successful in a job that I loved, but it had always been stressful, mainly due to the company culture. During the pandemic, I was being bullied by an influential senior colleague and quit due to the stress of it. I found a new job and didn't speak up about why I was quitting (long story, but not a good idea to do as HR was no help, etc.).

Two years on, I desperately miss my old job. I have tried hard to make the new job as good as the old one but it is fundamentally wrong for me and I am pretty angry about how it was misrepresented, tbh. In the meantime, I suspect my name has been taken through the mud at my old job. There were a lot of rumours about why I left because I was a high performer and lots of senior people were upset about it. I think it has been positioned as me having a strop or just not being able to get on with people.

I don't want to go into the ins and outs of what happened, then or since, because it is a long story and I can only speculate about some of it. My question now is, I miss my old job massively and want to go back. How would you approach this situation if you were me? How can I get my job back given that people think I there a strop when really I left because of stress? I still won't be able to talk about the bullying, but I would be better able to deal with it now that we are no longer in the middle of a pandemic.

Sounds like a tough time you've had, OP. Do you have any allies at the previous firm that you could sound out, off the record?

Thanks @mildlydispeptic. Potentially, yes. It is hard to know as I think a lot of people either think that I left in a positive way or else have been persuaded that I was the problem. The latter includes people that were real supporters but I guess it is easy to believe things when you are not there to defend yourself. But I was very well liked so it is worth thinking about this idea.

Take an old colleague for a coffee and find out the lay of the land. Technically, you left on a good note. Is said bully still there? Have you been replaced? What is the company working on right now? What roles are they recruiting for?

boomerang employees are on the rise. There’s no shame in it, so see if there’s an opportunity. Good luck

Thanks @Snorkello I like that you make it sound simple - I have lost the wood for the trees a bit. The bully is still there, yes, but I think I could handle her now (I DID handle her for several years before the pandemic, it just got too much during the lockdowns). I have been replaced but I work in an area that is of high strategic importance to the business so it doesn't preclude adding me back into a bigger team.

Also, I know my replacement from the market and flatter myself (!) that he isn't as good as I was. Plus I have learned a lot in my new role, even though I don't enjoy it much.