Hi all,
Name change for this, I don't know why really but I feel like a loser but I have posted about some of the events before so may be easily recognised, not sure but here goes:-
Just to add I'm 26 years old and I've been with the company three years - never had any issues until now.
I found out I was pregnant in May 2020 and between July - October 2020 I had roughly about eight weeks off sick due to hyperemesis and hospital admissions almost every week so in October I took some holidays and started my maternity leave at 29 weeks in November due to being unwell and not wanting to take anymore time off.
I had a c section in January and my dad died in March and I spent my whole maternity leave either runnning up and down to the hospital when my dad was alive, I watched my dad die (it was an awful experience the 2.5 months he was poorly anyway but watching him die was gut renching), I was caring for my mum as she has learning difficulties and her landlord decided to call us to sell the house two weeks after my dad died which had been my mums home for 21 years, we managed to sort all of that out and got settled and then my granddad died (my mums dad) in July so I was back to square one with her all whilst raising a tiny human for the first time battling sleep deprivation and the lot (I know most mums do this and it's not like I could sleep anyway) and then I went back to work in August, I thought I was doing okay but I think I was just distracted and never dealt with my grief and just ignored everything I was feeling and then when I went back to work and had some "normality" back it really started to hit me so I've spoken to a doctor who has signed me off for four weeks but I think realistically I'm probably going to need about eight weeks as I'm taking part in talking therapy and that's eight sessions and work won't allow me to do it in their time (obviously I understand that) but I wouldn't want to either as I imagine these sessions are going to be quite emotional and would like to at least do the first eight sessions in peace if that makes sense so I can reflect and do what I need to do to get better. Although this isn't set in stone, if I feel better I'm happy to return earlier but I don't want to go back and then be off again because I wasn't fully ready.
However I feel like I'm being a really bad employee and mum and think I need to get a grip - if you were my employer would you think I was taking the mick and try to sack me when I came back 