I've recently returned to work after several month career break for child care (second part of shared parental leave).
I manage a team. Whilst I was away my organisation had some issues. Firstly my team were restructured. My manager was removed. A new manager was put in to place as interim. My team are unsurprisingly unsettled. It's been really hard to get back up to speed and resolve the fall out. Reporting and admin slipped massively whilst I was away, end of year reporting is much harder, people are unhappy and some looking for new roles. My role has been entirely reactive, rather than doing value-add tasks (Ie not rewarding). The interim manager has been looking at the bigger picture and strategy and talking to some of our LT about it but not me.
I've asked for support in the form of discussing specific items. But the time I get to discuss is often very short after a week of chasing, I have to prioritise top issues and some important items go undiscussed. I value being able to discuss these issues and feel transparency is important, especially as I'm not being kept in the loop. I can be very independent and am needing to be so.
But after a few months off work, my confidence and pace/stride in my work dipped. I expected to not feel so isolated. Most recently my boss said she didn't realise that I had only just returned from a career break when she started..... This is just a sign that I have been entirely ignored in my requests for support.
I have recently been told that we are generally well aligned and I don't need to talk to her about these things. I feel so disconnected from the wider org that although I know I speak sense, I have no idea what these bigger picture plans are. I know others are talking about strategy and I'm not included. So trying to find context to help me make the right moves.
I wondered if others have experienced this after maternity. I expected to have some support to get me back up to speed. aibu to expect support?
I'm writing this as the isolation is making me feel lonely and hard to deal with so many HR related issues on my team caused by unhappiness due to this disruption. I can see people starting to link my teams unhappiness to me but it's more due to a lack of trust in the wider organisation. finding it tough and lonely, so curious to hear others experiences so I'm not all alone