Disappointed with my employer after return to work

[Telephere]

Not sure if I'm expecting a bit much so would be helpful to hear some other opinions.

I went on maternity last year. My second last day I couldn't return for the rest of my shift after a midwife appointment because I had to go for urgent scans, no follow up from management on my final day to see if all was fine, I wasn't overly bothered by this though, they're not my friends at the end of the day. Then no goodbyes or good lucks on my last day, I was wfh so fine from colleagues that my last day wasn't noticed but my messages to management asking if I needed to do anything before signing off were ignored. I ended up emailing HR before signing off to advise I was now done and anything required would need to be done in my absence because I didn't really want to be contacted once my maternity had started because I had a shit tonne of other stuff going on.

I'm now on my first day back at work today, unable to get in to any systems and again complete radio silence from management.

Am I being daft by being a bit upset about this?

Sorry to hear this OP. Have you been in communication with management to organise your return?

Who are “management”? Do they immediately line manage you or your line manager? If it was my first day back and I couldn’t get into any systems then I’d email my line manager from my personal email updating then on the situation and asking for a catch up over the phone if I felt I needed it. Was nothing at all arranged on your KIT day when you confirmed your date of return?

That does sound annoying. Is it due to password changes, or has the whole system been changed? Can you speak to IT? Your direct boss seems like they are very unsupportive. If you have to sit there being paid to do nothing while they sort it out and get you logged back in then so be it.

Tech wise the man I spoke to seemed to think it was due to enforced updates not being done on the laptop while I was off. I'm not too bothered about this, I absolutely expected there to be tech issues logging in on return because there's always something. I haven't done KIT days as I've had quite a short maternity and quite a lot of it I didn't have good enough Internet access to do a KIT day either.

My direct manager was off when I started maternity and is now off again on my return. I have bumped in to her socially last week however and she said just get logged in on my return date and I'd have a temp replacement manager. We work in a big team though so whilst my direct manager is not in, and even if my replacement doesn't start til later etc there is a team of 8 or so managers. There is quite a relaxed attitude to managers in a sense that you deal with whoever is available.

When I had a miscarriage I had to call and speak to whichever manager was available for example (it was then relayed to the entire management team but that's a seperate issue that will forever niggle me haha).

Just to add sorry, I am able to access teams on my phone so I've been updating on our team channel that I'm speaking to IT, still can't get in, chased with IT etc and just radio silence in return.

Ultimately I know these people aren't my friends and I'm not crying myself to sleep over it. Just wondering if it is as shitty as it seems or if I'm being a bit dramatic.

Hi OP

Can you call the office and leave a message for a manager to call you, or drop one an email from a non work email (as you can't get access to your work email)?

Sorry this is such a pain on your first day back. (Out of interest how long a maternity did you take? I seem to be the only person I know taking less than a year!)

Sorry OP, I can see why you are upset by this - I would too. Personally I would drop a manager and individual teams message and/or cold call them to sort out arrangements. Agree you shouldn't have to do this though!

I wonder if everybody is just leaving it for one of the other managers to respond? Bit rubbish but I guess you have to take the initiative.

Yeah I think tomorrow I'm going to have to pick someone out and call them directly. I finished at lunch as I only work PT so didn't get anything sorted today.

I'm more than happy to have some additional time off at their expense. It's the lack of 'pastoral' support (can't think of the right term!) that is grinding me down I think.

I've taken 18 weeks maternity. We're doing shared parental so I've got a little bit more time off down the line but the bulk is over now.