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Mental health

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Thought I was getting better, then returned to work

2 replies

Tootiredd · 01/12/2025 12:06

At the beginning of this year I noticed my mental health started dipping slightly, I work in a call centre which definitely doesn’t help, there was a big change within the company that meant my plans for progression were no longer reachable, I work long hours and have 2 little ones, days off were spent juggling housework, kids and life admin. I do have a partner who works opposite shifts to me for childcare and apart from annual leave have on Sunday a month with him (he also works evenings so 4 days out of the week I don’t see him). That’s the background. By March I’d used up all my annual leave because I’d log in and then book it off as I couldn’t face working, I used dependents leave and sick leave often. I then had a breakdown at the end April due to lots of things happening and a major life event which left me off sick and in therapy for 6 months. I’m now back at work on a supposed phased return but the only thing phased about it is my hours. I’m currently on a break nearly in tears. I’ve had 2 weeks of back to work training and now back on the phones where it’s been back to back calls since I started. I’ve been looking for a new job for over a year, applied for countless with not even an interview offered. I live rural, I don’t drive and we get one bus every 2 hours, so I currently work from home. I took the call centre job as it was from home with the hopes of progression yet over 2 years later I’m still here. I can feel myself dipping and I don’t know what to do.

OP posts:
Tootiredd · 01/12/2025 12:09

Added to say, 1 week after I came back (during phased return) I was struggling and said I couldn’t do it, work were fine and said log off then I had a return to work meeting to be told that is classed as a separate absence and because of my 6 months off if I have 1 more sick day within the next year I will have an absence meeting. Which now panics me further, I shouldn’t have come back.

OP posts:
Barbequebeans64 · 23/04/2026 22:00

How are you doing @Tootiredd , sorry no one replied, I'm currently signed off work with my mental health too.

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