Going back to work after long period of illness.

[KeemaNaanAndCurryOn]

I will soon be going back to work after 8 months off sick. Since I was away my team has changed so out of 8 staff only two have worked for / with me before.

Does anyone have any good tips about how to handle going back into this situation (sickness, mat leave etc).

I keep thinking that I will have to treat it as if it was a new job, but I am worried about fucking it up and being eased out if I don't get it right first time, as they have obviously managed without me for this long.

do you have an occupational health department - are you in touch with them -have you talked to them and or GP about a gradual return -eg not going back to full hours immediately - worked well for me in similar circumstances - also perhaps a meeting with your line manager before you started -and for me I had some very specific objectives for the first few weeks which helped build my confidendence back

Yes we have an OH dept and I'm meant to see them and have a report done before I meet with my manager and HR, but they've scheduled the latter meeting the day after the OH one, so the report won't be ready. This hasn't helped my stress levels at all!

It will be a phased return, but I was hoping it would be sorted out before this, especially since I went into work in June to discuss it so it would be sorted before now.

As AnOtherName says, I'd definately recommend meeting with your line manager before you go back. For you both to be clear on what you both hope and expect to get from your return, what role you will be in, how this impacts on the individuals in the new team, even what hours they will all expect to see you in the office. It's also helpful if your manager can have briefed the rest of the team as well so that they know what to expect from you.
Maybe there is some 'homework' you can do to get back up to speed on new clients etc.. (depending on what line of work you do) - anything to bridge the gap between being the 'new girl' who is still probably expected to remember a lot about the business!