I work abroad in a small office for a few months which is part of a larger UK company. Recently we have had some layoffs including the management of my office so the rest of us are feeling a bit confused and vulnerable. It's just a handful of us left so we have tried to be supportive of each other and share any scraps of information we can get from head office, which is not a lot. As I'm relatively new I'm think sometimes I'm left out of the loop.
Anyway the result of the layoffs is a doubling of work for the others, but not me - because of my role and the covid situation I actually have very little to do locally. I managed to escape the layoff because I may be needed down the line. So it was suggested by hq informally to me that I take on some of the projects from the others and share the load. I told the others thinking that they would be fine for me to help even though it's not my area, but the idea was met very frostily. I can see now I've made them feel anxious about their jobs but it wasn't the intent. I feel like I've ruined the camaraderie that's left. What's worse is that they are really the only friends I have here - we got on so well they felt like family to me.
I feel very lonely now and upset about work that I have nothing to do, am being pressured to do more by hq, but this is not wanted by my colleagues. On top of that, one of the people leaving assigned the projects in question to my colleagues and informed the external customers, so I don't know what we're going to do about those. There is a lot of pressure from different parties about what our roles should be and I'm feeling sick of the uncertainty. I would entertain the idea of coming back to the UK but I have brought my family here too, we are single income, my child was recently diagnosed with a disability and is receiving treatment here, and it's tricky because there's the virus of course and no home in the UK to come back to.
What do I do? How do I fix this? I know I'm lucky to be valued by hq and they would support me if I wanted to come back.