Return from Maternity

[Namechange123349372]

I’ve just returned to work after maternity leave and am really struggling to get back to where I was, would appreciate some thoughts on whether the following is reasonable or not?

I manage a team and whilst I’ve been away multiple people have stepped up and each taken responsibility for parts of my job during my leave. This is great and people have done a good job.

my expectation was that I’d return to the same role as I took OML only. I’ve been back several weeks and most of the work I’d usually do is still being done by other people. I raised this to my manager and he said that since others have stepped up, if I want my former responsibilities back I need to go and negotiate the return of work with the various people who’ve been covering it.

the idea of this makes me quite uncomfortable… but I’m not sure if I’m being reasonable or not. I was expecting that my manager would reassign my work to me, not that I’d have to go to individuals and ask for my responsibilities back. Is this normal? Or a bit odd please?

It's very odd. I'd be very careful here, because if they can manage what used to be your job without you, then redundancy may be looming. That said, it is your employers responsibility to return you to your previous job after OML - which is where the question of redundancy could arise because after you return to work if the job no longer exists then redundancy can happen. Are you perchance in a union?

Thank you for replying. Yes I’m part of a union but haven’t raised it with them yet, I will do so today. Thanks for confirming my suspicious that this isn’t usual.

Could you approach this from another angle as well, by looking to expand your role with new responsibilities? To be honest, if I were above you and had seen that more junior people could manage aspects of your role, I wouldn’t be looking to give you that same work back, as it would suggest it is being done at the wrong level. I would be interested in development opportunities for you though.