Hi,
I've recently returned to work from maternity leave. Before I went away, I got a new boss who my team disliked. I wasn't away for very long, about 5 months. The replacement for my role was chosen because they had a good relationship with my boss, so I was hopeful it could work. I'm my absence, I felt a partnership between them was the best way to ensure success. My replacement is also good at their job.
In the time I was away, my boss made things much worse and my team was moved to a different department due to the problems. Our customers were very unhappy and this is what drove the move. Whilst I was away my boss told everyone in my team that they had to do something very different to their skill area and tried to make some redundant in a way which was not legal. He also told people to stop things which were in their expectations for the year but now my team are still expected to deliver. So that was explosive and caused so many issues.
I have been working so hard to get the team on track for the end of year reporting/success, trying to manage exceptionally low morale and improve things for my team and customers. All whilst on 4 days a week.
I'm feeling like I'm making a difference but it's slow to fix things. One of our high performers wants out of the team due to the mess and the speed of change is not fast enough for them. One peer has started to insinuate that my team are unhappy because of bad management in my part. He's vying for a promotion, so I think that's a factor. I work in a very male dominated area, so no one understands the challenges of taking a maternity leave and expects everything to have been at full speed on my return. So I'm left feeling like I'm starting to be blamed for my teams problems.
Prior to having my amazing baby, I was exceptionally focused on my career. I now have another priority but my work is still really important to me. I work hard and in my previous companies was recognised to be in the top few percent in terms of performance, good with people and my specialist area.
Also, because I've been fire fighting with this change of management for a year, I feel like it has stopped myself developing (I don't have time to nurture my specialist skills).
I'm pregnant with my second baby, so another maternity leave is going to be coming.
Finally, I'm feeling very insecure in my role.
My company has made around 6 people redundant in the last year....and it was down to low performance more so than a genuine redundancy.
I'm not really sure what to do. Works important to me and always been part of my identity. The worst bit is I'm feeling like my skills are stagnating and so worried I'll struggle to get back to where I was
I'm curious if this resonates with other people? What did you do to help yourself?