Nice ways to welcome back employee after maternity leave

[dixieland1]

Hi all,

I have an employee returning to work from maternity leave in a couple of weeks, and I know how daunting it feels so I wanted to do something nice for her to welcome her back.

I’m going to book a team breakfast for the morning she’s back, and thought about getting her some flowers for her desk. Is that OTT? Does anyone have any other ideas?

I remember the day I returned from mat leave, my manager barely looked up from her computer when I walked in, they had put me on a different desk which was miles away from anyone, and I cried in the toilets 😂so I don’t want anyone to feel like that on my watch!

The team breakfast sounds lovely! But maybe a quick chat on her first day, and ask her if she'd like to have it, on the Friday?

You sound lovely OP. I had a torrid time coming back from mat leave after 14 months off. No one contacted me the entire time I was off, no one contacted me to discuss my return to work. No one in the senior management team, other than the team I managed knew I was coming back when I did. The entire SMT had changed, no one introduced themselves or said hello. I could manage my own diary, so blocked myself off for 2 weeks to remind myself of all the day to day stuff and complete my mandatory training. I cried every day, not because I missed my DD, but because I didn't feel like the competent person I was before. It's taken about a year to feel like I've got back in the swing of things. It really made me realise how difficult it is to return to work after a period of time off. I'll definitely do things differently when anyone in my specific team, or my wider work colleagues are returning to work from mat leave.

I would have loved regular check ins, quick catch ups, some extra time to get tasks done, and just some reassurance and encouragement.

You sound like a lovely boss. When I came back, it was in 2020 and everyone was still working at home. I had lost access to everything and couldn't even get my laptop on. I spent 3 days trying to get IT sorted out and no one checked in with me. Honestly, the best thing you can do for her is sort her IT out, delete all the crap from her inbox and schedule weekly catch ups to see how she's doing (although I'm sure chocolate would also be appreciated)

Hi

looking for abit of insight… so I went back to work after pretty much 2 back to back Mat leaves and I had my first 3 years prior to that and because of the way my work is and the people involved in my training I never actually completed all of my training so it’s been the quickest 8 years of my life and somehow I’m still working towards the last part of my work related qualification and since I’ve been back I just get this feeling that not many are happy im back, it’s just this feeling I have. No one really asks about my kids which is fine but when my office who are predominately women talk about the most trivial or things I do sometimes wonder why im not spoken to so much, I’ve recently been called rude and that’s deeply hurt me and in hindsight I can see why but I don’t get why anyone would need to be over dramatic when its pretty evident I really didn’t mean anything offensively and I genuinely apologised to that person who also said they did over react, I guess I just feel like I don’t get social cues very well or why people are kind of fake to me and I can see it a mile off and wonder why can’t anyone else see it. I know my post is a bit all over the place but I just genuinely can’t differentiate between is it a mum thing where I don’t have much tolerance for other things because I have so many really pressing urgent things to deal with on a daily basis to keep my life ticking away nicely or have I become mean and rude without realising?

i think I’ve wrote on someone else’s post not sure how to post this separately?

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