Any tips re managing staff after absence

[Weirdconditionaltense]

Can you please give me- hopefully positive - stories , tips etc on returing to work.
I've been off work, for health reasons, since March. I manage 6 people. Since I left they found a person to cover my role but that person mainly worked from home. They were only in the office, from what I can work out, one day a week.

I'm not too fussed about the mechanics of getting to grip with the work situation. It's the personnel side. Its really the fact 6 people, with 3 of them full time, haven't really been closely managed in all this time.

This is the only time I've been in this position so not sure if I need to be concerned or not. They are good workers and wouldn't have behaved cheekily so should I be concerned? What sort of things might have happened and what should I be aware of?

What do you mean about ‘closely’ managed. How do you measure their performance? Bit sad if you don’t trust them to get on with their jobs, what has happened to their productivity in your absence?

Thanks yes, we don't have any real productivity measurements in place- really old organisation. To be fair, I don't generally do much in the way of managing staff aanyway when I am in. We all just get on and ask each other if task x or y has been finished. That's a good thing to remember. Thanks

I’m sorry to hear you’ve been unwell and I hope the return to work goes well. I’ve inherited a team that had not been closely managed for a while (1 year+). I think, ultimately, they have found having me in place to be very helpful. They were still doing what was expected of them and noting had slipped but I think what they lacked was the broader picture of how their work fitted in with the org’s strategy more widely and I think some felt that they weren’t getting the recognition they wanted/deserved for their work which had led to some dropping in motivation. Nothing too serious though and I would imagine those issues might be a bit less if you’ve only before off for 6 months or so.

Thanks so much! For the good wishes and the comments about what happens with the manager away. I think that's going to be very relevant here. The Managing Director is always hazy at the best of times and I can easily imagine he hasn't included them with any of the longer term plans and developments. Yes I will have a think about how to deal with this. Also take on board your comments that they may feel they've kept the ship sailing and haven't received any appreciation. Really interesting, many thanks :)

I'd say book a 1-1 with each of them and hear how they think the last year or so has gone, is there anything they'd like you to fix or develop etc. Maybe they flourished with hands off management.

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale thank you, yes I definitely should do that. That will give me a sense of how they've operated without anyone, of manager level, around most day. Perhaps yes, they've been perfectly happy. I was away through the main busy period so maybe they all knuckled down and it was fine.

I recently took over a team that hadn't had a "manager" for some time. Similar to the poster above, I found that what was lacking wasn't necessarily their ability to do the daily tasks - which they were still doing, and well - but team working, and an understanding of priorities, organisational objectives, forward strategy and so on.

They had got into a rut where they weren't having team catch ups because nobody had been leading them; hence they didn't know what each other were working on and there was a lot of miscommunication and overlap.

Newer members of the team were struggling because it had been nobody's "job" to train them. Nobody really knew what their KPIs were and what they should be prioritising.

Instead of one coherent and functioning team there was a disparate group of "busy" individuals who had no real idea they weren't achieving what was expected of them, through no fault of their own.

Oh and the HR side... there had been no monitoring of sickness absence so no additional support put in when people needed it, and no development/training opportunities either.

In my experience, OP, I'd go in gently, listen, ask the team to tell you what they think they are missing. You will probably then get a completely different perspective from the directors/ heads of service above.

@pinkglove84 thanks very much for your post. I suspect everything you've said is going to apply to the department. Everyone will have been doing their job and I doubt the person covering has looked into the overlap. I think this will be spot on..

Yes I wont go back like a bull in a china shop. I think they are all conscientious and yet I also don't think they would necessarily have missed me, or anyone more senior doing regular reviews of where they were and what their next work stages are.

As you and the PP has said , I will have one to ones and ask them for their view on how the department has been operating.

Thanks so much !

I found that when I went back after a long period of absence, there was a lot of resentment. My role wasn't properly covered though, so they all felt they'd been doing my job. Some didn't want to had the extra responsibility back either though.

In the end I felt like I'd "lost the dressing room" and ended up leaving.

Hi Gelstick just to be clear, are you saying some didn't want anyone with more responsibility coming back ?

I can see in theory how this could happen.

I don't know two of the people in my team well as they've not been in the company for that long and I can't imagine they would be odd. The man who has been there about 16 years, yes he could potentially be a bit odd, not sure, definitely hope not.

There was a lot if bitterness. I' had a long absence, which most didn't know the details of. Those still at work had had to absorb my workload and felt hard done by, but also some didn't want to relinquish the extra responsibility (status?) when I returned.

I was on a phased return initially, and that didn't help becuase they felt i was paid more than them (I was) and working less hard.

Have you not been a manager long? I assume you would have been trained for this but if not, do you have a manager who can help you navigate it?

@Gelstick sorry it didn't go well for you. I like to think nobody in my team would be like that. thanks again .I hope your next move worked out easier 😀

I’d encourage you to get some perspective from whoever is the ‘customer’ for their outputs, in addition to their own, to ensure that the ‘customer’ view aligns with that of the team.

as alluded to above, the team my not have any perspective on how they fit in .. or they may be very clear. Only by hearing both sides can you take an informed view. Good luck.

@FinallyHere thanks for your post. Yes I appreciate what you're saying and will try and discreetly canvas some views on how things have been from their perspective. many thanks 🙏

@Anarchy99 I've never been in this situation and no, never been trained in anything like it.

I've received lots of great advice here and not feeling as uncertain as I was when I first posted so quite happy I know how to proceed now. Best wishes

Just don’t let on that you have been looking for advice online about it and I’m sure you will be fine!