Does anyone else feel completely 'out of the loop' when on maternity leave - and does it bother you?

[Ceebee74]

I am now in my ninth month of maternity leave and am due back in September.

I really feel that my colleagues are telling me the bare minimum of what is going on - which is fine because they probably don't want to bother me.

But, they have just restructured the department so I have had to choose which job I want to go back to etc - and again, my colleagues have really only provided me with the basic information that I needed - not the real ins and outs and nitty gritty that I would have liked to have known before making my decision.

Also, just trivial non-work stuff - like people having babies, people leaving etc - I have just found out today, for example, that, whilst I have been off, another (non-close) colleague has not only got pg, but had twins prematurely - I love social chit-chat like that.

I feel so out of it that when I go back, I know there will always be a 'missing' year where I have no idea what went on!!

I am just a busybody aren't I?

CeeBee I totally feel the same, in a silly sort of way I feel left out Ready to go back but wish I could fast forward the 1st few months til I feel more part of it again IYSWIM!

I know exactly how you feel. I started ML on Christmas Day last year when DD2 came early.

I had only been in the job for 15 months so really only have a few 'close' colleagues.

Things here are also being restructured - luckily I manage to keep up with most of it as it is a county-wide thing (Teaching) but i do have to get in touch with work to find anything out and it would be nice if they would contact me sometimes.

Yesterday I even received a letter from work. It was informing me of my pay rise (I know, lucky to get one). The letter was inside an envelope with my name on it - would have been put in my pigeon hole if I was at work. So the school office had put that envelope inside another and forwarded - but without any note or anything

It would be nice to have other people reach out just once in a while - although I know the don't because I guess they figure I am focussed on other stuff.

Anyway, I am doing two days work next month before going back in September

I hear ya. Have had no contact from work at all in over 5 months, saving a text message from my manager to tell me that a colleague had died .

I know how you feel. Do you get on with your manager/colleagues well enough to be direct? As others have said, people don't like to bother you. Could you maybe let a couple of people know that you would quite like to be 'bothered' a bit more?