Going back to work - how long to settle in

[RibenaBerry]

I was having a chat with a friend today who has been back at work a month and is hating it. She's working part time in a fairly full on professional job, so is having to adjust to working in a different way/managing expectations, as well as being away from her baby. She took the whole year off.

I said I reckon it normally takes three months to know whether your arrangment is working. It does take a while to settle in and adjust. I'm worried she's going to make a snap decision she might later regret, but am not sure whether my view of the time taken is unusual (perhaps I'm slow!)

So, MN jury, what do you think. If you went back to work, how quickly did you know whether it was working out? Interested to hear from people who jacked it in as well as those who stayed.

Thanks!

I started back after 51 weeks off at the end of September. I didn't feel like the company particularly wanted me back (there were a lot of redundancies while I was on leave and the whole environment in our industry is rather different from when I went on leave).

I came back 3 days and I wasn't really happy in the group I was placed in from September to Christmas and never felt settled.

In January I joined a different group and within a week or two felt really settled and happy.

So I think my answer is that it can take several months to get used to being back (it certainly has taken several months to get my working confidence and standard back up to where it was but don't tell my boss....) BUT the working environment and how comfortable you feel in your office/with your colleagues makes a far bigger difference.

My advice to your friend would be to stick it out for three months to give it a fair trial, but during that time to investigate the other options she might have so she knows that she's not stuck where she is.

I went back in October after 10 months off. At first it went really well, and if I'm honest I was enjoying the change of scene. But I knew quite quickly I was enjoying being back at work. It took probably about 4 weeks to realise the hours were working, it is probably easier to know when it is working than when not.

Although I've now moved roles, and I'm having a wobble again, part of it being a more demanding job and just having a wobble about how I only see DD for a few hours Monday-Friday. I need to feel comfortable in the new role before I know if the hours are working.

I went back to work part time after 13 months off on mat leave to a fairly full on professional job.

I enjoyed being back at work in terms of getting out of the house and using my brain etc. What took a long long time to adjust to was being part time and how things had moved on when I was off, particularly how the dynamics in my team had changed.

I felt under used and demoralised because my boss kept finishing off my work on my two days off. i felt that I was missing out on loads of stuff on my days off.

In the end after about 3 months i moved teams to a managerial role and absolutely loved being back at work.

i would think you would know in that amount of time that it wasn't working.

It is very very hard to adjust to being part time imo, people's attitude towards you changes, i felt like I went from being second in command essentially to being at the bottom of the pile when it came to giving out work.