Last year, I came back to work early after 6 months of maternity leave. This was my 2nd maternity leave in 2 years; I had spent more than enough time at home looking after babies and was ready to go back to work.

I had imagined that returning to work would bring the old me back, that I would be exited to recruit again, inspired to post on this blog every week. I was wrong… The truth is that I was ready for a new challenge before I got pregnant and that returning to my old job felt more mind-numbing than being home watching CBeebies all day.  

For months, my team had managed without me and there was very little for me to do in the first few weeks. I was given a few tasks that I did in about 5 minutes and spent the rest of my days staring at an empty inbox…Things weren’t going well, and I started regretting my decision to come back to work. 

So I did what I do best and started looking for another job. After a few applications and interviews for roles very similar to my current job, but with less money, a longer commute, no flexible working, etc. I realised that I had forgotten something… That work is like being in a relationship. When things don’t go to well with your partner, you don’t immediately go on the hunt to find another one (well, some people do), you talk and try to fix things first. 

That’s when I decided to talk to my manager about my feelings and what I needed to make the job work for me. 

I needed to feel busy, add value, work on projects. And guess what she did? She listened, gave me more exciting work to do and pushed me to apply for a promotion in another team. 

And here I am, 9 months into my new job, still not writing very much but this time not by lack of motivation or things to say, but because I’m running 100 miles/hour trying to manage a team, a family and myself. 

So if you too are falling out of love with your job, ask yourself if you can mend things and make it work for you, before you go and look for another one (that might not be better at all).