I work for a really generous company in the US that gives 6 months for maternity leave so I took all of it. Obviously being gone that long meant that a temp was necessary. We had four days of overlap which was nice but some things seem a little weird to me and I need help processing it. I may just be possessive over my work since I really like my job and my team so I’m worried I’m over thinking it. Anyways, these are some of the weird things:

- my boss and the temp weren’t sure when I would be coming back even though it was a set date that was set six months ago and that I confirmed two weeks ago before starting in an email that my boss was cc’d on. But yet the temp kept saying it.

- she kept forgetting to share information with me but since she’s my temp I have access to her calendar and such so I found it all, i.e. meetings that I need to be a part of, things that needed to be switched from her to me, etc. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt with this because it can be a lot and I caught it anyways.

- my boss including me on her farewell call (we’re still remote due to covid) which was just awkward. People are praising her for doing my job so well and how much they’ll miss her etc. I get it, she is awesome and did a good job at the necessary parts of my job but why do I need to be here for this? It lowers the shit out of my morale as a returning employee even though I know it’s not about me.

I feel weird. It’s weird to go back to work in the first place, add on a pandemic and a beloved temp who doesn’t want to leave… its pretty uncomfortable. Please be nice, I’m trying to be cool about this but my postpartum anxiety is not helping.