Ignored by colleagues after returning from long leave
Someone wrote to me about not feeling included after being back from a break. Here is what the person said :
I had taken a sabbatical of 2 1/2 years due to medical reasons. I resumed work after full recovery. on my return, I am being treated differently by my coworkers and managers, who think I am still unfit. I’m not given key assignments. And whenever some crucial work comes my way, it is on sympathetic grounds. Even if they involve me in certain activities, it’s merely a formality. I feel very isolated. What should I do to ensure my career get a boost and I am treated equally at the workplace?
Ignored by colleagues? Here's why
The workplace is a competitive space where several people compete for a few resources. That triggers all what we dislike about the workplaces. The jealousy, politics and elbowing out the ones who seem to be potential competitors. Instead of wishing it away, it helps to remember that the same thing happens in every place where resources are less than the number of people who want it. Even if there is enough for everyone, there are always greedy people who want not just their share but take away from the others and get a bigger share of the pie for themselves.
How to deal with it
Shape the perceptions of your colleagues: You cannot control what the others think. But you can surely shape their perception by the way you behave. Treat your current stint as if you are a new hire in the organization. Participate actively in meetings and volunteer for the projects when there are opportunities. This coveys to everyone that you expect to be treated at par with everyone else because you are as good as anyone else.
Update your skills: People are living longer. The average career is going to last for 60-70 years. The average tenure in a job is close to 4.5 years. The half-life of most skills is five years. Technical skills start thinning out in 2-3 years. An absence of two and a half years may mean you have to update your skills and possibly learn new skills that have come in to the workplace while you were away.
Learning ability matters more than tenure: If you learn about the business, the customers and processes (whatever is relevant to your role) as if you have joined this organization for the first time, you will enjoy learning about things around you with a child-like curiosity. When you combine that ability to learn with the ability to work hard, you build a reputation of being someone to look out for. Such a reputation always attracts opportunities.
This is a fresh innings: When we think about out time in the organization in terms of the combined tenure we are likely to feel a sense of entitlement. That may set our expectations of how we feel entitled to be offered opportunities. Your colleagues have had extra time of 2.5 years to prove their worth. Your time starts now. Your colleagues may have got complacent having become used to competing without you in the race. Show them that you are back in the race.
Set up time with your manager to ask about what you need to catch up on and any skills you need to build. It is likely that some things may have happened in the business while you were away that you need to know. It is easy for people to forget you were not there. You are getting started once again after a gap. Be kind to yourself and give yourself time of a few months to find your old pace.
Visual summary
=======A version of this was printed by Times of India dated 9th Jan 2020 <read it here>