My early experience as a working parent.
Today is Saturday morning, January 14, 2023. I just finished my first week of work after taking nearly 2 months off for parental leave. I felt so many emotions this week. I woke up that Monday morning, my first day back, feeling excited to return to the office. In the parking lot, after I arrived, I ran into one of my newer colleagues who I onboarded to the organization shortly before my leave began. She is the parent to 2 young children. During our walk into the office, she asked about my time away, and my family, and welcomed me back to work. It was a nice first conversation.
The rest of the day was filled with so many different emotions. I felt excitement for my return, gratitude for the people who had nice things to say, overwhelmed by the work that was in front of me, and sadness for having to spend the day away from my wife and child. I also felt insecure from the conversations that felt flat. In some of those interactions, there was barely an acknowledgment of seeing a face that had been missing from the 50-person team for nearly 2 months. That made me question the effort or lack thereof that I’ve made to connect with and build relationships with people prior to leaving. After an emotional roller-coaster of a Monday, I was happy to spend the next couple of days working from home.
