Returning to work after your maternity leave can be quite a daunting process, particularly if you had opted to take the full year off. You can easily feel that after being at home with a baby for a year that your world is so different now it will be impossible to blend back in to the working environment and juggle your work life balance again.
My advice would be to ensure that you try to visit your office whilst on maternity leave and make the effort to keep in touch with work colleagues through social media whilst you are away. This means that you won’t feel so out of the loop when you return to work.
On your first day back at work you may feel like the new girl again and things may feel a little odd but just be patient as you’re bound to feel emotional about leaving your child to return to work and there has probably been changes made in your office that seem unfamiliar to you.
Make an effort to talk to people and ask them about what’s new with them, arrange a get together one of the evenings after work so that you can reconnect with your colleagues on a social level too.