We can get so accustomed to our working day’s that when we have to take a break, we can feel like a fish out of water.

Sometimes this will be due to wonderful circumstances, such as maternal or paternal leave, going traveling, a transition between jobs, or perhaps wanting to freelance.

Other times, it can be less appropriate. Through recuperating mind, body and financial distress via an auto accident attorney, coming back from a business failure, or perhaps dealing with personal issues you would rather keep private, coming back to work after a long leave of absence can be quite the worrying prospect.

However, there’s no reason as to why this should prove impossible. You likely have a stronger spirit than you know, and this means making more of an effort to try and better yourself, your approach, and your ability to enjoy work as you once used to. Overcoming your trials and tribulations can often lead you to becoming a better employee, or perhaps, one day, employer.

We would like to offer you the following advice to this end. We hope it helps:

GET INTO THE ROUTINE

It’s important to consider how your routine will develop once you set back into work. It’s not always the case that coming back to 9-5 work 5 days a day, or perhaps a different yet similarly intense schedule in other industries, is going to be felt as comfortably as you imagine. For example, if you’ve been healing from an injury, your days have likely been filled with family management, rest, physical therapy and perhaps counselling, or the progression of a court case. While you might have been working hard during that time, it’s unlikely you’ve been doing so in a similarly office-like capacity. This is where it can be important to get into the routine slowly. Start waking up at the exact same time each morning, as if you were attending work by a certain time. Get out of the house and go for a walk, perhaps with your dog. Try to make your day as productive as possible.

You might use this time to catch up one what you’ve missed in your home office. You might decide to research the new company that you’re hoping to attend. Getting into the routine can help you ease into your new responsibilities, if only to prepare your body for what comes next. Over time you will get used to this regardless, but hitting the ground running can be a great means of moving forward.

ASK FOR A TOUR

If you can, asking for a tour of the location (should you be attending a new job) can help you gain familiarity with the place. You might be able to meet a couple of people and figure out where all the smaller utilities are. Most firms will be happy to do this with you for ten or twenty minutes if you’re to be the new hire.

This can also help you become familiar with the layout and potential office culture of your new workplace, giving you a vague sense of comfort when you come back again to work for good. Most firms, if they know that your leave of absence was due to an injury or some other factor, will be quite happy to cater to this provided you explain it honestly and politely. To us, that sounds like a great idea.

NETWORKING

Coming back to work after a leave of absence can be a wonderful thing, because it also gives you another ample opportunity to network and start from scratch. If returning to your old job, it could be that new hires are there for you to network with, or that due to realizing how fickle employment can be, that you network with others in your industry, such as at business events, in order to get your name out there and become more of a familiar face. You never know just how you might rely on this in the long term, especially when needing to call on a favor or two.

FIGURE OUT YOUR PRIORITIES

One of the silver linings of taking time off work is how it forces you to once again figure out your priorities. It can be a breath of fresh air, helping you take a simple step backwards to see the overall picture of how your career might be panning out, not just how it feels. This way, you might decide to enact efforts to get to a particular point. Perhaps you certainly wish to gain a promotion by a certain date. Perhaps you’re inclined to start your own project in your free time, now that you’ve realized your worth. Considering your priorities, and we mean really considering them, over weeks of deliberation, can help you come back to work with renewed purpose. When you do this and manage to avoid simply attending work and coming back home in a blind loop, you can begin to feel much more motivation and satisfaction at your work, because we all need to move towards something in order to feel comfortable in our approach.

GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK

It could be that in your efforts to return to your career with the best momentum possible, you are ignoring your needs. Continue physical therapy if you need it, for example. If you need extra concessions such as disability access, or to make yourself known to first aid staff, do that as well. On top of that, don’t pile all the work on at once by accepting voluntary extra loads. Give yourself a break. Let yourself settle in and get comfortable. If you can do that, your return to work will be sustainable, healthy, and worthwhile. Over time, that added load might be preferable, but don’t be afraid to ease in now, and don’t chastise yourself if you make a mistake here or there. So long as you’re trying more each day, you will be developing well.

With this advice, we hope that coming back to work after a long leave of absence is not only doable, but successful.