Going back to a previous employer

martyp

tobyjug wrote: »

and the member of staff who was blocking his career development has left.
.

Same in my case - the person who was holding me back before has now gone so I considered I'd have better chance of progressing now.

piggeh

Well, it sounds like it's what you want to do, you shouldnt let a few doubts get in your way - in my experience they don't really exist anyway, although expect a few jibes asking for the presents back!

mymatebob

As you will have seen it is not that uncommon so go for it.

Offer to take people out for drinks if you feel that you must, just to help smooth things over, but it is not obligatory.

At a place I worked on girl sent round an email saying how she was leaving and going off at the end off the month to have a gap year doing voluntary work for a charity she was involved with then she was going to uni to retrain.
Apart from the general sigh of relief that she was going, she was not a well liked person by her colleagues, everyone wished her well.

Less than a week later another email arrived saying that she was no longer going, but had been offered a job to head up a new team!

If people didn't like her before they positively hated her now as the job had not been advertised just "created" by the head of that department.
It also confirmed suspicions that there had been some hanky panky going on between her and said department head. She is still there, still useless and still earning big money.

None of the above is meant to reflect on you in anyway, just a little anecdote.

Go back enjoy yourself and have fun in your new/old job

table-top_joe

A job is a job. It pays the bills.

jo1967

Go back - I did it (twice actually!! Grass isnt greener lol!) and its fine. I wont move again, I like my job (been back 4 years now) & the people so will stay put - plus my boss now has my soul in a jar on his shelf !!!!!

princessscotland

martyp

definitely give it a shot - I left my boss for a year to try my hand at what I thought at the time was a bigger, better firm. They put me in a grey office by myself and I had one client for a year. The hours were horrendous and I had nothing to say to my colleaguesl. Once my soul was truly broken, I thought to myself I would quit this line of work forever and there was no way my old boss would take me back. I called him one day and the deal was done over lunch the following day.

That was over a year ago and I've never looked back. I'm off the antidepressants I went on when I was at the grey box, I'm back working in a friendly atmosphere with people I like (never underestimate the importance of that) and although I've had a few comments and I know people whispered a bit when I got back, you just have to hold your head up high. Gossip is generally tomorrow's chip shop wrappers, easily forgotten. I couldn't be happier work-wise now.

Just do it! :j So many people need to go away to come back as you can see from the other posts.

sunrise27_2

I know two people who have done this
one of them my hubby ( he went back to a less stressful and lower paid position ) but he's far happier and its the best thing he's done
my friend did the same , was worried about going back for the same reasons as you but again is much happier and is glad she did it
you don't know until you try these things do you and at least you won't be sitting there thinking 'what if ? '

White_Boots

There was a girl in my office who left a couple of years ago, hated her new job and was back within a couple of months. She got a few jokey comments about the fact that we had given her a leaving present but everyone welcomed her back. I think generally people are pretty sympathetic if a new job doesn't work out.

becca2008

i did it! i left my job to go to a different company... hated it... and was back at my old desk within 2 weeks of leaving! i was away for such a short amount of time that it's still counted as continuous employment!

my old (and current) boss called me after a really rotten day at my new job and asked if i wanted to go back because she didn't want to start interviews without making sure i didn't want my old job... so i went back. i had to put up with about 5 minutes of teasing from my colleagues - mostly about the fact that i hadn't even spent my leaving gift yet (i got vouchers). i went into work the following week and thanked everyone for the new coat they'd bought me!

martyp

princessscotland wrote: »

They put me in a grey office by myself and I had one client for a year.

Funnily enough that's pretty much my case too. I left a big company where the job was boring and monotonous but I worked with lots of great people in a nice environment in a big building. I moved to a much smaller company and my office was next to a factory with no natural light, in an office with one person who was really boring and the environment was really depressing. I felt really down there just before Christmas when I was the only one making any effort with Christmas decorations and no Christmas party etc and a £1000 Christmas bonus I had been promised was actually not much more than £10! I was on my own in that miserable little dark office as my colleague went on holiday. At my previous place we had fun putting up loads of decorations, christmas parties and even little quizzes etc. and it was very sociable. Really made me think...
The only reason I left was for a more interesting job role, slightly less hours and more money.
What's a bit annoying now is if I go back to my old job, I'd be on a contract and over £1k less a year than I was on before I left (may improve though).