Life changing events can and do happen to anyone and everyone. Cancer strikes, babies are born, marriages break down, anxiety overwhelms, death happens and sexual assaults occur. When these things happen, support from the people you work is crucial and you know you’re in the right workplace when they rally around you spontaneously and welcome you back unquestioningly.
But no one talks about any of this openly. No one shares their experiences, is reassured by them or learns from them.
Which is why I’ve created Back to Work.
A series of inspiring, sometimes heart-wrenching talks from people whose life-changing events have shaped the way they work.
Why Back to Work After?
I’m Nicky Palamarczuk, Head of Social & Influence at VCCP and I’ve been back to work twice in the last three years. First after taking a year out to have a baby in 2016, then again after I got a surprise breast cancer diagnosis just five months after returning from maternity leave.
Returning to work after maternity leave was excruciating. I didn’t want to be a stay at home mum, but I was still full of postnatal hormones, insecurities and stripped of confidence.
Returning to work after breast cancer wasn’t remotely the same. I felt confident, strong and more able to cope with anything that was thrown at me. I’d just beaten breast cancer after all.
Which got me thinking. People go through life-changing events every day. How do they cope, adapt and successfully go back to work? So I decided to find these people and ask them to share their stories with others.
Please get in touch if you would like to share your experiences