Just venting about work/personal matter. I took a family medical leave of absence from work as I’ve posted about my mom’s condition on here before. My boss texted me a couple weeks ago checking on me, and I also mentioned that if my mom remains “steady” that I plan on returning to work and not extending my leave beyond what I signed on for, as for now. Today, she texted me and said along the lines of “upon hearing you are returning next week (if still the case) you’ve been volunteered to be in person for this project next week”… it left a bad taste in my mouth. My mom has terminal cancer and they think just because I said I’d return after my agreed absence if she is “steady” that somehow everything is okay. It just took me back a bit.. I feel somewhat taken advantage of. Not sure if that’s the wrong word for it but it made me kind of upset that their first thought was to throw me into the mix without considering another colleague given my situation, and put me on the project the day of my return..

In general I think it's bad if your workplace is "volunteering you for" something, do they not ask you first? They just tell you that you have to do it? I think that when you said you were returning to work they assumed you'd be returning to your full role and responsibilities, so I don't think they were targeting you or trying to be insensitive per se. If you need to ease into things, totally understandable, you should communicate that. But regardless of the situation being assigned to something without asking would put me off, idk if that is the norm in other jobs.

@aurielle I had the same thought as well. And no, I wasn’t even asked unfortunately. I’m able to work from home which I do usually, and have been working from my moms to take care of her, so I was planning on continuing that. It felt like they assumed I could immediately return to do an in-person project. :/