So I’ve been in management for a while, came on board to a company in a supervisory role, 3 years down the road, a management position opened up at one of our sister sites and I reluctantly applied after my boss and a few other coworkers told me I would do great and should give it a shot. I went in and got the role as a department manager. Now a few months in, my old boss transferred to another location, and his replacement which was my direct manager at the time in this company reached out and asked me to come back as his manager for A. More money, and B. A better schedule.

A few of the other colleagues had interviewed for this position, and were deemed unfit by both our corporate and local leadership, which is why my old boss reached out to me. I found this out after asking him how their interviews went because I have a good relationship with him. I went in for an interview and ended up being selected but ended up finding out from someone that one of the employees who I considered a friend is extremely upset over this situation since he had applied for it to and wasn’t selected. He even went as far as telling HR that he would be leaving because he thought it was BS that I was brought back after leaving for another position just a few months ago. I can’t help but feel bad about this. How should I approach this situation when I set foot in the office again?