Your options moving forward, at least here in the US, are to return to work or take an unpaid medical leave of absence. The third option, if you qualify for it, is to go through partner resources and basically apply for continued CAT pay due to circumstances outside of your control. With that option, there’s no guarantee of anything. To address your manager hiring new employees, in my region every store is hiring upwards of 4-6 new partners who would be able to lessen the load on existing employees and to fill in positions of people who are taking the leave of absence or separating from the company altogether. Your decision shouldn’t affect the relationship between your manager and yourself, but their professionalism and ability to separate personal and professional decisions is within their own control.

From my understanding, you’re supposed to be able to apply for a 30 day leave of absence. After that, you have to decide if you want to continue working at Starbucks or not