Prior context he was feral and outside before, I fed and socialized him for 9 months and we brought him inside a bit over a week ago (10 days). He's been adjusting slowly to indoors and is now to the point where he'll only start crying once or twice at night but seems to have separation anxiety from me and I wonder if maybe that's part of it but I don't know.
Anyway, he figured out the litterbox pretty fast, first he was peeing on a cat bed but after I took it away he went straight to the litterbox and had no more issues. He would go several times throughout the day and he's a little weird, he would make eye contact with me the entire time and then spend a very long time burying it, but whatever. A few days ago I started having to leave for 12 hours each day to work, it's a short term thing so I'll be done with it after tomorrow, and family is home with him all day, but he apparently has not been using the litterbox at all until i get home. 12 hours of no going potty seems a little excessive to me and it seems to be directly because of me, because as soon as I get home he'll meow and rub on me, and then go.
Nobody has seen him go when I'm not home, and I scoop after every single time he goes and leave the litter perfectly flat and level so I can always tell when he's dug in it and I need to check again. Is that normal? My best guess is that he's still nervous about being in here and is comforted by me but it's not like he hides all day, he comes out to hang out by himself or with my family, so it doesn't seem like he should need to wait specifically for me. Also, how does my presence make pooping any less scary, he thinks I'm gonna protect him while he goes? My mom told me an hour ago that he finally did go without me, but this is the first time in 10 entire days that he hasn't just held it until I'm there.