News Archive

What's working like for you?

The coronavirus lockdown has changed the way we work individually, with our own teams and with other teams at the University. Whether we are working from home or are working on the campus, each of us is adapting in our own way to these changed circumstances. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we will share the experience of some of our colleagues.

Nicky Ransom is a Resources Supervisor with the Library Collections team. The team acquires information resources for the Library including print, e-resources, databases and licensing.

We asked Nicky how the lockdown had affected her work:

“I’d started this role in early March and was pleased to be in a Library based role again. I had just about a week and a couple of days before lockdown began so was able to meet nearly all my new colleagues in the Library. This was very helpful in getting to know their roles and how they fit into the department. I also felt very welcomed in a short space of time which was very helpful when it then came to working from home. Everyone has been easy to talk to and contact when needed, we have daily catch ups every morning and a coffee social once a week.

“It’s difficult to say how much working from home has affected me as I’m in a new job. I have been able to structure my day better as time has gone on, which might be getting used to the new role as much as working from home. I had worked the odd day from home before but not full time like this. It can be a bit isolating at times as I’m used to working in an office environment and you pick up a lot of things from the informal chats which don’t happen as often remotely. There are some things I enjoy about working from home and would like an element of this in the future but with most of the week based in the office.

“There was a period at the beginning of lockdown when some people were working from home and some weren’t, a situation which was tricky compared to all being in the office or all working from home. Though we’ll probably face a similar situation as we gradually return to campus, overall I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be able to learn to do the whole job then as, during lockdown, there are parts of the job I can't experience as we don't have access the physical stock. We have been dealing with many more requests for e-books than normal so the whole team has had to adjust to this change. A lot of publishers made their resources available for free but the team had to enable this access, which was a huge amount of work. I've been really impressed by how flexible the whole team has been in adjusting to this new situation and this gives us plenty to build on as we move back on campus.”

This is part of a series of articles on what new ways of working have been like for colleagues.