Interview P03 | SYNTHETIC transcript for training | Topic: hybrid working and campus
Participant: administrator, professional services (pseudonym P03) | INT = interviewer

INT: Thanks for taking part. What does your working pattern look like now?
P03: I'm on campus three days and at home two. Our team agreed the pattern
     together, so we're all in on Tuesday, and then the other days vary.
INT: How did the team reach that agreement?
P03: Our manager asked us what we needed and we sorted out a rota. It took a
     couple of goes, but it works because everyone knows the Tuesday is fixed.
INT: What do the home days mean for you?
P03: Everything, honestly. I've got two children and my dad lives with us now.
     On a home day I can do the school run and still start at nine. On a
     campus day it's a scramble and I'm relying on my partner or a neighbour.
INT: How do you travel on the campus days?
P03: Two buses. On a good day it's forty minutes. On a bad day the first bus
     just doesn't turn up and the app says it's due for twenty minutes. I've
     started getting an earlier one just in case, which means leaving at seven.
INT: How does that feel?
P03: Tiring. The unreliability is worse than the length. If I knew it was
     fifty minutes every time, I could plan around that.
INT: What about working at home, are there downsides?
P03: Some. The line between work and home gets blurry. My kitchen is my office,
     so the work never quite goes away. And it can be lonely if the Teams chat
     is quiet. But I'd take that over losing the flexibility.
INT: And when you're on campus, how does the space work for your team?
P03: We've got a bank of desks we share, which is mostly fine. The issue is
     noise. Half of us are on calls with people who are at home, so it's all
     headsets and people talking over each other. I sometimes go home to
     concentrate, which is a bit backwards.
INT: Do you feel the arrangement is fair?
P03: For our team, yes, because we agreed it. But I know other offices where
     it's down to whoever shouts loudest. And students who drop in expect
     someone at the desk every day, so we've had to cover that between us.
INT: Is there anything you'd change?
P03: A quiet room we could use for calls would make a real difference. And
     I'd like the university to say clearly that flexible working is here to
     stay. At the moment it feels like it could be taken away any time.
INT: Why does that matter?
P03: Because I've built my family's week around it. If they said five days
     tomorrow, I genuinely don't know how we'd manage the childcare.
INT: Thank you. Is there anything else you'd like to say?
P03: Just that it's the trust that matters. Being trusted to get the work done
     wherever I am makes me want to do it well.
INT: Thanks very much.

[End of interview]
