Interview P05 | SYNTHETIC transcript for training | Topic: hybrid working and campus
Participant: laboratory technician (pseudonym P05) | INT = interviewer

INT: Could you tell me about your working week?
P05: I'm in five days a week. The kit doesn't run itself, and students need
     someone there when they're using the workshop. So hybrid doesn't really
     apply to me.
INT: How do you get in?
P05: I cycle. Twenty-five minutes along the canal. I actually enjoy it. It's
     my thinking time, and by the time I get in I've woken up properly.
INT: So the commute isn't a burden for you?
P05: Not at all. People go on about commuting like it's the worst thing in the
     world. I think a lot of it is habit. If you live close and pick your
     route, it's fine.
INT: How has the move to hybrid working affected your job?
P05: Honestly, I think it's been bad for the place. I'll be the odd one out
     here, I expect, but I'd have everyone back in, most days at least.
INT: What makes you say that?
P05: Because the building feels empty. On a Friday I can walk the whole floor
     and see three people. You used to pop into someone's office with a
     question. Now you send an email and wait two days for an answer.
INT: Does that affect the students?
P05: It does. The students need people around. When I started, I learned the
     job by watching someone who'd done it for twenty years. You can't mentor
     someone through a screen. You have to stand next to them at the bench.
INT: Do you feel the arrangement is fair?
P05: Not really, if I'm honest. The academics get to choose, and we don't. I'm
     not bitter about it, the job is the job. But when a problem comes up on a
     Friday afternoon, it's always the technicians who are left to sort it.
INT: Have you raised that with anyone?
P05: I mentioned it in a team meeting. People nodded, and then nothing changed.
INT: Are there any benefits of hybrid working that you've noticed?
P05: Parking's easier for the people who drive, I suppose. And the meetings
     are shorter online. I'll give it that.
INT: What about working from home, would you want that option?
P05: No. I'd go stir crazy. Some people say they get more done at home, and
     maybe they do, but I think it's mostly emails. Real work needs people in
     the same room.
INT: If you could change one thing, what would it be?
P05: Set proper in-person days for everyone and stick to them. If the rule was
     that everybody is in Tuesday to Thursday, the place would come back to life.
INT: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
P05: Only that people shouldn't assume everyone wants flexibility. Some of us
     like the routine.
INT: Thanks very much for your time.

[End of interview]
