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Asked by anon-257175 on 23 Jun 2020. This question was also asked by anon-257455, anon-258161.
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Steve Thackeray answered on 23 Jun 2020:
Good question! The lockdown that we have been under has meant that we have had to temporarily stop our fieldwork (taking measurements from boats) and lab work (analysing water samples). However, we have been very busy looking at how we can change the way we work, so that we can keep staff far enough apart, and make sure that we reduce the risks of transmitting the virus. We are nearly there now, and we are hoping to re-start our work very soon!
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Emma Markham answered on 24 Jun 2020:
This is a great question. I think it has affected everyone and we all have to work and live differently. luckily I do not work in a lab anymore, so I can work from a computer at home. Everyone takes a lot more time, as everyone is working from home and many people are parents and need to home-school their children as well. But, I think it might mean that work can be more flexible in the future, which will help a lot of families. Personally, I have found it a bit lonely, as I miss meeting with friends and people I work with, but hopefully it will get easier soon.
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Emma Thorpe answered on 24 Jun 2020:
Everyone has been affected by the pandemic in different ways, it has definitely been strange the last few months. We have still had to test environmental samples throughout to ensure water companies haven’t been polluting the rivers accidentally. As we can’t take the instruments home with us, we have to be in the lab. But there are fewer people working at once as we are working different days to normal and some managers are working from home. It has been odd seeing some people only 1-2 days per week, but lucky I get to see them in person at least for a few days compared to some people.
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Liam Herringshaw answered on 24 Jun 2020:
In terms of scientific research, the biggest impact has been on our PhD students, one of whom had just started a complex set of experiments studying how burrowing worms respond to different oxygen levels in the mud they live in. She had just finished setting up the experiments when lockdown kicked in, and she had to hurriedly shut everything down. Though she has been able to do plenty of stuff analysing existing data and writing up her findings at home, she really needs to get back in the lab to be able to complete her research. When that will happen remains to be seen…
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Jessica Gomez-Banderas answered on 24 Jun 2020:
For my PhD, the lab is essential and sadly without it I haven’t been able to do too much. The pandemic has pushed me back quite a few months as I haven’t been able to access the lab since March!
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Gareth Mason answered on 29 Jun 2020:
I have been working from home from the start, and have only been allowed to carry out specific site checks in specific places. Normally I would have spent all of spring and early summer outside doing surveys for raptors and grouse species which is some of my favourite work, so it’s been a shame to miss out on that. However, I am grateful to still be working even with the restrictions, and am still getting out more than others which I don’t take for granted.
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Andrew McDowall answered on 30 Jun 2020:
In my own labs distancing means that only 1/3 of us can work at a time. To reduce the effects of this on our work we’ve changed the way we work – we’ve created a shift system, so some work mornings and some afternoons, which means earlier starts and later finishes sadly. Analysis and writing up of results is done at home, rather than in the lab.
There have been some good things though – we’ve had to get better at planning and organising our experiments; we’ve had to look around the labs and clean up any clutter and free wasted space so that more of us can have come in to work; and we’ve had to work more closely with our colleagues (not in distance), looking after each other’s experiments when they can’t be there themselves. It also means we’ve time to join I’m a Scientist.
To keep in touch and support vulnerable colleagues in isolation we’ve had virtual lunches, dinner parties, quizzes, a virtual Easter-egg hunt, and, for when it all gets a bit much, virtual Cards-Against-Humanity.
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Rachel Meacock answered on 2 Jul 2020:
On the industry side, offices are closed and people are now working from home. I work in energy, and essential work spaces such as oil rigs and running on skeleton crews. Most non essential work such as construction and repairs are on hold unless it’s urgent (such as a burst pipe or oil leak on a rig). A huge part of the industry has been made redundant or furloughed though (I’m currently furloughed).
Working from home is definitely going to become a much bigger part of non lab and field based jobs in STEM fields. The energy industry in general will need time to recover, and it will take a while. Overall, the pandemic has accelerated a huge downturn in the oil and gas sector, and time will tell if it recovers quickly or at all.
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