Sad News

We received the sad news that one of our staff passed away. Her death was not expected; it was sudden and a shock to all of us.

With most staff still working from home due to COVID, I think it has been harder on most. Many will have friends and family to provide support at home but many live by themselves and are in isolation due to the pandemic. I think dealing with that grief may be harder in those circumstances. Everyone has been banding togehter, checking on wach other to make sure they are ok which has been great but there is no substitute for that face-to-face contact when you are in the office. Either way, the whole team has been impacted by this sudden loss of our collegue. She will be missed. Just this morning, I was walking into the office and as I walked past the parking space she would normally park in and I had to take a moment. When I got to my desk, I was reviewing my email and there were a few items of work we were planning for her to take on. Another sad moment.

With so much happening with the pandemic, constantly checking whether we have local cases, wondering whether additional lockdown rules will be put in place, as well as all the changes at work and waiting to hear whether your job may be impacted. There is so much uncertainty and fear. With the death of my collegue it all seems to be overwhelming at times. to top it off, it has been wet, cold and miserable for the past week or two. Its been a really sad and depressing time but I think it helps to try to focus on the positives:

• It's my birthday in a few days
• I fixed the returns machine
• We have been making some great progress with our workflow improvement project
• The Electronic Usage report built in our digital repository is working well and is not as labour intensive as I thought it would be
• Despite the chaos I think it will cause, I am really optimistic about the re-alignment work that we will be looking at later in the year

The work never stops. We will keep doing what we need to do but it feels more like a distraction from the sadness than the main event at the moment. It feels like this year has been hit after hit. I feel exhausted at the moment but it will pass and hopefully we will regain some routine again - the new normal.

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