Arlene Motherwell, a secretarial administrator within our central admin team, usually based at Renfrewshire House. Arlene tells us how she had to adapt quickly to working in a new service, home working and the challenges she overcame
When the first lockdown was implemented back in March, our Admin team had to immediately move to working from home as Renfrewshire House had to close. Within a few days, like many I had a working set up at my kitchen table, which was difficult with other family members working from home too.
Early in the pandemic I was relocated to Dykebar Hospital, to support a newly created service, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) hub. The hub ensured our frontline services and partners like Care at Home, district nursing, care homes, hospices, hospital wards and carers were able to access their much needed supplies of PPE.
During the summer months, I returned to agile working, between home working and office based, offering admin support for our services as they adapted to the changes the pandemic brought to our organisation. This included the flu vaccination roll out at St Mirren Park; while it was challenging and often freezing, it allowed me to do what I enjoy most about my job, working with colleagues as a team and chatting to members of the public to help them feel supported and at ease if they had any concerns.
For the past few months I have been assisting our frontline staff to book their COVID-19 vaccinations as well as day to day admin duties. I am also the HSCPs Healthy Working Lives administrator. Encouraging staff to stay active and healthy has been a challenge when many physical exercise classes and meetings were unable to operate as normal. Many classes have moved to online and I have really enjoyed being able to not only promote but participate in these classes for our staff. It has offered an opportunity for staff to look after their own wellbeing during an exceptionally challenging year.
There have been a few benefits to our new ways of working. I feel I have a better sense of work-life balance (able to bring in my washing when it starts raining) and I have really enjoyed time spent with my family and dog, exploring my local area on our frequent walks. I am more confident in using digital technology to engage and support the services I work with.
My hopes for the future are that we can safely see friends, family and colleagues again and that we continue to keep healthy, working closely to support our local communities.
Sarah Lavers, Chief Finance Officer added " Since I took over the responsibility of Admin earlier this year, I have been amazed at how resilient the team have been when asked to take on quite different roles and how they have been powering away in the background to ensure all our frontline services are supported - these are the unsung heroes we often don't have sight of".
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