How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected UP Library staff members?

Posted on November 12, 2020

In the interest of reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection, the University of Pretoria’s (UP) executive management suspended all contact classes, staff members were requested to work from home and the UP Libraries closed their doors on Friday 20 March 2020. The Libraries continued to provide virtual assistance and services.

The UP Library’s Marketing & Quality Assurance Office launched two COVID surveys during the year: 20 – 30 April and 25 September – 10 October. The purpose of the survey was to monitor the impact COVID-19 had on staff members, personally and professionally.

The survey was distributed to all contract and permanent staff members and submissions were anonymous and voluntary. The first survey was completed by 110 staff members, while only 100 staff members completed the second survey. It should be noted that not everyone had access to computers or internet access.

The survey indicated that 87.3% of the library staff members had adapted to working remotely and attending meetings virtually, and this number increased to 88% in the second survey. Only 17.3% of the staff members who completed the survey indicated that the Department of Library services was not adequately prepared to switch to virtual assistance. Furthermore, 55.5% of staff members were working from home for the first time, while 20% indicated that they had been doing so before the pandemic,16.9% revealed that they could only do minimal work from home due to various reasons and 7.6% indicated that they could not work from home at all.  

The most common emotions revealed in the first survey were calm acceptance (50.9%), worried or anxious (39.1%) and frustration (31.8%). However, during the second survey the emotions had changed to calm acceptance (62%), optimistic (39%) and happy (25%), which indicated that people had become more optimistic over time.

Two sources of concern in both surveys were managing the demands of the lockdown and social distancing, and multi-tasking the responsibilities of work and home. In the second survey managers showed concern for managing the needs of their teams effectively and efficiently.

During the first survey 21.8% of staff members felt they were busier than ever before, with many virtual meetings and new queries, 51.8% experienced a different workload but were still quite busy, 22.7% felt they had less work with more free time on their hands and 3.6% reported that they had absolutely no work queries. In the second survey more people (40%) reported a busier workload.

In addition, 50.9% of staff members indicated flexible working hours, 21.8% reported longer hours due to more responsibilities and only 13.6% started and ended the day at the same time as before lockdown.

In terms of effort, 50% of staff members reported going beyond the call of duty to assist the UP community, 31.8% indicated that they were doing what was expected and 18.2% revealed they could do more but due to various factors they did not contribute much.

The biggest work-related challenges during lockdown were isolation from colleagues (38.2%) and a lack of data (36.4%). Interestingly, 42% of staff members are eager to return to their respective libraries, although 38% enjoy working remotely.

Library staff members offered advice on the following:

  • Clear and regular communication with teams;
  • Workload distribution – since some staff members put in the extra effort while others did not pull their weight;
  • Internal collaboration with other teams;
  • Time management, working from home and adapting to a stressful situation.

For some, life in lockdown delivered some surprising philosophical insights:

  • “Never just sit in your stressed state - use it as motivation to discover solutions and outcomes day by day.  Breathe.”
  • “Try to keep calm. Think before reacting. This is all new to us.”
  • “Live in the moment and the joys it provides.”

One thing is certain: everyone faced disorder on several fronts. Our private and professional lives changed dramatically in 2020 and we are not likely to forget this year…ever!

- Author Elsabé Olivier

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