Work bits and pieces

It’s been topsy-turvy times at the OU this year. Our VC of three years, Peter Horrocks (formerly of the BBC) resigned in April following a vote of no confidence (Guardian: OU Vice-chancellor resigns after staff revolt). Professor Mary Kellett has subsequently stepped in as Acting VC until a new VC is appointed. Mary seems like a good egg, but it’s not yet clear whether the sweeping changes (aka 'reprioritising') that Horrocks announced will be carried through (Guardian: Open University jobs at risk in £100m 'root and branch' overhaul).

Closer to my own unit, the lovely Guy Mallison, the OU’s Director of Strategy, left in May after eight years at the OU to take up the headship of a new university venture. (Eight years isn't all that long in OU terms - I sat next to a woman of around my own age at a meeting the other day and she shared that she's been at the OU 29 years, and that isn't especially unusual).

My colleague and friend Matthew carried through his pledge to retire at 60 by leaving the OU at the end of July, shortly after celebrating his 60th birthday the previous month. His departure is definitely a blow on both a personal and professional level, the latter as Returns team have relied heavily on Matt’s helpfulness and technical expertise since he joined the team. A large group of us from the office went out for lunch at the Cross Keys in Woolstone – pictures below – and another group of assorted OU people came to an evening do at the MK Biergarten at Wolverton Park (convenient for me!), a favourite haunt of Matt’s – he had managed to arrange to book the place out for the evening and for pizzas to be delivered from nearby local pizzeria Murati’s.

Me (on Matt's right) appearing to be conversing with my plate

A couple of us had been suspicious beforehand about Murati's, given that their menu appears to offer the option of chips as a pizza topping. But in the event they were nice. Judith reckoned that they did the best gluten-free pizza she'd had, which I'm sure is high praise though God knows what goes into a gluten-free pizza crust.

As of August, I’m officially seconded to a new role at the OU. Two new fixed-term posts have been funded on the Returns team to support the HESA Data Futures project. One of these is a full-time technical lead on the project, which my colleague Chris successfully applied for; the other is a new Senior Manager (Returns), which is the one I’ve taken on – the idea is that 50% of my time will be spent on being the business lead on Data Futures and the other 50% taking over the management of some of the statutory returns to relieve my overstretched manager. It's fair to say that in practical terms I haven't noticed too much difference yet, as the appointment coincided with the hotting up of HESA return season and neither Chris' nor my secondments has backfill as yet.

To coincide with World Mental Health Day on 10 October, the OU put on a Staff Wellbeing Day involving a number of taster events. This included an ‘Origami for beginners’ session, which I signed up to thinking it might be a bit of a laugh. The session was led by Anh Huntington, a Senior Project Manager in LTI and evidently an origami enthusiast. It was actually lovely, and fully booked out – those of us who attended got to make a swan (my effort pictured) and attempt to make origami stars (not so successful – have to have another go at those). Events I didn’t sign up for included:

• an anxiety and depression ‘workshop’ run by the Milton Keynes IAPT service: having been a user of the IAPT service (though in Berkshire, not in MK) I’m a bit ambivalent about their offering, though I do think there’s something to be said for a spot of CBT;
• Manga drawing for beginners;
• A session entitled ‘Why not relax with a massage?’ – being at work doesn’t tend to put me in a very massage-y frame of mind.

Disappointing that the Online Desktop Yoga got canceled. Not sure if that meant actually doing yoga on top of your desk.