Silence at the Service Desks

Mariëlle van Duinen, Janneke Luyten-Koenraadt and Aletta Riezebos

Mariëlle van Duinen, Janneke Luyten-Koenraadt and Aletta Riezebos work in the Service Desks and Services department, where coronavirus has suddenly transformed their day-to-day work. They explain what life’s been like for them in recent weeks.

The Service Desks are usually the central hubs in a faculty or building, where students, staff and visitors can come with all kinds of questions. Together with their colleagues in Services and elsewhere, the Service Desks are resolving problems as quickly as possible, ensuring everyone can get back to work, free of worry. Currently, however, the buildings are virtually empty and silence prevails at the Service Desks. But, as Services Manager Mariëlle van Duinen explains, things are slightly different behind the scenes. “It started as early as February, when we were hanging up posters about washing hands and distributing hand sanitiser dispensers, and then we had to implement all of the changes, such as new opening hours, the closure of certain locations and registration at the entrances,” says Mariëlle.

Hectic These weeks proved very hectic, because all of the measures and changes have a knock-on effect that requires further action. Changing the location opening hours from 20:00 to 18:00, for example, has an impact on the Service Desk staff rota, on cleaning and security and requires adjustments to the access passes. Besides that, some other work is continuing as normal. For example, Logistics & Environment are still delivering gases, chemicals and laboratory supplies for ongoing research. For new research projects, such as work on the development of ventilators, there have been deliveries of oxygen cylinders and customised pressure regulators, often after regular working hours.

Janneke Luyten-Koenraadt coordinates the Service Desks. “At the start, there were some questions to which we still had no answers. This made us realise how important it was to get new information to all of the Service Desks and Services teams immediately.” A WhatsApp group was soon set up to share the latest updates and enable people to ask any questions. “That turned out to be a great initiative, because questions from one faculty can be highly relevant for another faculty, even if they have not been asked the question themselves.”

Digital helpdesk The rotas and working hours also had to be adjusted in line with the different opening hours in many buildings. The faculties of Architecture and the Built Environment and TPM are now closed and their Service Desk staff are working from home. This means that the Service Desk is now primarily a digital helpdesk. Janneke: “Colleagues working from home ensure that the questions are answered or forwarded to the right place. They’re also picking up any questions that have remained unanswered at other Service Desks on campus – it’s great to see such flexibility.”

The Services staff also have to respond to the new measures, which is changing their day-to-day work. Aletta Riezebos is a member of Services staff at TPM and has had some quite extraordinary experiences. “Normally, we work on all kinds of different jobs, including educational support and dealing with questions from staff. As the people began to disappear from the building, we emptied the fridges and waste bins. That was quite a strange feeling. We also worked hard to implement all of the changes to opening times in the access system for passes.”

“Will you please make sure you give my plants the care they need?”

Preparing for the new situation Now that the initial rush has passed, there’s time for other work. This includes jobs that can benefit from the building not being so occupied, and activities to support the new way of working at a distance of 1.5 m from each other. Periodic cleaning is being done and contact surfaces are being cleaned more frequently, furniture stock-takes are being conducted and support provided in digital education. Mariëlle: “After this hectic start, we’re focusing on properly organising the work in the new situation and making plans for the next phase when more staff and students will start coming to campus again.” This will require a lot of focus and coordination in the period ahead. Until then, the Service Desks and Services will continue to be available and on hand. In the last week, the most remarkable question Aletta received was this: “Will you please make sure you give my plants the care they need?”