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Some areas of our ways of working can be improved. AdvanceHE recently carried out a consultation, leading to the report “Understanding Ways of Working“. It is freely available for you to read, and AdvanceHE will present it at the October School General Meeting. The report gives a clear overview of where we can improve as a School (as well as data to support changes at the University level). Thank you all for your input!
The next step is, clearly, to actually make things better. The report has some recommendations, and the School already had several other ideas. They are summarised on this padlet. Have a look. Do you feel these actions would be useful? Would you change or add any? Please add your take, so we end up with an concrete action plan that improves, nay perfects, our ways of working together!
The following is posted on behalf of an anonymous member of the School community.
Considering it affects all our colleagues with ovaries (and their families too), I wanted to share a few pointers about peri-menopause.
I was ignorant. Very ignorant.
I thought menopause happens around age 60. In fact, the average is 51.
But most women will suffer symptoms from age 41-45, many already at 38-40.
I thought the symptoms would be the popular “hot flushes”. But those arrive years later (or not at all), the first symptoms could be pain in your joints, shortness of breath, dry eyes or dozens of others (some of us thought we had long covid…)
I thought doctors would prescribe hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) for it, in many cases.
However, many doctors have no training in it, there is a shortage of HRT, and some will tell you that “most women will pass through menopause without medical help”.
That’s accurate; not because medical support is not important, but because HRT was not prescribed much in the past…
You may have to ask around to find a doctor who can inform you about HRT.
If you and your doctor decide for it, it’s free with the NHS.
I thought menopause was just a few weeks of hot flushes, and then ageing continues as usual.
Instead, perimenopause can last from a year to 12 years (about 4 or 5 years seems to be common).
While the symptoms are bad enough, the worst might come after ten or twenty years, particularly if hormonal replacement therapy is not used.
It can set the stage for osteoporosis (and hence bone fractures), bladder infections, incontinence and even a higher risk of some diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
It can be particularly stressful for people with a history of mental health problems, possibly contributing to a peak in suicides in women around 50-54.
But at the same time, hormonal replacement therapy is associated with an increase in breast cancer and stroke risk, depending on family history. The hammer and the anvil. Welcome to middle age.
As usual, read the statistics carefully and rely on medical sources (NHS, EU EMA, reviews from The Lancet) and medical professionals, but well-written books can provide a useful introduction.
I would recommend reading at least one book by a doctor having ovaries and peri or post-menopausal.
I thought that if the symptoms were so bad, surely friends would have told me about it, but it’s not a jolly topic to discuss. And there is a lot of stigma. Ask around politely, and people may be kind enough to share.
Also, women from your mother’s generation may not have been informed enough to connect the dots with all the symptoms that appear sometimes years after their periods stop.
I thought one could wait to see if the symptoms go away, and if not, use hormonal replacement therapy, but there is a window of opportunity in peri-menopause to start it, so do inform yourself in advance.
Hope you will find this information useful now or in the future. Please note that any medical treatment (or herbal extracts containing human-analogue hormones) incurs risks that you will have to evaluate in consultation with your medical practitioners.
Ah! The thrill of embarking on a new adventure! Whether it’s hopping on a plane to a foreign land, or starting out as a new student or staff member at the University of Edinburgh – the excitement and nervousness are almost indistinguishable. During a recent two-week holiday to Croatia, I came to realise that there are more similarities between these journeys than you might think. Here are some of the parallels I drew while travelling alone in an unknown country.
Navigating the unknown
Arriving in a new country is scary. Not knowing how to get from A to B can be really daunting. However, taking a leap of faith and stepping out into the cobbled back streets of Zadar old town, I realised that discovering new places can also be exciting. I started to like the feeling of being lost and discovered some amazing sights: the sea organ; roman ruins; and the best fried sardines EVER! As I explored this unknown city, I realised that this is how it must feel to be a new student or staff member turning up at Appleton Tower or the Informatics Forum for the very first time. Getting lost at university is inevitable; but it is something to embrace, not fear. Trying to find Lecture Hall AT_ M2, an obscure meeting room or a computer lab in a maze-like university campus provides you with opportunities to stumble across hidden gems… like the NASA Valkyrie interactive experience installed at Bayes Centre NASA Valkyrie interactive experience installed at Edinburgh Centre for Robotics in the Bayes Centre, and the mindfulness Labyrinth in the north-west corner of George Square Gardens.
Making Friends
As a single traveller, you’re thrown into situations where you are forced to make friends with complete strangers. The same is true of university life. Attending your first cohort event, lecture or society as a new student is likely to be nerve-wracking. Trying to meet new people and form connections can be difficult and tiring. It’s certainly how I felt at times during my holiday. But be brave – try not to let your nerves get the better of you. Putting yourself ‘out there’ and speaking to people gets easier the more you do it. And it’s also an essential part of being at university. University isn’t just about attending lectures and tutorials: it also about getting to know your peers, academics, and professional services staff to create a lasting support network that is vital to your success and enjoyment as you embark on a new chapter in your academic journey.
Language and Culture
Travelling to a foreign country often means grappling with a new language. Suddenly ‘cold’ becomes ‘baltic’ and ‘sandwich’ becomes ‘piece’. In the School of Informatics, it’s not only human language we need to wrap our heads around – we also need to get to grips with computer language. When I started at the School of Informatics I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the acronyms and systems: Haskell, Java, Theon, and DICE. I didn’t just feel like foreigner – I felt as if I’d landed on another planet! However, as time has gone on, I have found myself to be at home here and that the School of Informatics is actually “pure dead brilliant”. Academics have taken the time to explain to me with enthusiasm and patience the wonderful research that is taking place, right here, under my nose. What I enjoy so much about being part of a world-leading research community is the rich cultural diversity of staff and students it attracts. Few other Schools can boast the representation of over 100 countries. As someone who loves travelling, this aspect of the school really excites me.
Values
Some of us are new to the School of Informatics and are just starting out on their journeys. Others have been part of the fabric of the school for a long time. However, whether we are embarking on or continuing our travels, what I find reassuring is that the People and Culture Committee has worked hard to create and establish a set of Values that can guide us all. So, no matter what our background, each one of us feels welcomed, respected, and appreciated for the extraordinary and invaluable contribution we make to the Informatics community. No matter what challenges you face, I know that you will find these values in everyone and everywhere you look: Civility, Collaboration, Curiosity, Integrity, and Humility.
Why do some people care about pronouns? What’s the fuss? Over nothing?
All good questions. You can refer to me as Jonathan, him, him over there, that guy in IGS, the tall one, him and that makes sense because I look like what people think a guy should look like. I like to wear a spikey rainbow ear stud I got at Belfast City airport Claire’s Accessories (classy!) and wear a Progress Pride flag lanyard (hands up who knows what that’s all about) but generally my attire is your boring jeans and shirt/t-shirt. I’m wearing blue today. It’s probably easy to get my gender right from a glance.
What if you didn’t know me, you saw me down the corridor, with my back to you, my hair was long, I had bracelets on my wrists, wearing pink. Do you have unconscious bias, built into you from birth, that girls wear pink and have long hair? Most of us do, growing up in countries which to this day sell pink for girls and blue for boys, where gender reveal parties provide one of these two colours to announce to your audience the genitalia on the scan. The thing is, we know better, especially working in a higher education institution where people feel more confident that they can experiment with who they are, find out about themselves, discover. People more and more are discovering that the thoughts they had from a young age, about not fitting into the body with the genitalia that everyone assumed, doesn’t mean they have to live the rest of their life as what modern day ‘Western’ society tells them they’re supposed to be.
A widely respected body, the World Health Organisation has reviewed the research and concluded that trans people exist, that it’s not a mental health condition as was once believed, that people should be supported to transition and live their lives how they understand themselves to be. Their pronouns will change, they may look different to how you first met them; for them they will look how they have always felt they should look. It’s about respecting one another. We must use those new pronouns, use their new name, ask how they are and hope we can be good enough for them to want to still give us their time, not be feared that we’ll use their old name, their old pronouns. You will make mistakes. Apologise as soon as you realise. Try not to make the same mistake again. If you don’t do it well enough they won’t want to give you another chance. They won’t want to work with you.
A male police officer made a mistake about my sexuality and I will always remember it. He asked me about my wife, after I had reported a crime. My husband was out and I was on my own. He was in my home with another male police officer. It wasn’t long ago. I was probably 40. Why is my age relevant? I have built up a reasonable amount of self-confidence by now to be able to correct him. It was the funniest thing, how red he went, apologising profusely. His fellow police officer was amused at his colleague’s error. You can imagine they talked about it later. At one point I wouldn’t have corrected him. It might happen again, I will remember and I will always expect that possibility from every police officer in the future.
If people assume they know my sexuality, it can be incredibly uncomfortable for both of us when they realise their mistake. Maybe you’ve experienced that yourself. Maybe you’ve had a non-traditional hairstyle for your gender. At some point you’ll have chosen your outfit to look masculine – I have – or to look how a woman is expected to look. It’s similarly uncomfortable every day someone assumes they know another person’s gender and they’re wrong. Every day. For students and staff in Informatics. Pronouns matter to them. Using their correct pronouns matters to their friends. It’s not a fuss over nothing. It’s people’s lives, their self-confidence, their feelings, whether they feel comfortable at this University, in the classroom or the workplace, and that should matter to us all.
