Participant: Jill

Interview conducted: 20th October 2020

Researcher How are you today?

Participant Good thanks. You?
Researcher Do you consent to this interview?
Participant Yes I do.
Researcher I’m going to ask you a few questions about your job, can you tell me a little
bit about what work means to you?
Participant Well…so what work means to me. I suppose the basics - money. So that I can
afford food on the table and a roof over my head. So basically for my basic
needs at this stage. Umm but with reference to the position that I’m in now I
was working in a nursery setting, which was with children. Umm due to a
career that I wanted to pursue, and then realised later on that that wasn’t the
career that I wanted to continue with so I had a career change and I am now
currently working in a more adult environment which is where…I would like to
end up.
Researcher You mentioned a career change, what sort of prompted that career change?
Participant [Long breath] Uhh, well initially I wanted to be a child psychologist. And then I
decided that umm, when I was working in the nurseries that actually, it would
be a better fit for me to go into organisations and become a business
psychologist. Umm and that’s when I decided that I need to make a change
with regards to studying and, the environment that I was in at the time wasn’t
suitable for working with adults [chuckle] in organisations.
Researcher So you’ve mentioned psychology, is it important for you to make a career in
one of the offshoots or is it an interest you would like to involve?
Participant To be honest it’s always been an interest for me, umm so for a year or two
before I actually started studying psychology I’d been thinking about it but at
that stage I was dead set against doing child psychology. Umm and I think its
goes back to my father – he is a minister of religion and he’s, I’ve obviously
seen him counselling. Well I haven’t actually been part of the counselling but I
know he did counselling like for families and that kind of thing so I’ve always
had that built in me that I wanted to help people and that’s why I decided that
psychology would be the best route for me to go. But I wasn’t exactly
interested in the counselling side of it, if that makes sense.
Researcher What is your job now? Can you go into a bit more detail about that?
Participant Well at the moment it doesn’t have anything to do with psychology, umm I’m
basically just doing online packing for an online store. Umm so we just send
out speciality goods. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.
Researcher Going into a bit more detail about that, who do you report to? And is there
anyone that reports to you?
Participant Umm it’s a small company so there’s the two directors and they’re on the
floor at all times so I’ve always got them to go to if I need any, if I need any
help or assistance. Umm there is an online manager but he wouldn’t really be
the person that would tell me what to do, umm it would be more the
directors saying where they want me on the day that I was working and what I
was doing so whether it was…sorting out the warehouse the other day that I
was doing for a new container that was arriving of stock or packing online. So
it just depends, there’s times when they want me to help out on the front of
shop…because it’s like two different companies but the same, umm so it’s got
the front of store where people come in and then there’s the online and so
we send out online to all of the UK and Europe.
Researcher Can you take me through a typical day, what sort of activities do you
perform?
Participant Well because I was brought in as an online packer, I would come in at 10 in
the morning – that’s my start time – and umm the manager, the online
manager would then print all the online forms, the orders that have come
through all the various websites that we have, and then we’d have to pick the
parcels and then we’d pack them and then they’d get dispatched. That’s

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 basically all I do – just pick and pack the parcels from the orders that have
come in.
Researcher What do you like most about your role?
Participant I enjoy the adult interaction, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing, umm [pause] I
suppose there’s not much to the job, its… in a way it’s not really fulfilling, like
as in psychology would probably be more fulfilling umm it’s just really a
means to an end at this stage, part time working, while I’m studying.
Researcher What do you like least about your job?
Participant Well, I suppose it is quite a high pressured job, because, I mean you can get
so many orders that you need to try and get out all in a day. Umm I think the
most that I’ve got out is like 109 parcels all in one day. And you’re literally
standing on your feet from 10 o’clock till 6 o’clock in the evening. There’s no
in-between, you are either picking or you’re packing and you’re just standing
around all day, and it’s tiring, it’s really tiring. Physically tiring.
Researcher So how do you cope with the physical drain of your work?
Participant Umm…it’s easy to handle because you’re so busy that you can start at 10 and
then you can look and you feel that you’ve looked 5 minutes later at the clock
and it’s like 2 in the afternoon. So you don’t actually, because you’re so busy
you don’t actually realise how fast the day is going, so there’s no really time to
think oh my gosh I need to have lunch, I need to have a drink of water, I need
to sit down, you’re just on the go all the time. So, and that aspect I suppose I
only really relax when I get home, or when I get on the bus to go home. That’s
when I actually like sit down, for once, and ah just try and ease the muscles.
Researcher So we’ve danced around this a little, what is your motivation for doing this
particular job?
Participant Like I said, it’s really a means to an end at this stage. Its…it brings in the
money to help me get through my studies because I am doing full time studies
at the moment in the career that I have chosen…to pursue so…really, and it’s
like I said its adult interaction as opposed to when I was with children for 10
hours of the day. Umm, I mean in a way you can almost bring in what I’m
studying into the workplace, I can see when people are like under pressure,
you can see when there’s issues and in my mind with me studying psychology
I’m always thinking like ‘ooh that person could be stressed’ umm. Yeah, I
think, even though I’m not doing anything in psychology at the moment with
my current job I can still bring what I am learning into the position, I couldn’t
really do that in child setting.
Researcher You’ve mentioned being a full time student. While you’re doing your studies,
could you see yourself doing a/another part time job?
Participant So I’ve, I could see myself doing a part time job in psychology, and to be quite
honest with you I could have kicked myself, umm, when I had, when I was
planning on being a child psychologist or studying towards that I was busy
looking at other positions because I was previously in this job that I am right
now and I was leaving that because I wanted to get the experience with the
children, but when I was looking at jobs and applying I put my CV up onto one
of those online CV places and after I’d accepted the nursery work I actually got
a phone call from one of the agents, or recruitment agents, and she said to me
that she’s got a psychology with disabilities and she just needs someone to
just like write up the reports for her and things like that on a part time basis
and I’d said no, because that wasn’t where I wanted to go because she was in
mental health. And I obviously could have kicked myself because I could have
got experience in that sense but at the time it wasn’t my focus, the children
were my focus. So I suppose that if I could come across a part time work in
organisational psychology then I would probably go for it, because it would be
more in line with what I want to do and yeah, get to learn more. I suppose
learn more on the job than actually studying.
Researcher Is there anything else you’d like to add or anything you think is pertinent to
your job and your views on work?
Participant …Anything I’d like to add…umm, I suppose I would have hoped it would be
more in-line with what I want to do one day, but I think when you work in
different sectors you get a feel for the pressures that they’re under and you
get more of an understanding with them and you’re doing pretty much the
same job as them, you can understand what they’re going through. Umm I

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 mean I do enjoy my job, don’t get me wrong I do actually enjoy it, I mean it
really is easy, because the studying on the other side is the difficult part. So
the job that I’m doing is, I’m not under as much pressure as what perhaps
someone in organisational psychology’s position would be, and the strain /
pressure trying to get their job and studies done. Because I don’t have, I
suppose I don’t have that much responsibilities, I literally go in, I pack, I leave
and then I wake up, I go in, I pack and I leave and then I’m done for the week,
twice a week. But at this stage it suits me but umm, yeah I guess if it was more
in line with what I wanted to do it would help me a lot more with my studies
as well.
Researcher Thank you very much for your time. Are you still happy for everything you’ve
said in the interview to be used and transcribed?
Participant Yes

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