Name: Sheila Whyte

Title: SEZ Team Leader, Information Services

Length of Service: 42 years

What attracted you to working at Abertay and how has your career progressed during your time here?

I had just graduated in English Literature from Dundee University and was looking for a job. I didn’t really have a career path and was just looking for something to pay the mortgage! A job came up in the Library at Abertay, located in the Kydd building at the time, which was quite new. Anyway the working conditions seemed nice, you had your own desk and typewriter, and the people seemed very friendly.

My first role was as a Grade 3 Library Assistant, working on Serials, which involved a lot of manual work writing up whenever a new journal came in. I moved up to a Grade 4 around the same time we got our first automated system - called Dynix - around 1984. That’s when everything changed and we stopped manually writing out slips for every student who borrowed a book which was what we had been doing! 

In 2001, Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen started a distance learning course for graduates to undertake a postgraduate certificate in Information and Library Science so I applied for that, and was lucky enough to get funding from Abertay. I passed the course in 2002 and that opened more doors here, helping me move into other areas of the Library. I finally settled on being front-of-house following a spell on the Library front desk. I liked being front of house because of the difference in people; you can’t get bored when you’re working with people because something different always comes up or there’s a new situation to tackle. And that keeps it fresh.

How has the University changed over the years? 

I don’t find that the students have changed that much. Most are lovely, friendly and very willing to listen to what you have to say to them. One of the nicest things a student has said to me was “you’ve always been very fair with me and if you say it’s fair, then it’s fine”, when I explained why a particular situation wasn't going his way.

What has changed for the University as a whole is technology, obviously, as before then we had to do so much manually. That being said, even when I started Abertay was, comparatively, quite a modern place to work. We had a Telex, a computer with punch tape that printed out catalogue cards, all of which was quite advanced. We also had a computer centre with a computer that took up the whole room, it was massive! So much has been automated since then. We’ve got some brilliant systems now that allow us to do things that we didn’t have the manpower to do before. That’s one of things I’ll miss the most when I retire is learning about new systems and new technologies as there’s always something quite exciting about that.

The HR policies have also improved considerably over the years. When I first came here, they were incredibly strict. You couldn’t take any time off during teaching weeks so everybody had to take their holidays during the Easter break, Christmas break or Summer with no days allowed in between. When I went off to have my children, obviously maternity leave was a much shorter time, only 16 weeks. I’m glad there’s more understanding for parents and a better work/life balance. It definitely helps staff morale too.

For me personally, the big change happened with the creation of SEZ, which we started in 2014 and that was a massive opportunity. I was involved in setting it up within Information Services, to include front of house functions from various partner departments, which became an all-encompassing one-stop-shop, and I really have loved doing that. The SEZ team were successful in gaining a Cabinet Office Customer Excellence Award in November 2018, which was such a high point and I was so delighted that we got it.

Related Image

Sheila (centre) and the SEZ Team receiving the Cabinet Office Customer Service Excellence Award from VP Mark Batho in December. Sheila says this was a particular highlight in her 42 year career.

What has been the biggest improvement? What do you miss the most?

Abertay is very good at embracing new technologies and change and willing to try out new ideas. That’s probably one of the reasons that I’ve never felt bored here because there’s always something new. Your days aren’t always the same. It keeps things fresh.

And I always felt I had the support to progress from my line manager, Jim Huntingford, who has been my manager on and off over the years and who gave me the necessary backing when I wanted to complete the postgraduate certificate at RGU.

I miss being part of a team all on the same level, something that's inevitable when you move up the ranks. Also, when I started, everyone went to the pub on a Friday lunchtime, which was the culture at the time, and that was really nice!

What are your memories of the campaign and confirmation of University status in 1994?

There wasn’t a huge amount communicated internally, although becoming a university from a HE college was quite a different concept from the Ancients. But there was a feeling locally that Dundee was too small to support two universities. For the people who worked here, we presumed that things would carry on as before; we were already awarding CNAA degrees, but this meant we could award our own degrees. What I do remember is that there was a lot of discussion around what we would be called. I think the favourite for a long time was Tayside University, and then there was quite a lot of discussion about being Abertay or Invertay but I think Abertay won out because it puts you at the top of an alphabetical list! 

Who has been your favourite or most memorable colleague?

I couldn’t pick one particular person as I have made so many friends here over the years. I would say pretty much all the friends I have now are people I’ve worked with at Abertay. Because there’s been different eras, I’ll see one group one week and another the following week. All my best friends are people I’ve met here and kept in touch with. Some I see a couple of times a month and some I keep in contact by email as they now live as far away as Boston or Christchurch.

What is it about Abertay that has made you want to stay all these years?

A mix of different types of job, jobs that are always changing and challenging. The job has always been interesting, working with good people, made good friends. Even when there have been frustrations, they just keep you fired up to keep going!

Posted on 9th May 2019

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