Which aspects of your work/function do you appreciate the most?

I appreciate being able to learn new things and get to work with intelligent and creative people.

What do you consider as the most important impacts of your work?

Our research community at the University of Oulu (and more specifically in Faculty of Education where I work) makes excellent science and I am very happy to feel that I am contributing by supporting research ethics and data protection part of this work. Both research ethics and data protection are important questions in social sciences and they come up in many activities in preparation and organizing the research such as application for funding, organization data collection, communication with participants and while trying to comply with open science requirements. On a more general sense I think my effort adds to the wider understanding of respect for an individual, their privacy and their rights in research.

Do you think appreciation is important at work? And in which form?

I think appreciation is very important and it can take many forms. Even simple thank you is always nice to hear 🙂 Maybe it can easily be forgotten in the rush of things, but being supportive and kind to your colleagues should be an everyday thing. Also self-appreciation is important and perhaps even more important from of appreciation. E.g., Thinking positively about your work and progress, being able to look compassionately to mistakes and to value your own work.

What aspects of your workplace do you perceive as supportive in order to be motivated?

I think for me it is important to feel trusted and valued by my colleagues and also by people who I am trying to help (i.e. researchers). Also to have certain degree of independency in my work to be able to modify work tasks in a way that is interesting and is best suited for my strengths. I think so far I did have such kind of possibility and freedom. Of course, knowing that your work contributed positively to some tangible outcome, such as acquired research funding or solving some issue with participants and their data also give good motivation to continue.

What would your ideal workday look like?

Coffee with a colleague, and some free time to finalize the tasks that I have started long time ago and they never seem to have enough time to be completed 😊