Well, I am going to be honest.  My week of proctoring had a lot of ups and downs, mainly downs.  I was aware that it might be a bit of a culture shook getting used to working again after having had the summer off but even so.

Cycling home on that Monday night as the sun started to set behind me, all I could think of was that I did not want to go back in the next day.  It seemed to be very, very disorganised, a lot of issues and waiting around for a supervisor to come and help.  I found it a marathon just getting through to the end of the day.

However, a new day dawned, the sun was shining and I was back in the building at 8.00 am for the daily briefing confident that the second day would go a lot smoother than the first.  After all, I had ironed out some of the issues, right?  No.  The only aspect of the day that I found easier was logging onto the computer because the computer had remembered my log in details from the previous day.  I also had a schedule that included not only lunch but two breaks.  Definitely an improvement on yesterday.

I spent the morning proctoring and got the hang of it – sort of!  Lunch was a welcome break of a chicken escalope with salad and then it was back to do some greeting instead of proctoring.  One of the guys working on the greeting side came to show me what to do and it seemed to be infinitely more straight forward than proctoring.  However, no sooner had I got used to the greeting side than one of the supervisers came over and told me I was proctoring again.  So, it was back to going through the queue, taking out students and watching them.  I had a couple of glitches but life was definitely going more smoothly although I was glad to see the end of the day.

At least I cycled home not dreading the thought of having to return on Wednesday.

Wednesday dawned.  Sunny and warm although the weather was deceptive.  I remember this day as the day from hell.  First of all, in the briefing we had to change where we sat so I was downstairs on a different computer.  It took me ages to sign onto the system as I had left all my notes upstairs where I had worked yesterday and everything had been thrown away without warning.

I eventually succeeded in logging in but then I had a clear case of cheating while watching the proctoring so called over one of the supervisors who then got me to fill out not one but two forms, telling me what information to type.  It took forever and required a lot of information including my own personal information.  I got frustrated with the whole process and on my break I escaped from the building and went for a walk around the local area.  The whole thing is just not worth the hourly rate that we are being paid and there are less painful jobs out there that are better organised!  I know this is a pandemic but life cannot have unravelled so much in a short space of time, surely!

Anyway, I returned to my “desk” at the end of my break and muddled through the rest of the day.  The other protorers were friendly and we had a bit of a chat in between the calls.  The supervisors perfected the art of disappearing when needed by someone.

Thursday, I was back upstairs in a different room but I had a desk by the window. I can still remember the view over the back gardens of the resident’s houses.  I had to call the supervisor a couple of times but they were more visible today and I enjoyed, yes, I enjoyed the proctoring.  I also had to look after a new person learning to do the proctoring.  Oh, the responsibility but it did do wonders for my self-confidence.

On Monday morning in the morning briefing, they had spoken about providing lockers for our personal possessions as we were allowed no personal possessions in the room while we were working.  I found that draconian but organisation was not their thing and it took until Wednesday for the lockers to be ready.  This meant that I put what I needed in my high viz jacket which I kept with me and my ‘phone stayed at home.

Friday and the end of the first week and my liking of proctoring proved to be short lived.  This morning was not so bad but the last two hours of the afternoon were sheer hell.  I was back in the room that I had started in on Monday and Tuesday although on the other side with other proctors who were very good and made me feel inadequate!

Anyway, I took a deep breath and pottered on and made it to lunchtime.  I admit I was counting the hours down to the end of the day.  I had also decided to put all my possessions that I needed during the day into a money belt which was a lot safer than yesterday.  The lockers turned out to be a room where everyone left their bags and there was no actual security.

The last two hours of the afternoon I spent dealing with a student, a young man, who had internet issues and kept being logged out of his exam.  Not surprisingly, he got very distressed.  I got a supervisor over to help me but they did not do much.  The student wanted to restart the exam so I had to ask for the supervisor to come back.  There was a delay which the student did not understand and then when the supervisor did return, he decided to reschedule the exam.  It was not a satisfactory way to end the day or week but I was so happy when I finished and was told that I could go home.

I headed off without a backward though. While in the supermarket on Saturday morning, I had a text message to say that the second week of work had been cancelled due to there being less students than previously thought.  While, I admit, the money would have been nice, I was not sorry to see that particular assignment finish early.

It really was hell!