Weather and natural events, strikes and holiday periods can have a huge influence in my job. I am in charge of sorting out travel arrangements for users and external visitors. But when bad weather kicks in, or exceptionally, there are natural events like the eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, my work can become very quickly very stressful, as I may have people stranded that need to get home. I’ve worked in the ESRF Travel Office for the last 20 years. We are a small team of four people and we receive about 400 invoices every month for travel that we’ve organised for our users, visitors or candidates. I get about 30 000 emails every year on the subject of those missions. Some users have been coming to the ESRF for years and in that time we’ve struck up friendly exchanges over travel arrangements. It’s always a pleasure when someone I’ve known for years by email pops into the Travel Office during a visit and I get to put a face to a name. I love dealing with so many different people from many different cultures. Each nation has its particularities and a different way of doing things, but in the end everyone has their own personality and that overrides any national stereotypes you might have.”
