• Question: What is the most bizarre thing you have found out on the job?

    Asked by anon-216533 to Robert, Olly, Nicola, Jasmin, Dennis, Caroline on 10 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Robert Dempsey

      Robert Dempsey answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      Love the question Cole… my favourite/bizarre thing was a proposal a student submitted (I think as a joke!?) to do a research project interviewing ‘victims of murder’… would’ve been interesting to hear how they were going to get this sample!

    • Photo: Dennis Relojo-Howell

      Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      As a mental health blogger and conference organiser, my job involves lots of travelling. I find it interesting that you can meet one person in another country and then they can be your friend for a long time.

    • Photo: Oliver Clabburn

      Oliver Clabburn answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      Hmmm, most bizarre…. I think some of the old school experiments are pretty ‘out there’! Like, how does someone come up with the idea to pretend to electrocute people (Milgram)?!

      I think more recently, some of the stuff i have found quite bizarre is some of the philosophical debates and various different school’s of thought. I won’t go into detail as it can be quite boring… but there are some strange concepts and ideas around to do with how we ‘think’ and ‘do’

    • Photo: Jasmin Moon

      Jasmin Moon answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      I think the thing I find strange is that some work places still don’t understand mental health or how to support someone with mental health problems. Thankfully employers like this are in the minority and most are very supportive, but it always amazes me when you hear that people have been treated unfairly at work because of their mental health. That’s where I come in to help their manager understand how mental health affects their employee and what they can put in place to make sure the person stays at work and feels supported.
      I have read reports that say mental health costs the economy nearly £35 billion a year because of people taking time off work when they are unwell, so it makes sense for employers to look after their staff to keep them at work!

    • Photo: Nicola Johnstone

      Nicola Johnstone answered on 12 Jun 2019:

      This is a good question. Working with people can really bring you some ‘out there’ stuff that will make you think and wonder what to do next. Work wise, things that I might find bizarre can easily be explained (usually by a misunderstanding, cultural or social reason). It’s my job to make instructions clearer and inclusive in that case.

    • Photo: Caroline Brett

      Caroline Brett answered on 15 Jun 2019:

      Excellent question – it’s taken me a while to think of a good answer that I can share on here!
      I think some of the most bizarre things I’ve learned have been about the brain. There are some really interesting disorders or experiences that people can experience, such as unilateral neglect (where someone ‘ignores’ one whole side of their body) or functional disorders (where people lose function in some part of their body, but without a traditional ‘medical’ explanation – they’re very debilitating and complex disorders). But perhaps the most bizarre is where scientists and neurosurgeons conduct surgery or research on the brain while people are awake – sometimes this is only way to make sure that the surgeon is operating on the correct part, or it helps the researcher to understand much more about the function of specific parts of the brain)!! Really amazing and not something that I would want to go through myself if I had the choice…

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