2020 has been an extraordinary year for me. Beginning with a global pandemic to now receiving an MBE, I’m still coming to terms with it all. Each year, I see the people who receive this award, who I’ve always looked up to, yet I never expected to find my name there alongside them. Although it’s exciting, scary, and exhilarating, I’m just so thankful. I see this achievement as a real recognition of the telecoms sector and a reflection of all the Field Services team’s efforts.
Today, it’s taken for granted that your mobile phone just works, yet so much work goes into enabling the UK's mobile networks to retain reliable and robust connectivity on a daily basis. We have multiple locations around the UK that we have to manage, and our field and estates teams play a huge part in trying to get access to the network sites - a task that has become increasingly difficult due to the circumstances around COVID-19.
“Telecoms field service engineers have been unsung heroes of the C-19 epidemic, keeping us all connected to what matters the most, every day. ”
– Howard Watson, Chief Technology and Information Officer at BT
I joined Ericsson as Managed Service Operations Director in 2008 after spending twelve years in the military and ten years with Marconi working in telecoms. But it was my time in Oman during the Arab Spring - where a huge strain was put on the mobile networks - that is probably the closest equivalent to the challenges created by the pandemic. Although it’s a very different context, my priorities remain the same as before: ensuring the safety of the teams who provide network maintenance and reliability and managing networks to the highest standard.
Now, we begin every working day in what we like to call ‘the COVID War Room’. Here, my team and I assess and plan around the daily challenges brought on by the pandemic, for example, how many people we have self-isolating; the availability of the staff; the impact of government restrictions in regions covered by our networks, and having sufficient amounts of PPE. It’s a continuous chess board and we are always moving pieces around to be able to continue for each new tomorrow.
Looking back, it all literally had to change overnight. A memory that really sticks out is when one of our field engineers, dealing with a fault inside the Science Museum in London, which was completely empty, had to dress in a full PPE suit equipped with mask, hat, and gloves. He looked like something out of the film, The Predator!
“This appointment is richly deserved for Adam thanks to his outstanding leadership and the dedication of the entire field services team at Ericsson during the COVID-19 pandemic. Congratulations to him and his team for this recognition. ”
– John Griffin, Head of Ericsson UK & Ireland
Concerns understandably remain within the team about the impact their work has on their families and their work-life balance. We’re doing our very best to accommodate everyone as much as possible and we’re applying safety measures where needed. The team can only use the larger pneumatic lifts, for example, due to social distancing regulations, which have also had screens to be fitted to separate the operators going up on them. It's now a regular part of our responsibilities to ensure follow-up calls are made to continuously to check on the well-being of everyone.
Although this has been an extremely challenging period, it has actually improved the way in which the FSO team works, along with our mindset. I personally feel we are communicating much more productively now. We’re talking about how we can help each other out more and how we can improve as a team. We've particularly benefitted from reducing the amount of travel required and avoiding wasted trips. For me, we now run an organisation with a more human-centric approach and we do not want to revert back to our old ways of working. I will now always strive to put a smile on our people’s faces, to listen to their concerns, and answer their questions.
Looking ahead, we are focusing on playing a key role in helping Ericsson provide its leading state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure with 5G to futureproof the network across the UK.
Learn more
Read about Adam and the FSO team’s achievements and how Ericsson is keeping networks running during these unprecedented times.
