Meet Mark, Shift Lead and People Leader at Barclays

Hi 👋 My name is Mark (he/him) and I’ve been working for Barclays since 2007. I'm currently a Shift Lead and People Leader working for Middleware in the Radbroke Command Centre working 12-hour shifts covering both nights and days, monitoring the Global Middleware estate. There's no such thing as a ’normal day’ in my role, you never know how the day is going to go.

Outside of Barclays, I have very little time to myself; I'm married and have two young children, who take up pretty much every spare minute of time we have. When I do get free time I enjoy being outdoors, usually in the middle of nowhere, walking, camping and generally being outside. I enjoy reading Sci-Fi and Fantasy books and I'm also an avid collector of rum - I probably have over 200 different bottles of the stuff, I write a blog on the subject and actively participate in various online communities for the appreciation of the wonderful spirit.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome later on in life (in my thirties). I knew for a long time that I was different and the more I looked into autism I knew I was autistic. Any parent with kids entering their teens will know what life is like and as an autistic person it usually ends up with some form of trigger for me on a daily basis, which keeps my wife on her toes. Sometimes, I think she must feel like she has a third child at home. Knowing what I do about autism, it wouldn't surprise me if one day either (or both) of our children were diagnosed too.

Despite hotdesking being used at Radbroke I ’unofficially’ have a fixed desk, my own keyboard/mouse and I also have allocated parking on site. It’s important for me to know where I will be parking when I arrive, where I will be working when I get to my desk and that I'll be using the same keyboard/mouse as always – as the different feel and responsiveness between devices is hard to adjust to.

With autism being a hidden disability, I feel it's important more people are aware of it, what it is and how people can be impacted by it. We don't tend to discuss these things openly in society and the neurotypical world is a very difficult thing for a neurodiverse person to navigate. Acceptance and understanding of things like spectrum conditions allow the person to be more comfortable being themselves and release pressure to conform. And in turn, this can allow the condition to become more manageable. Being able to bring your whole self to work is important because people are always going to perform better when they are happy and comfortable.

I am Mark. This is me.

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