Looking after yourself
Some advice for interviewers
It is important to give some thought to your own wellbeing when conducting oral history interviews. For the most part it will be an enjoyable and rewarding experience, but there may also be occasions on which you find yourself under pressure because of travel requirements or tight timescales, or are distressed by what you hear from your interviewees.
Plan ahead
Try to anticipate potential difficulties, and look for ways of avoiding or mitigating them.
Organise your travel well in advance, and check your arrangements nearer the time for possible disruptions from road or rail works. If using public transport, make sure that you can get back from your venue, rather than assuming that services will continue to run in the evenings.
Interviewing can be very tiring, so is it possible to arrange overnight accommodation in the event of a long journey with a very early start and possibly late return?
All these things may seem obvious, but they can be easily overlooked if you are pressed for time or juggling other commitments – and having things in place in advance allows you to keep your main focus on the interview itself.
Consider your personal safety
Interviewing often involves visiting people in their own homes with limited previous contact, so do give some thought to your personal safety as well. The majority of your interviewees will be absolutely genuine, but you should always take a little time to identify possible risks and ways of minimising them. First and foremost, it is crucially important to tell someone who you are going to see, where and when, and at what sort of time you expect to be back from an interview – and agree with them in advance what they will do if you don’t return when expected, and have not been in contact. For others aspect of staying safe, have a look at the East Midlands Oral History Archive website at Safety | East Midlands Oral History Archive | University of Leicester.
Be realistic
Being realistic about timescales can help to avoid unwelcome pressure – both those you may set for yourself, or those proposed by others who may be employing you as freelancers, project workers or volunteers. Agree a schedule in advance that gives you adequate time to rest and reflect in between interviews, and try to avoid doing more than one interview a day. If this is not possible, make sure at the very least that that you have an adequate break in between for food, rest and ‘recharging’.
You may feel under pressure financially to go along with timescales that you know are unreasonable, or find yourself expected to work more than the number of hours anticipated at the outset of a project because of its direction once it is underway – but do be aware that employers have a duty of care towards you, both in terms of your physical and mental wellbeing.
You should have an opportunity to discuss interviews with them in advance, to highlight and be prepared for possible challenging content – and to establish what sort of support will be offered to you if you are distressed by what you hear, or otherwise negatively affected. It is never possible to judge how a project is going to unfold in terms of timings or additional work – so ask for regular reviews and some flexibility in contractual arrangements once it gets underway.
Some organisations may already have best practice guidelines in place. It is worth asking – but if not, refer them to the guidance on the Oral History Society website. When agreeing the terms and conditions of your work, and ask for it to be incorporated into your contract or volunteer agreement. Safeguarding your wellbeing as an interviewer can only benefit everyone concerned.
Care and support
If you anticipate that an interview may be distressing in the nature of the interview topic, it can be helpful to talk to someone in advance about how they have dealt with a similar situation – maybe a trusted colleague, or a member of the Oral History Society’s Regional Network, which offers local points of contact with experienced oral historians. You can find them at Regional Networkers – Oral History Society (ohs.org.uk).
Before we begin an interview, however, we can never know what our interviewees will say, or how it might affect us, either in the short term or with potentially longer lasting effects. We can sometimes be taken by surprise by the impact it has on us, regardless of the topic, because of the memories or associations it brings to mind.
Can you also identify someone who is willing for you to talk to them about your emotions and reactions after the interview, if you have been upset by what you have heard – maybe more than one person for possible different viewpoints, or to give you a choice of whom to turn to? You might consider an informal ‘buddying’ network, giving you a choice of whom to contact; but we strongly recommend that you have a group of people who are available to you if you need to talk things over. This is particularly important if you are working alone and do not have access to regular project meetings or contact with colleagues. Some oral historians also find that physical exercise such as a walk or a run can help to ‘process’ a difficult interview and put it into perspective.
We also need to be mindful of the wellbeing of people working with oral history material who sit outside the initial interviewing phase of a project. People archiving and digitising material will listen to sections of the recordings, and those cataloguing interviews will also be listening in detail, as will transcribers. Anyone producing project outputs, or editing material will be immersed in the oral histories; and those people who are listening in depth to archived material for their own research can also be affected through their in-depth analysis of interviews. When putting together work packages, or designing your own research, think carefully in advance if there is there a way to build in breaks away from material (especially if the content is traumatic), or to have some way of debriefing or discussing emotional reactions to listening to and working with the oral histories.
Some suggestions for further reading
- Jones, ‘Distressing histories and unhappy interviewing’, Oral History, 1998, vol. 26 no. 2, pp. 49-56
- Martha Norkunas, ‘The Vulnerable Listener’, in Anna Sheftel and Stacy Zembrzycki, Oral History off the Record: towards an ethnography of practice(Palgrave, 2013), pp 81 – 96) – available online at (99+) The Vulnerable Listener | Martha Norkunas – Academia.edu
- ‘Researcher Wellbeing’ is a collaborative project between historians, a counsellor and an occupational health professional. It sets out guidelines about history researcher vulnerabilities, mental health and wellbeing.
Read about the wellbeing concerns raised by one interviewer in the blog post below.
Well-being and oral history
When oral histories deal with subjects of a very personal nature, we can never predict the impact or how this will affect our wellbeing.
A toolkit to help you ensure that your project, however sensitive the topic, feels safe and connecting for all involved.
It is based on ‘PARCS Grows Everybody’ an oral history project celebrating the history and legacy of the Portsmouth Abuse and Rape Crisis Service.
