Table 4.

Qualitative thematic analysis of participants’ experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.

Themes and sub-themes	Codes	Illustrative quote
Positive
Personal life	Quality time with friends/family	“It was great to spend so much time with my family which I am truly grateful for”
	More time for activities / hobbies	“Staying home has let me have more time for practicing sports, which I enjoy”
Work-life and Career	Opportunity to write	“Inability to carry out practical work…gave me extra time to refocus my attention on writing publications, which allowed me to catch up on this aspect to a great extent”
	Opportunity to develop skills	“I could focus more on my working and I increased my competence on my research field”
	Opportunities from moving online	“I enjoyed that many events [… became available online. This meant that in some ways I felt more connected to other researchers”
	Working from home	“Less time spent commuting has meant more time for work”
Health	Physical health benefits	“I haven't had any respiratory diseases compared to other autumn semesters”
Negative
Personal life	Lack of routine	“Working from home affected daily routine”
	Travel restrictions	“[…] the embassy is closed, so I'm stuck in a country that is not my home country”
Physical health	At desk all day	“I'm at my desk exclusively all day which I feel is negatively affecting my health.”
	Lack of exercise	“Insufficient exercise”
Mental health	Stress	“Increased workload in terms of teaching, PT support, getting course, exams, assessments, etc online has been very stressful”
	Uncertainty	“Not knowing when I might go back to my lab/office (if am not fired before) is frightening…I am highly afraid of the future”
	Anxiety / Worry	“General anxiety about the situation and loved ones has made it difficult to concentrate at times, and lockdown in general has not been good for my mental health”
	Guilt	“I feel guilty that my daughter is not learning at the level she should be”
	Loneliness / isolation	“I didn't expect to feel lonely as well”
	Fatigue / exhaustion	“My mental health has suffered, never switching off from work, having to make up time in the evenings when the kids are asleep and feeling torn between helping them and working in the day”
	Overwhelm	“Lack of childcare and need to do home schooling has meant I have been meeting myself coming backwards and feeling exhausted and overwhelmed with all the different aspects of life until my children returned to school”
Negative
Home and family-life	Interpersonal conflict	“Working from home all the time has increased interpersonal conflict with my family members”
	Impact on productivity	“More traffic/noise in the house (at times it feels like there is constantly someone video-chatting out loud with family members who are in lockdown elsewhere)”
Child-care responsibilities	Impact on career	“Childcare duties put me behind my PhD colleagues without children, to a much greater extent than during normal times”
	Home-schooling	“I do not like having to simultaneously work, care for children and ensure home schooling happens. That is 3 jobs at once, and I can't think straight or do any of them well under these conditions”
Work-life and career	Impact on planned research	“The effects of not being able to be in the office have pushed back my trial dates which has greatly impacted my overall plans for this year and next year as well as creating an uncertainty with respects to the pay-out of my funding”
	Reduced productivity, motivation, focus	“Isolation from my peers has definitely affected my productivity negatively”
	Employment uncertainty	“My current position ends July 31. The uncertainty related to the next school year for my two primary school children mean I cannot search for a 'traditional' job. I will have gaps in my CV as a result and fear the long term negative implications”
	Increased demands	“Remote teaching has required me to take on more hours with not a comparable amount of pay”
	Challenges of home working	“I did notice that it was/is difficult to set work-home boundaries. Often I would work until quite late”
	Concern for students	“I worry about my international students who are separated from family, it has put more stress on them which has reduced their efforts/outputs”
	Impact on industry relationships	“Perception amongst producers, who pay the levy which pays my wages, that I am not doing anything for them”