The Ombud’s office is a large office in the Main Building (room 500-1-004), close to one of the entrances to the Main Auditorium. It’s fitted out in a way that allows me to receive visitors comfortably and in a relaxed and pleasant environment. 

When I took up my duties – 18 months ago already! – I was delighted to find that there were also vast bookshelves containing all the books that my predecessors had bought to support their initial training in the Ombud’s role and to continue developing the knowledge they needed to help them tackle interpersonal relationship challenges in the workplace.

These sixty or so books cover a wide variety of subjects: conflict resolution, mediation, coaching, diversity, ethics, supervision techniques, moral harassment, burnout, etc. They have proven and continue to prove extremely useful to me.

In addition to this inheritance from my predecessors, countless training books on coaching have been given to me by a certified coach, formerly the ombud for the IT department, to whom I am very grateful. I’ve also acquired other books for CERN that were recommended to me through the professional ombud networks.  

My reflex when it came to buying these books was to turn to our colleagues at the CERN Library, who do a remarkable job in tracking down the works you need, in the format you want, and getting them delivered to your office.

This book collection is an invaluable resource for cultivating a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of interpersonal relationships, developing the tools required to manage complex situations and finding answers to the questions that arise in this area.
Whatever your profession, role or responsibilities, you might find them useful.

That’s why, with the help of our colleagues at the CERN Library, I decided to make the full collection available to you through the CERN Library catalogue (tag: Ombud library).

Some of my favourites include:

• The Skilled Facilitator by Roger Schwartz
• The Conflict Resolution Toolbox by Gary T. Furlong
• Le harcèlement moral dans la vie professionnelle by Marie-France Hirigoyen 
• Le métier de coach by François Délivré 
• The fearless organization by Amy C. Edmondson
• Bringing Peace into the Room by Daniel Bowling and David Hoffman.

Please note that many of the works are also available in electronic format. These include David Rock’s fantastic book Your Brain at Work, which explores how the brain functions and how it can play tricks on you!

Feel free to borrow any of these books via the CERN Library catalogue – it will give us a chance to meet in person when you collect them and perhaps have a chat about them once you’ve read them, if you feel like it!

Laure Esteveny
 

I want to hear from you – feel free to email ombud@cern.ch with any feedback or suggestions for topics you’d like me to address. 
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