“I think a reorganisation of the administrative system was long overdue. Very little had changed for almost 85 years! But the management don’t score very highly in terms of artistic impression, because loads of people have been trampled underfoot along the way. And it turns out that many aspects of the administrative reorganisation were not thought through carefully enough by the management. That’s one of the reasons why so many people are fed up,” says Jytte Kragelund.

Administrative bubble

In August 2011 Jytte was transferred from a position as a secretary at the Department of Anatomy to a function as an administrator at AU HR, and the change of atmosphere struck her very forcibly.

“It was like being placed in an administrative bubble living a life of its own in a fictitious world dominated by top-down communication.”

Gave it a chance

Jytte decided to give it a chance. She sat at her desk and did what she was asked to do. And even though she felt like criticising the way things were done, she refrained from doing so: things like the lack of support when dealing with tasks for individual departments, for instance.

“I actually think I could have said something, but nobody else in my team did. I suppose we all felt very uncertain. I don’t whether this is fair, but I definitely felt that the best thing to do was to keep a positive attitude. I thought I might want to stay in the job for another ten years, so I didn’t want to start by causing any trouble,” she says.

Moved back again

But after a while Jytte realised that she would never settle down – even though she got on very well with her new colleagues. For instance, everyone was happy to provide support for everyone else in her AU HR team.

After nine months she applied for a position as a secretariat assistant at the Department of Biomedicine, where she has now been working since June 2012.

More flexibility required

Jytte has a number of ideas about how to solve the problems arising in connection with the process of administrative reorganisation – solutions that would benefit everyone.

“I think the in-service training you get at AU HR and elsewhere is great because it increases your qualifications. But why does everything have to be split into rigid compartments? More flexibility would be a good idea, so the administrative staff working in all the areas supporting our departments could meet face to face in their departments once or twice a week to get to know the department staff. And vice versa. I think this would improve the lines of communication a lot.

Cogs in a machine

“If we knew each other a bit better we’d learn to see each other as individuals. At the moment a lot of secretaries feel like cogs in a machine – easily replaceable by someone else. And maybe we ARE easy to replace. But we used to be happy in our work because we were regarded as individuals with specific competences, helping to ensure that things ran smoothly. Things made sense back then.”

Jytte thinks it all over for a moment, then concludes:

“I’m very pleased I decided to move and I’ve got my job satisfaction back. But it also helps to keep a broad and open mind.”