Erling Østergaard walks confidently down the corridors of the Department of Dentistry at Health and greets several members of staff during his short walk from the main entrance to his office. His door plate says ‘work environment manager’, but he thinks that ‘jack of all trades’ would be better.

Since 1964 when he began, aged 18, as a laboratory technologist at what was then called the Aarhus School of Dentistry (which became part of The Faculty of Medicine at AU in 1992), he has worked on everything from budgets via safety, research and teaching on work environment to building renovation.

Since the millennium he has been involved in the planning, project design and monitoring of the comprehensive refurbishment of the department’s clinics and laboratories which should, according to plan, be completed by the end of the year.

“I would’ve liked to finish the building project before my pensioning because the building is now in almost as good condition as when I arrived here.

68 year old Østergaard had also told the department head this and had, for the same reason, not applied for either the senior staff scheme or voluntary retirement.

“I’d anticipated maybe having my hours reduced as a consequence of the budget cutbacks. But I didn’t expect to be fired as I’d made it clear that I would stop work at the end of next year.”

Not my decision

However, on 24 February Erling Østergaard realised that his half-century at AU was going to finish with a dismissal.

“I just thought: Well, that’s that then. If that’s how they want it then that’s how they’ll get it. But it annoys me.”

He was offered the chance to convert his dismissal into a voluntary retirement. But said no thanks.

“I won’t retire voluntarily because I’m not finished with my work. It’s not my decision to stop now, it’s the management’s decision.”

Secretive process

Østergaard is also annoyed that the management chose not to really put all their cards on the table in relation to the elder staff members like himself who are close to pension age.

“I would really like my manager to have told us about the situation before the round of dismissals. I think it would have benefited both myself and the department. Perhaps we could’ve found a dignified solution that we could both be satisfied with. It doesn’t make sense to me that the manager can’t discuss this kind of thing with the staff.”

In its senior policy, AU states that the generational change at AU must take place without the organisation losing knowledge. But Østergaard thinks that it is naive for the management at AU to expect a member of staff who has been dismissed to use the period of notice to dutifully pass on all their knowledge.

“A sacked staff member has lost his commitment to the workplace from day one and is instead focused on the next stage of his life.”

For him that phase starts in October when he retires.

Received medal of honour - and then given the push

A royal blue leather box lies in front of HR supporter Kirsten Neuhauge. Inside is a shiny silver medal with Queen Margrethe of Denmark in profile. It is heavy, but then again it also symbolises 40 years’ in the labour market.

“I passed my clerical exam in 1966. I was an apprentice at Tekstilfabrikken in Aalborg where I was taken on after my education. But as my husband was going to study biology in Aarhus. I got a job as a payroll administrator at the Aarhus School of Dentistry in 1973,” explains Neuhauge.

When the Aarhus School of Dentistry merged with the Faculty of Medical Sciences in 1992, she became part of the faculty secretariat Today she is a HR supporter in AU HR.

Last year she celebrated here 40th anniversary and the management at AU HR therefore recommended her for the Queen’s silver medal of honour. But neither the medal nor 40 years’ engagement gave the 63 year old Kirsten Neuhauge any protection when AU decided to dismiss 195 employees. On the morning of 24 February she received an email with the planned dismissal notification.

Frustrating end

“That 40 years at AU should end with a dismissal was something I had to digest at first. I did think that it maybe could be me. But it’s still a strange feeling to see the message and I was shocked and saddened.”

Neuhauge had neither applied for voluntary retirement or the senior staff scheme despite being close to the retirement age.

“I haven’t saved up in the early retirement pension so I didn’t offer to retire early. I wanted to keep working until I could retire at 65.”

With help from HK (the Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees in Denmark), Neuhauge - who is also a member of the local liaison committee - subsequently negotiated a voluntary redundancy package which she is very satisfied with today. She will continue to work full-time until March next year where she will, for the first time, try life as a job-hunter on benefits before retiring four months later.

Kirsten Neuhauge: 40 years at AU

Educated as an office trainee in 1966 and employed as a payroll administrator at the Aarhus School of Dentistry in 1973. With the fusion between Aarhus School of Dentistry and AU in 1992 she became part of the faculty secretariat, and with the administrative reorganisation at AU a couple of years ago, she joined the AU HR back office.

During her years at AU she has worked in payroll processing, staff matters, support and updating of employee administrative systems.

She has also been a member of AU’s Senate before it was replaced by the AU board in 2004. In addition, she has been a member of the board for two of the residence halls, for the Sandbjerg Estate and for the research foundation. She has also been a member of the Election Committee and is today a member of the local liaison committee.

Erling Østergaard: 50 years at AU

Started in 1964 as a laboratory technician trainee at the Aarhus School of Dentistry. Employed as a laboratory technologist at the same location after completing his education. In 1992 the Aarhus School of Dentistry merged with the Faculty of Medicine at AU and Erling Østergaard is today employed as work environment manager at the Department of Dentistry under Health.

During the years he has worked with budgets, teaching, research, the work environment and building renovation:

• He helped to make sure that there was still room for Aarhus’ degree programme in dentistry in the state budget when then higher education minister Bertel Haarder brandished the cost-cutting axe over the programme in the 1980s and threatened to close the school of dentistry.
• He was involved in introducing toxicology to the students’ timetable and teaches work environment and hygiene.
• In connection with the complete renovation of all laboratories and clinics at the Department of Dentistry he has been involved in planning, tendering, project design and monitoring of the project.