{"id":92644,"date":"2018-12-05T13:12:23","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T12:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=92644"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:23:09","slug":"lots-of-completely-unexpected-things-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2018\/12\/05\/lots-of-completely-unexpected-things-happen\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Lots of completely unexpected things happen’"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do non-academic employees at Erasmus University do? This is not always visible for students, lecturers and researchers. In this series they tell about their work. Part 1: meet Suzanne van Vliet, a secretary at the Business Economics department.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\t

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Name: Suzanne van Vliet<\/p>\n

Age: 35<\/p>\n

Job description: secretary at the Business Economics department (3.5 days a week)<\/p>\n

Has been in her current position since: 1 November 2017<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Room H14-01 of the Tinbergen Building is looking kind of messy. Which shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise, since its inhabitants are gearing up for a move to a different building. Not that everyone working in the room is happy about the move. Its current inhabitants are the ladies who run the Secretarial Support Office (SSO) of the Erasmus School of Economics\u2019 Business Economics department. Some of them have worked in this building for ages and are not looking forward to exchanging their great views of Rotterdam from the fourteenth floor of the Tinbergen Building for a ground-floor room in the E-Building.<\/p>\n

For her part, Suzanne van Vliet doesn\u2019t mind the impending move. She thinks it may have its advantages. Moreover, as a relative newcomer, she is not quite as attached to her current workspace as some of her more experienced colleagues. \u201cI\u2019m not too depressed about the move, although I have to admit the views from this room are absolutely fantastic. And right now there are five of us to a room, and after the move I\u2019ll share my room with just the one colleague. That\u2019ll be more quiet, and I won\u2019t be distracted quite so easily, but on the other hand, here in this room it\u2019s so easy to ask a colleague if I need to know something quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does a typical work day look like for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m typically the first person to arrive, at around eight thirty. I\u2019ll cycle here from Capelle, and I\u2019ll drop off my son at school first. At about four thirty I\u2019ll leave. I\u2019ll pick [my son] up from school and I\u2019ll cycle home.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does your job entail?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to support the academic staff and students of the Business Economics department. They come to us with all sorts of issues, ranging from employees who have lost their key and students who are having difficulty enrolling in a particular seminar to people calling in sick. Academics will often drop in to ask their questions in person, if only to grab some of our sweets \u2013 we refill our jar every once in a while when it\u2019s getting empty. Students tend to e-mail or call us. In addition to answering questions, I handle the department\u2019s financial records. I process expense claims, invoices, orders, et cetera.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Do you like working here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI love it! No day is ever the same. Obviously, I always have a to-do list, but lots of completely unexpected things happen, as well. In addition, I\u2019m given a lot of opportunity to help determine the nature of the work we do. And I really do have the most wonderful colleagues. Yes, they\u2019re all ladies, although we do have one male colleague at another SSO elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does your job have any aspects you\u2019re less crazy about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid I\u2019m going to have to give you a tremendously dull answer to that question. No, I\u2019ve yet to encounter anything I don\u2019t love here.\u201d<\/p>\n

What did you do before joining EUR?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce upon a time I trained to become a veterinary assistant, but I ended up not becoming one. Among other things, I worked at an agency that helped people reintegrate into their workplace after a lengthy sickness absence, and prior to joining EUR, I worked at Rotterdam Festivals. I applied for a job with the Erasmus School of Economics\u2019 SSO a year before, with a different department, but I didn\u2019t get that job. But as you can tell, persistence does pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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