What kind of work do you do at the secretariat?

We offer secretarial support to all Amsterdam Business School employees in the broadest sense of the word. You can come to us for practical ad hoc support for the various processes and projects at our school. For instance, this might involve administrative matters, ICT issues, PLAN (a tool for the contact hours system), agenda and website management, or even managing research output in PURE, the gateway for UvA DARE.

Our school is a large organisation (200+ employees) and it’s still growing. As the secretariat, we try to work efficiently so we can quickly provide personal and effective help to everyone. Sometimes we can’t resolve an issue because it falls outside of our mandate (an occupational hazard), but we always try to offer the best possible support and always try to find a solution or a different approach to resolving an issue within the UvA.

How many people work at the secretariat?

There’s 4 of us in total; Iris Kroese, Mariëlle Lameijer, Sidonie Rademaker en Babette Strutin. Our team is very positive in its approach. We like to put our shoulder to the wheel and we know how to get things done. We all bring something different to the table since we each have our own work background, education and expertise. That enables us to look at projects and work activities from different perspectives. By combining our knowledge and experience we can guide projects as accurately as possible and we’re continuously trying to develop and perfect the secretarial support we provide.

Has your work changed much over the years?

Our work is always evolving and it’s directly related to the academic year cycle. When a secretariat is performing well, it’s actually something that remains unnoticed in the background. Essentially, our work involves providing support where needed and making sure everything gets done ‘on time’. It’s a good way to contribute to the development of the Amsterdam Business School. In our work we need to be aware of everything going on at the ABS. We like to provide our input for current projects or projects that are important for the future of the school and its employees. Seeing what our academic colleagues are working on also makes our work enjoyable. We think it’s fantastic to see how their work is relevant to society on a daily basis.

What are you working on at the moment?

We’ve had to do a lot of things differently since the COVID-19 crisis and that’s something we’re still dealing with. Our challenge is staying ‘in touch’ with our colleagues and other ABS employees.