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Our Administrative manager sums up his first year

On May 3, 2021, my heart was pounding a little harder than it usually does. On my way to Lund, thoughts raced through my head. What had I embarked on? One of the country's foremost academic departments apparently wanted me, and wanted me to shape and lead their new unified administration. A question kept spinning in my mind all the way to Fysicum that morning. Would I really be able to handle this?

That question has re-ocurred a few times since then during this my first year. Not least when we decided to move forward with creating a common IT organisation for the department, an ongoing process where we´re now are about to recruite the university's first IT manager at departmental level. It is a big step for the department as well as a personal challenge for myself, who is absolutely not an IT person. So I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support and encouragement you show me for my tasks. Both for the IT organisation as well as for the administrative functions.

A lot has happened during my first year at the department. I have gotten to know all the fantastic members of staff at the department office a little better, and I have had my fair share of fights, both within the department and with the faculties. In this context, I want to express my gratitude to the members of staff at the department. The is accumulated experience at the department that few workplaces can beat. There is always someone who has done something similar before, someone who has been to another university where they failed or succeeded with the same issue and there is always someone who is willing to twist and turn a little extra on a problem. It's probably one of the things I've appreciated the most during this my first year. The collegiality.

We are now moving forward with the transfer of tasks within the department office and we will start moving tasks between employees this month. May 16 is our expiration date for when our newly-baked and refined Human Resources administrators will take over the HR administration and it opens in turn for the transfer of other tasks within the group. May 16 may not be the new organisation's birth date, but it's probably the departmental office's operational birthday. It will look a little different in the different divisions when tasks are moved and to whom. In order not to make it difficult for everyone involved, we will gather information about who supports which activity in a simple and clear way and spread it to all of you in connection with the change.

This was the big challenge when I started. To bring about new work methods for the administration. I never thought it would take a year. But it did, and the result was probably better because of it.

And do I feel like I did it, then? First of all, early on it became obvious to me that this process was actually not about me. We are many members of staff, and we all do our very best to support the department. This change that we are implementing is all about you. I only play small part in the processes that are taking place at moment. And this is both gratifying and secure. Secondly, we are probably not done yet. I do not think we will ever be done. We should not be. At least not if we are committed to a constant improvement of our services.

So let's tackle future challenges in the same way we have done with this task. With the same commitment to constantly improve what we do.

Thank you for this first year with you!

Daniel Kåreda
Administrative manager at the Department of Physics