Photo: Guy Ackermans They are indispensable on the campus: the cleaners, caretakers, caterers, gardeners, receptionists – the list is long. Resource seeks out these key people. This time, meet Marleen Slagt, a switchboard operator in Actio.
If you call the university’s main phone number, you get me or my colleague on the line. I’m asked all kinds of questions by all kinds of people, mostly external. They want to speak to staff members to ask for help or cooperation. I usually just put the call through, but sometimes I provide information, like to lost parcel-delivery people or when we are inundated by calls with the same question.
I learnt how to find out what a caller is really looking for
It’s nicest and the most challenging when callers don’t know who they need to talk to, because then I comb the organization like a detective. Because I studied biology, I understand the jargon. My detective work is also aided by our search system, in which terms are linked to employees.
Sometimes I get such specific questions that I wonder if the university does anything with them, but I am often surprised. Last week, a son asked if we could help him enable his father to see his old-fashioned sprinkler for fruit trees one more time. Our Museum of Historical Agricultural Machinery no longer exists, so I put him through to the Special Collections Department. I’m afraid I don’t know how that ended.
I couldn’t find a job in biology after my studies, so I took up naturopathy. I had a homeopathy practice for 12 years and then I was a yoga teacher for 10 years. But I wanted to work for an organization as well, and I heard about this vacancy through a yoga student. Working in the academic world appeals to me.
Over the past 10 years, I have learned how to find out what a caller is really looking for. You tend to jump in and address their first question immediately, but if you probe a bit further, you often find people mean something else. In my early days, we used to follow a protocol, so it has become ingrained in me that I answer the phone with a smile and always remain friendly and polite, even when people are angry. Angry callers are the most unpleasant aspect of my job.
It was good for me that Covid-19 made it necessary to work from home, because my muscular disease limits my mobility. I will be retiring in two years. We’ll be switching to a new system soon, which I dread. But we’ll see; I take each day as it comes.
