We are editors, we write daily news for the European Parliament. We come across all types of news and activities going on in the EP, which we pass them on to the real people, in an as comprehensible way as possible. This is our main objective of our work.
Crazy webcommunciation unit
Then we have the blog here, where we really try to show a much human side of us, we want to give in the fact that we are real people as well. We speak 22 different languages within the Unit, we come from all around Europe, we all have our culture we are so proud of and this comes with totally different (and sometimes even strange for others) habits. This is quite visible from the inside, so my intention with this blog is to grab this and through it on the surface, for others to get a taste as well.
Here is a small compilation of ten things you most probably don’t know about our Unit:
Raffaella, our Italian editor, would never leave her office without her espresso cup.
• Evita and I: you can feel the smell of galletes from the other end of the corridor. But make sure that whenever you feel like having a snack, Evita has dozens in there.
• Thibault likes music a lot. This I can see every day after 6 pm when he plays his music loud and starts singing. Does he hear the same thing as we do?
• Anete is the plant doctor for this corridor. Ever since we had discovered the power to cure half dead plants her bright perfectly sunny office has, it has been changing into a botanical garden.
• Speaking of light, opposite from this is Hanneke’s office; she likes to keep her office dark, lights off.
• Our head of unit has a special time frame, I was told. For a while, he used to keep an out of order clock on his wall and regularly check it out when late comers were popping by at work in the mornings.
• Josh likes tuna; my guess is that whenever he has his door closed, he is eating tuna and cottage cheese in the office.
• Please try to stay for more than 5 minutes without a jacket in Hanna’s office (Finnish editor) and let me know what you think afterwards.
• Whenever he needs a break, Pavel likes juggling, quite a good show, I admit!
I have no idea how you find all these, but for me, one cannot possibly demand for an extra proof – we are all just humans, I say.
Me neither, I didnt know about that tuna addiction. Any kind, or blue fin tuna? :)
Thanks Julien,it’s been noted down :)
Thanks Julien, it’s very nice of you.
Despite my office is two doors away from Josh’s, I have never noticed the Tuna addiction mentioned here. I knew he liked bananas a lot but tuna? Just to point out that we also learn about our team on this blog :-)
Nadina,
what I really like about you, about your blog, is that you have the courage to become personal, to write about you, your feelings, your opinions, about yourself, about each other.
There are very few people within the EU institutions – and definitely no other unit or team – that feels as human as you make yourselves felt.
And despite what some critics might say:
This personal perspective creates an impression of professionalism, well beyond what all the faceless bureaucrats could ever create with document 104040/203 (COM), because you show that human beings can work professionally for us, with us, among us.
Or the other way round: You can work professionally on EU matters and remain human; you remain human beings with all your differences, social and cultural, and these differences are not obliterated by what you do – you have to deal with these differences as individual being and as professional EU officials.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and thanks for working for us – it’s much appreciated!