*Update 01.02.2024, thanks to all of you who participated in our survey, we will publish the results soon!* Original article: One of the advantages of working for a European institution is the possibility it offers to make a career doing different jobs in different countries … at least in theory. The colleagues working in a Commission Representation in a Member State need a rather unique combination of policy, operational and linguistic skills that can make such posts hard to fill. If we add the difficulty to relocate (potentially with a family) and the low coefficients for salaries in some countries, we end up in a grim scenario.
Perfectly competent colleagues fitted for a position in a representation are encouraged or even forced to change location after a number of years (from previously 8, it’s becoming often 5), in principle with the possibility to move to another representation (‘rotation’). If you happen to be working, for instance, in the Representation in Budapest, you can simply stop speaking Hungarian and apply to a post in Tallinn, where you’ll practice your Estonian, no problem, right?
As you can guess, many colleagues return to the Brussels Headquarters while some posts lie unfilled for years.
To add more salt to the wound, some colleagues have reported us of mistakes that cast doubts on the efficiency and transparency of the exercise, damaging the motivation of the colleagues. Generation 2004 is collecting feedback in a new survey [closed 01.02.2024] to complete the picture of the current rotation in Representations.
Unfortunately, this is not a total novelty, but no structural remedies have been put in place. As far as we are informed, the only changes have been to upgrade to the level of Director some posts of Head of Representation (at least Berlin, Warsaw and Budapest), but we do not know how these changes fit in the overall DG COMM HR strategy 20-24.
Generation 2004 requests DG COMM and DG HR:
– explain any steps taken to improve the rotation experience all round: for staff and Representations, including an evaluation of the preceding exercises, lessons learned and statistics showing the real impact of the exercise.
– provide a description of how the process ensures application of the rotation rules in a transparent way.
– provide a list of the Representations where the Head has been upgraded and the criteria used to choose those Representations.
What is your experience of the rotation in Representations? As usual, we’d be happy to hear from you. In addition to sharing your stories, you can also complete our survey for staff rotating in Representations if you are involved.
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