Outside activities – a challenge locally but a good incentive for collaboration

Vladimir Bastidas, Head of the Department of Law, thinks that the procedures for managing the administration around outside activities are working well.

The two most common outside activities at his department are teaching at other universities and publishing something and getting paid for it. There is also some reporting writing for other government agencies.

“Most of the outside activities here at the department are not problematic at all. But if you’re not sure, you can always come to me and talk about it first. Most people do this anyway, because they want to be on the safe side. Employees are encouraged to report their outside activities and are reminded of this in employee and salary dialogues.”

Vladimir Bastidas has not experienced any particular challenges or actual problems in managing outside activities.

“I think we have a pretty generous policy. It’s good that our researchers are sought-after. It can be beneficial to us as a department that our employees are engaged in some activity outside what they get paid for, as long as it does not directly compete with our activities here, which it very rarely does. Or take too much time away from their regular work,” he says.

A problem that can be a little difficult to detect is that employees might risk overburdening themselves. But Vladimir Bastidas has not had the impression that outside activities on a scale such as this occur at the department.

He thinks that the processing in Primula, where outside activities are reported, is simple.

“Maybe it’s just that our cases aren’t particularly complicated, but I get all the information I need in Primula, without having to contact the employee. That makes it all run very smoothly.”

Outside activities a good incentive for collaboration

Dimitrios Iordanoglou, Head of the Department of Linguistics and Philology, also emphasises the positive role of outside activities at the University, but also feels that definitions and where to draw the line can sometimes be difficult.

“I always ask about outside activities in employee dialogues and in our weekly newsletters I also regularly remind employees to report outside activities,” he says.

Sometimes employees at the department report outside activities that are not actually outside activities, for example that they are going to be part of an examining committee or have been given an external expert assignment. So the definition of what constitutes an outside activity can be a bit of a problem, according to Dimitrios Iordanoglou.

“What is classified as an outside activity? Many outside activities in practice end up being some kind of third stream activity with the wider community or the research community,” he says.

An outside activity usually involves doing something that is the same or similar to the tasks that are part of the employee’s regular position at the University, so resolving the question of whether it is a competing activity or is not always easy. Outside activities are also fundamentally an asset for the University.

“We’re more likely to approve an outside activity than not. Outside activities are of course a good incentive for collaboration. We view outside activities positively and have no reason to believe that they will affect the employee’s work. Examples of our outside activities include sole trader operations, where the sole trader occasionally sells lectures to companies.”

According to Dimitrios Iordanaglou, the extent of outside activities at his department is so small that the actual management of them is not perceived as particularly arduous or problematic.

“But to meet the requirement that all employees should always report outside activities even if they do not have any to report – well, it feels to me like there could be a more efficient solution,” he explains.

He argues that the main reason why managing outside activities is not arduous is not necessarily because the University has great procedures and systems, but that at their department, outside activities are not very common, and that is what makes them easier to manage.

Dimitrios Iordanoglou also thinks that something about outside activities should be included in the head of department training, or that it should be clearer who to consult on such matters.

“Perhaps the guidelines could be a bit more detailed, or include a couple of problematic examples with a text explaining the reasoning in such examples,” he concludes.

Johan Ahlenius