The staff at the ISIPO has been like a second family

The last day of November was the last work day for Herdís Traustadóttir, Customer Service Specialist, at the Icelandic Intellectual Property Office (ISIPO). Usually, it would not make the news for an employee to change jobs, but in the case of Traustadóttir, it really is news. She has worked at the ISIPO for over 22 years with breaks and has gone with the institution through some radical changes.

She says that although it has always been fun to work at the ISIPO, it may have been even more fun when she started working, in March 2000, as a graduate from Fjölbrautarskóli Vesturlands in Akranes. Several employees of a similar age started working at a similar time, and they became a strong group of friends who had a lot of fun together, in and out of the workplace. She says that with increasing age the joy of partying may have gone down a little, although parties at the office still are great fun.

Digital revolutionWhen asked what stands out when looking back these 22 years, Traustadóttir says that is a question easy to answer, it is the colleagues. After all this time, she says they have become like her second family in many ways. She will miss them. As far as changes in the working environment are concerned, there has been a revolution with digitization.

"When I started, everything was on paper. All forms and all letters were printed out and most had to be in triplicate. A large part of the work involved making copies of papers and placing them in case files. It is not really until around 2010 that the use of paper starts to decrease somewhat. Now, however, more or less everything has become digital and there is no need to print anything."

Digitization does not necessarily reduce workHowever, she does not think that digitization has necessarily saved a lot of work, although it has simplified many processes, the work has just changed. Implementing digital solutions requires a lot of work. However, it is quite clear that there has been a remarkable change in how much easier it is for ISIPO's customers to apply for rights.

Tried most jobs at the officeTraustadottir applied for an open position at the ISIPO, then the Icelandic Patent Office. In March 2000 she started working as a substitute at the reception desk. She worked there until 2006 when she moved to Denmark, where she worked for two years. After that time, she moved back home and soon got a permanent job at the Patent Office. During this time, she has been in charge of diverse tasks at the organization. She says, among other things, that she has edited the ISIPO gazette, worked at customer reception, handled registrations, and annual fee payments, and processed applications for renewal of rights and new applications in all areas. She has also been very active in the social life of the employees, and upon her departure the office needs to find a new barbeque master.

Documents in six copies at the new workplaceHerdís says that it is inevitable that she will miss her workplace and colleagues after all this time. However, she thinks that trying something new and meeting new challenges gives her the opportunity to grow as a person. She likes her new job at the Supreme Court of Iceland.

"I'm a little bit back to the paper documents, which are now in six copies,"

she says with a witty smile.

The employees of the ISIPO would like to thank Traustadóttir for all these years and wish her all the best in her new workplace.