|
Credit: Nick Romanenko
|
Position: Senior administrative assistant, facilities and maintenance services, Camden
Length of Service: In various positions at Rutgers-Camden since 1989
Residence: Audubon
The oil that runs the machinery: Mary Krebs has picked up myriad skills over her 17 years as an administrative assistant at Rutgers-Camden. “I never thought I’d end up in an office job at all,” said Krebs, who works in Facilities and Maintenance Services in Camden and manages the department’s payroll and personnel functions and other administrative tasks. She credits her talent to think on her feet and pick up tasks quickly with making her an indispensable resource around campus. In addition to her duties in Facilities and Maintenance Services, Krebs is a departmental benefits representative for facilities, police, parking, purchasing, environmental health and safety, and the library. In that role, she acts as a liaison between Rutgers employees, human resources in New Brunswick/Piscataway and the state for all paperwork facilitation pertaining to benefits – health, dental, retirement, disability and more. Three years ago, she took over operations of the campus mailroom with no prior experience.
Reaching out to maintenance staff: Krebs values her commitment to custodial staff members. “When the human resources people work from 8:30 to 4:30 all day, it’s hard to meet with the people who work from 5 to 1:30 in the morning,” Krebs said. She recently set up a training program on professional work skills, effective communication and managing conflict. “Out of 25 attendees, 16 of them are the night custodial crew. I think it says a lot about their desire as workers to receive valuable education and skills that they can not only use here but also take with them wherever they go.” Krebs is often the liaison between custodial staff and administrators when it comes to issues dealing with pensions or health benefits.
Technical know-how: Krebs also has a knack for managing more technical tasks. She administers the 2-year-old private branch exchange telephone system in Camden. “In Camden up until two years ago, some people still had rotary phones on their desks,” Krebs said. “It was scary.” When administrators purchased a switchboard, Krebs became responsible for billing as well as moving, adding or changing phone numbers; troubleshooting; and voicemail. She is also the computer administrator for Facilities and Maintenance Services. Krebs isn’t formally trained in computer administration – she said she has received lots of on-the-job training – but she views her early experiences with computers as being integral to administering a small network of 10 computers and three printers. “When I first started here, our computers had the black screens with the amber-colored text. They used DOS (Disk Operating System) only. Knowledge of DOS really was helpful in the transition,” she said.
Safety first: Krebs is chair of a safety committee, a small group of facilities employees who home in on safety conditions around campus, from proper personal equipment at potentially hazardous work sites to broken steps and sidewalks. The group received a Certificate of Achievement from Jeffrey Apfel, senior vice president for administration and chief financial officer, for significant reduction of recordable injuries and illnesses in 2005. The calls she gets from around campus seeking help prove Krebs’ indispensability. “There are very few people with my little bits of knowledge of everything,” she said. “People from Camden and other campuses call me and say ‘I really didn’t have anybody else to turn to but I thought of you.’ And I usually say ‘Yeah, I know that answer.’ ”
All that, plus school: Krebs started college in 1982 and left four years later with about half the number of credits she needed to graduate. She took a seven-year hiatus, and returned to school at Rutgers-Camden part-time while working on campus full-time. It took her eight years, but she graduated in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree – and 35 extra credits. Now she is studying for her master’s in English with a concentration in writing instruction. Krebs works as a part-time lecturer at Camden County College; her sister is an English faculty member at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. “A lot of the influence is my sister, but I also truly believe that education is the answer,” Krebs said. “Writing is a skill that trains you to think critically and logically. That to me is my life’s work, to promote literacy and education.”
Know someone who deserves to be in the spotlight? Contact Focus editor Carla Cantor at
ccantor@ur.rutgers.edu.
|
