Patents, paper and microbreaks: a day in the life of an EPO examiner
23 January 2012
Emma Barraclough, London
Willem Gijsels is an examiner in the telecommunications cluster at the EPO. He joined the Office in 1996 after five years in industry and works in The Hague. This EPO site is home to about 2,500 EPO staff, roughly half of whom are examiners. He tells Emma Barraclough about a typical working day
The working week
I usually get to the office by car as I have to drop off or collect my children from school. Many colleagues cycle and those who live in the centre of The Hague often come by tram, since the office is located in Rijswijk on the south edge of the city. It’s in a business park named Plaspoelpolder that was built in the 1970s. The Office has grown a great deal since then and about doubled in size since I arrived. There are now five buildings on our site. We acquired the Shell building next to the original Main building and the so-called Hinge building between them that houses the restaurant and sports facilities was built some 10 years ago.
Our working week is officially 40 hours but we get “compensation hours” at a rate of 15 minutes each working day adding up to a maximum...
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