Mail sorting clerk Corina Ristolainen
Corina Ristolainen studied zoology in Romania and, after graduating, worked as a researcher in Bucharest. To gain an equivalent qualification in Finland meant she had to study further, but there was no suitable access to a course. Ristolainen wanted a job fast and found one in the sorting office at the post office.
“It is important for someone with a family to have a permanent job. If I were to study on the courses I need to bring my qualifications up to a standard that was recognised in Finland I still wouldn’t have any guarantees of a job. My field is unusual and you can’t find research posts that easily.”
Corina Ristolainen, 38, moved to Finland in 1995 and that same year married a Finish man. Her parents still live in a small village on the Danube.
She studied Finnish for a year at the University of Helsinki Language Centre. When she applied to the post office she immediately got a job and has now worked at the Ilmala sorting office in Helsinki for 10 years.
She works a three shift system. The employees can, however, agree on the shifts in a number of ways, depending on their needs and situation. Some do just a couple of evenings a week; others work full-time. Ristolainen works 30 hours a week - Saturdays and four evenings in the week.
“At the sorting office you have to know how to work with others.”
“I wanted an arrangement like this for family reasons. Because we have small children, my husband works a morning shift and I do an evening shift.
Working in the evening means I don’t have to rush in the morning, I have plenty of time to make breakfast for the children and take my eldest daughter to school.”
A couple of hundred employees will work one shift. The job is largely automated, but some skill is needed. Ristolainen sorts the letters and magazines, feeding them into the sorting machine or sorting them by hand. She moves onto some other place to work in the office every hour.
“Many think sorting work is not very challenging, but I like it. The working day goes really quickly, and I don’t get stressed. It is nice to see the mail coming in from the most amazing places in the world, and letters on their way out into the world.”
The company’s attempts to save money are conspicuous in the sorting office too. Ristolainen says there were more employees a few years ago, and the job seemed more relaxed. There is less manual work and you have to be more alert working by a machine. Sorting the mail does not require mastery of the Finnish language, but if you do not know the language you are easily isolated at work.
“At least for the present the job at the post office suits me and my family fine. Lat year I was on maternity leave and my husband and I built a house. Now I work and try and focus on enjoying looking after my children and our new home.”
Text and photograph: Anu Likonen, Jukka Vuolle and Nanni Akkola
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy