Ritva is a 70-year-old pensioner who works at Folka as a temporary cleaner. Ritva retired from her profession as a gardener in 2016, but after two years of retirement, she wanted to get back into work life: “Work fills a big part of my life.”
Ritva has been working at Folka since 2018. Her latest temporary job has now lasted 7 weeks and after that she's going to take a short vacation: “I'm working on a so-called zero-hour contract; if I come across a nice work offer, then I'll go to work. After that, I rest and do my own thing.”
During her first temporary work, Ritva was nervous to see how everything would progress, but she was warmly welcomed and she received a clear orientation process, so, in the end, little by little things became clearer. Before starting work, she also received a good introduction package from Folka which contained comprehensive information on all the issues related to rental work. Prior to her employment at Folka, the last time Ritva worked as a cleaner was back in the 1970s. According to her, the tools have developed immensely during her time away from the industry, and she has learned a lot about the sector.
The best thing about Ritva's work is meeting different people: “You always learn something new when you meet new people. At the same time, you learn a lot about yourself too.” She is particularly happy about getting to know colleagues from immigrant backgrounds and hearing their life stories. Ritva has been doing gigs at the same customer companies for a long time, making many friends from her jobs, both cleaner colleagues and customer companies' own employees: “It's nice to follow people's lives. Some colleagues retire, others are congratulated on their birthdays or due to the birth of their children. There is always something to enjoy.”
The accumulation of vacation days from rental work was a positive surprise for Ritva: “Th statutory holiday bonus is paid along with the wages and I can take paid leave if I want to.” Ritva was also chosen as Folka's Employee of the Month in August, thanks to the great feedback she received from her colleagues and customer companies. This, in particular, warmed her heart.
Ritva initially ended up working for us through chance. While browsing through job listings online, she came across Folka's pop-up window and decided to submit an open application: “Rental work was a strange and entirely new world for me, but these days I would recommend it to everyone.”
“Many other pensioners might certainly hesitate and be unsure whether they would still be able to work. Cleaning is independent work that you get to do at your own pace. Manual labour has always been my thing and l I have enjoyed it.”
Folka works with temporary employment relationships with a number of retired men and women who still want to participate in work life: “It's great that you don't have to stop working unless you want to.”
“I do not have many dreams about my future job anymore, I already have a career of 33 years behind me. My current job at Folka keeps me alive and that little extra money on top of the pension is always a positive thing, of course.”
Are you interested in rental work? You can leave an open application here.