Elcoline’s 10-Year-Employees Value Versatility and Responsibilities in Their Work

25.09.2018
Yleinen

Elcoline has 11 employees who have reached their tenth year with the company, and this calls for a celebration. We interviewed three of them. For these men, challenges in their work make their jobs interesting and taking on more responsibilities is a new opportunity. A decade is a long time, and during that time, both the company and its employees have grown.

One of the employees celebrating their decennials is Mikko Riipinen, who remembers his first day at Elcoline vividly. His first shift was an on-call night shift at the Talvivaara mine.

“Naturally, I didn’t know anyone there and wasn’t aware of all the protocols, so the night turned out to be quite stressful when the crusher in the mine had a malfunction and alarms started ringing. At that point I thought to myself that this sure won’t be your average workplace. But here we are, and I’ve never thought of quitting,” says Riipinen.

Riipinen describes himself as a jack of all trades who has worked various jobs over the years, ranging from a shop steward to a traveling electrician. Currently, Riipinen’s work includes, for example, the maintenance of technical systems and IoT equipment as well as organizing traffic routes on the E18 road in western parts of the Uusimaa region.

“The best thing about my job is having freedom and working independently. I get to organize my own schedule, and I’m held accountable by my coworkers in the project,” Riipinen explains.

Mikko Riipinen

 

Coworkers Make It Easier to Work Away from Home

Mikko Taskinen has also had a variety of jobs over the years. Taskinen has traveled all around Finland during his time with Elcoline working, for example, as a welder and an electrician. He believes that jobs that require travel call for certain kinds of people.

“Both the challenge and intrigue in this type of work come from the fact that your job description can change drastically even within the same day. But it’s nice to be able to travel and to not have the same four walls staring at you. We’ve always got along really well here, and coworkers are a big source of relief when you start to get homesick,” Taskinen says.

In addition to the great workplace atmosphere, Taskinen feels that the best part of this job is his professional growth here. Taskinen has taken on more responsibilities over time, and currently he oversees both new and old employees in different work projects.

“I’ve been able to do a lot of things that I couldn’t even imagine before. It’s wonderful that responsibilities are given to those who want them and that Elcoline trusts that their employees are capable professionals. In the future, I expect constant progress and development both on my own part and from Elcoline as a company,” Taskinen shares.

Mikko Taskinen

 

Challenges Make This a Job Worth Doing 

It can be said that Elcoline Oy’s Business Manager Jaakko Juvonen grew alongside Elcoline. He started as an electrical automation technician and worked his way to a supervisor’s position, to project manager, and finally to his current position of business manager. Much like Riipinen and Taskinen, Juvonen considers variety and the challenging nature of his work to be the best aspects of his job.

“Challenges make my work worthwhile, and as years go by, the projects that I remember are the ones that were challenging but in which we succeeded anyway. We have a wide range of clients, for example, in Kajaani, Finland, and in China, and each site is different. Sometimes our work takes us to luxurious cruise ships and at other times to power plants, mines, or oil refineries. The industrial field is interesting and multifaceted, so I won’t ever get bored of my job,” Juvonen chuckles.

Like Juvonen’s job description, Elcoline’s role as a company has changed over time. There are always new employees, new clients, and new lines of service. Today, Elcoline provides clients with electrical and automation installations, instrumentation, welding of pressurized pipelines, and mechanical installations.

“The courage to try new things has made us the company that we are now. Elcoline is not afraid of challenges. Instead, we see opportunities. This attitude can be seen in our staff as well: Many of our employees want to learn new things and advance in their careers, and we try to help them achieve these things instead of holding them back. I believe that as we move forward from here, I, as well as Elcoline as a whole, will learn a lot,” Juvonen concludes.

Jaakko Juvonen

 

In addition to Riipinen, Taskinen, and Juvonen, the following Elcoline employees are celebrating ten years at the company: Matti Auvinen, Markku Auvinen, Ville Itkonen, Herkko Laitanen, Vesa Lallukka, Simo Nissinen, and Jarno Räsänen.