Was thrown straight into a round of layoffs
Hardly had 30-year-old Frederik Cramer stepped into the roll as senior union representative in Nordea Finance DK at the turn of the year before redundancies were announced. A challenge which affected him personally, but also made him grow in his new role
"It was special to be thrown straight into a round of layoffs as soon as I had been elected as senior union representative. Of course, seeing eight colleagues lose their jobs affected me a lot. At the same time, it meant that I immediately developed in my new role - I'm happy about this part."
30-year-old Frederik Cramer is young in his role of being a senior union representative, but has several years of experience as an ‘ordinary’ union representative. So when he was tapped on the shoulder and asked by the former senior union representative, Maj Britt Lindorff, whether it might be something for him to take the next step, he was not dismissive.
"Already from the first time we talked about it, I could tell it was something I wanted. It was given time to mature before I had to decide, with several good talks about the role along the way.”
Mini leader
He likes the element of leadership in the professional role and the extra responsibility he has been given.
"It is a mini-leadership role to ensure that things are structured and function in our union representative group. I might be young in the role, but I've always been a bit of an old man trapped in a young man's body, so I don't feel too young for the job in any way," says Frederik Cramer, who also encourages other young employees to follow his example.
"Being a union representative is largely what you make of it. Although there are of course requirements and expectations to live up to, you are chosen for the person you are - and to a large extent you can be the union representative you want to be. So there is no reason for being too afraid of throwing yourself into it.”
Thrives with responsibility
When he himself started as a union representative a few years ago, he didn't quite know what the trade union actually was.
"Of course I was a member, but I didn't have much knowledge about it. Maybe I had the idea that nothing could happen by just testing it out for a few years – I could always leave it again if it didn’t do the trick for me.”
He had not imagined that he would be so into it, although he says that he has always thrived on taking responsibility and ensuring that people around him are well.
"If you throw yourself into it, I think you will have the same experience as me - and want more. One of the greatest values for me is to make a difference to colleagues, our customers, my manager. That's what drives me.”
Hard goodbye
As mentioned at the beginning, Frederik Cramer quickly needed the large toolbox as a senior union representative in regards to a major downscaling of one of the four parts of Nordea Finance DK.
"We have a completely unique community at Nordea Finance and it was very hard to say goodbye. But since we had to, I think we did it in a proper, top professional manner and in a way where it was constantly ensured that people were ok. We managed to talk about it and gave hugs where necessary.”