Bicycle accident ended adviser’s career
On a dark early morning in December, an accident in the driveway turned bank employee Dorthe Bech’s career upside down. Now, she has been employed in a flex job for almost two decades, though not within the banking sector anymore. She has faced reluctance to employ her in a flex job. This is her story.
Few employees in flex jobs in the financial sector
Dorthe Bech is living proof that it may be difficult for people with reduced working capacity to find work in the financial sector. Despite the so-called flex job scheme, whereby the municipality pays a subsidy to the pay to offset the reduced working capacity, there are not many employees in flex jobs in the financial sector.
Of 1,000 people employed at banks and mortgage credit institutions, 3.7 held a flex job in August this year, according to calculations made by Finansforbundet based on figures from the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment and Statistics Denmark.
In other words, the financial sector is at the bottom of the class in terms of hiring people in flex jobs.
In comparison, 6.6 of 1,000 workers were employed in flex jobs in the remaining financial sector, including insurance and pension, which employs roughly as many as banks and mortgage credit institutions. The labour market overall had 26.4 employees in flex jobs per 1,000 employees.
And it is not because flex job candidates are in short supply. Flex job unemployment in the second quarter of 2023 was 13 per cent, according to the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment compared to an overall unemployment rate of 2.9 per cent in November.
A flex job is an offer to individuals who, due to their reduced working capacity, are unable to work under normal conditions. In this way, individuals with specific considerations, whether physical or psychological, can still be a part of the labour market.
A bicycle accident in the driveway
On that cold and dark December morning, her life instantly changed.
On the morning of 21 December 2004, Dorthe Bech was rushing to her bicycle outside her house in Viborg. She had to stop for breakfast rolls and make coffee at work, so she and her colleagues could get into the Christmas spirit.
She had just said goodbye to her family, husband and three girls, who were going to a Christmas event at church before the holidays.
Outside, she raced down the steep driveway, unaware of the glazed frost, which soon after caused the bike to slide from under her.
On the cold asphalt, her immediate thought was to call the office to inform them that she might be running a bit late.
Then came the pain. It later turned out that she had sustained a neck fracture, two broken shoulders, injuries to the knee and jaw and a concussion.
Flex job
- The job centre may grant a flex job to individuals who are incapable of getting or keeping a job under normal conditions in the labour market due to their reduced working capacity.
- In a flex job, the employee’s reduced working capacity is taken into account.
- A flex job is usually temporary.
- When a person has been employed in a flex job for 4.5 years, the municipality must assess if they are still entitled to a flex job.
- The employer only pays for the hours that the employee in a flex job works.
- The municipality supplements the pay by a subsidy that is adjusted based on the income from the employer.
Source: Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment
“For me, it has always been full throttle”
It was this episode in life that turned Dorthe Bech’s banking career upside down.
A career that started with a trainee position at the Spar Nord savings bank in 1986 and was since exchanged for positions, mostly in savings banks in Western Jutland, as savings bank assistant, corporate banking adviser, department manager, customer adviser, adviser in insolvency and bankruptcy – and she also followed various training programmes such as in business studies.
What gives her the most problems today are whiplash, nerve damage to the neck and post-concussion symptoms.
“For me, it has always been full throttle. But on 5 January, after walking a kilometre to work, I just wanted to lie down at the side of the road. My whole body was aching, and I no longer felt my neck could carry me.”
Dorthe Bech was on part-time sick leave in the beginning, but she was determined to go back to work and move on with her banking career and her dream of studying law.
“I’ll get well soon.” That’s what I thought.
But months after, the pain had not subsided, and a meeting was arranged with the municipality. They suggested the flex job scheme.
“I couldn’t see myself fitting into that at all. I wanted to return to my job on full-time and preferably more hours, which is what I was used to. Today, I am grateful for the social worker who gave me the push.”
