Text Marjo Mikola

In the cellar of Yliopiston Apteekki there is quite a hustle and bustle when technical employees shuttle between the shelves in the stock room. Medicine orders from pharmacists arrive from upstairs and the technical staff sends the ordered tablet tins as pneumatic mail up to the store. It looks complicated, but Zarmina Razai and Xingting Zeng reassure that one learns the trick easily.

Razai, 24, who comes from Afghanistan, has been working for Yliopiston Apteekki in the centre of Helsinki for almost four years while Zeng, 20, born in China, has been employed for a couple of years. They came to work in the pharmacy right after the upper secondary school.

– I´ve really enjoyed working here. This is a big workplace, with a good atmosphere, extremely nice workmates and, besides, you´re always busy, Razai lists the good sides of her work. – You don´ t have to look at your watch because time really flies quickly.

Xingting Zeng agrees. Generally, clients are nice too.

– Sometimes when a client feels miserable, I can infect him with my own happiness, Zeng says.

– It´s the clients we are here for. I don´t mind if the client is having a bad day, Razai remarks.

It´s one´s eagerness to work that counts

Anne Hietala, Master of Science in Pharmacy, recruits employees for the pharmacy located in the centre of Helsinki which currently employs some 160 people, 14 of whom have an immigrant background. They include a pharmacist, a qualified chemist, technical employees as well as office personnel, Hietala says. She estimates that the number of employees with an immigrant background working for the rest of the 16 Yliopiston Apteekki pharmacies equals that of the pharmacy downtown.

– We don´t follow a special strategy to recruit immigrants. What counts is the applicant´s eagerness to work as well as how I see him or her fit in with our staff. In logistics, for instance, one can even cope with a limited knowledge of the language, but what I demand is that the applicant should be willing to study Finnish.

Compared to the rest of the workers, similar orientation is given to employees with an immigrant background.

Hietala goes on to say that it is possible to advance in the technical department from logistics to customer service when one´s knowledge of Finnish improves. Zarmina Razai, who is studying to become a public health nurse at the polytechnic, works as a part-time sales person in the department of wound healing products.

– Working in the pharmacy requires independent initiative, cheerfulness and skills at customer service, Razai describes.

– We were provided with very good orientation. Besides, you can discuss anything with your superiors, she praises.

According to Anne Hietala, Yliopiston Apteekki has always had employees, trainees and students from different cultures. In her opinion multiculturalism has been so fully absorbed that it can hardly be seen in the daily operations of the pharmacy.

– A multicultural working community increases openness. Besides, we can speak quite a lot of different languages which we can use to serve our customers, who also include a number of tourists and foreigners, Hietala relates.

Feasts are a busy season

Marja Kenttä, the cashier and logistics supervisor of the pharmacy downtown, is the nearest superior of the technical employees. Some special arrangements have been made for the foreign employees, Kenttä explains.

– During the Ramadan, the lunch hour has to be adjourned until quite late. Some have needed an unpaid holiday to continue their summer holiday because they make a long journey to their home country.

Although the pharmacy is open from early morning till late at night, Zarmina Razai hasn´t been afraid to work there.

– Occasionally I may feel a little afraid if a customer comes for syringes in a confused state, Xingting Zeng says.

The ladies reassure that all the situations have been solved by talking. Besides, a guard can be summoned if need be.

Turns of the months as well as December and May tend to be busy seasons of the pharmacy as well as festivities, surprisingly enough. Employees can be easily found for festivities because not everybody celebrates Finnish festivities and holidays, Anne Hietala explains.

– I have spent every Christmas and Easter at work. I especially like working for Easter because then we can eat mämmi, my favourite food, here, Zarmina Razai laughs.

– Should I put some mämmi for you in the freezer for Christmas, Zeng teases her.

Wonderful workmates

According to Anne Hietala, people of various fields ranging from a horn player to pharmacy students and secondary school graduates who spend a year between their studies are employed in the technical department of the pharmacy. Their age distribution ranges from those under 20 to 65. In Hietala´s view, all the employees have participated equally in the activities promoting work ability and providing recreation as well as exercise, visits to the theatre and trips abroad, organised by the pharmacy.

Zarmina Razai also works as a free lance interpreter of her mother tongue. She has hardly any free time, but Razai reassures that it doesn´t matter because she likes to work.

– It would be nice to meet my workmates in my free time too, but I haven´t got enough time. Last year I would have liked to have gone to Russia with my colleagues, but I didn´t have a passport.

Xingting Zeng has participated in a cruise organised by the workplace. New sides of her colleagues are then revealed.

– Peaceful pharmacists can also be wild, she laughs.

Razai and Zeng tell that the personnel in Yliopiston Apteekki have taken up a more unprejudiced way towards them than in any other place.

– I´m really proud and happy with this workplace. There are wonderful and intelligent people working here, Zarmina Razai praises.

– It´ll be really hard to leave this place after I finish my studies, agrees Xingting Zeng, who studies chemistry at the University of Helsinki.