ABSTRACT
The uncertainty during the reform varied in length and degree, depending upon whether one knew for a fact that he or she was to become unemployed or whether there were some vague promises about the future. Eeva was one of those who did not know whether she would have a job with Engel or not:
For half a year I didn’t know whether I had been recruited or not and had to go to the deaconesses’ institution, into a stress clinic, and then I paid a long visit to a friend in Asia. [The stress clinic in question is a private one, and Eeva paid for it herself.]
The other architect, Marja, also mentioned that she had gone to a mental health clinic (a free municipal service) because of her depression. In addition to losing her job, she also lost her husband who had been ill for several decades; becoming an unemployed widow was a hard blow for her. At the time of the interview her three-year unemployment had become a constant financial tightrope walk. She was worrying about the possibility of a large dentist’s bill and was accumulating a specific ‘dental fund’ by collecting empty beer bottles (in Finland you get a 50-pence deposit for empty bottles) especially on Friday nights at the city centre. Marja told a bitter-sweet story of her experiences in bottle-collecting. Her story also presents her magnificent skills in observing:
One weekend I was once again on a bus from the centre back home with bottles jingling in my bags. Two large plastic bags can take forty bottles, which makes twenty marks. In the same bus with me there was an excolleague from the NBB with his wife, probably coming from a party. I was so nervous that he would see me when I get off before him. But he didn’t, or maybe he was discreet enough not to show it.
