Touched, humble, shy and proud Skulderklap prize winners

"Today is one of the days of the year that I look forward the most. When I talk to anniversaries who have been employed in Nordea for maybe 25 or 40 years, I am always told that it is not the tasks that mean that people have stayed at the bank. It is the colleagues – and it is some very special colleagues that we are celebrating today," says president Kasper Skovgaard Pedersen.

Every year, Finansforbundet in Nordea awards a Skulderklap prize (‘pat on the shoulder’) on its birthday on 12 January to six colleagues who have made a very special effort for their colleagues.

An acknowledgment that matters

"We have received a total of 82 nominations, and all nominated colleagues have been surprised and celebrated. These are employees who have spent the effort to nominate colleagues for the Skulderklap prize, and we often hear how much the acknowledgment means," says vice president Mette Balck Mejlby.

The six Skulderklap prize winners were first celebrated in Finansforbundet's new head office in Christianshavn with bubbles, chocolates and snacks. Here they told how they had been surprised and celebrated.

'That's me'

Several of the winners talked about how the celebration had taken them completely by surprise. Several had tried to cancel or not show up for the meetings that had been made as a cover for the celebration, but then had been pointed out that the meetings were VERY important!

For some, it slowly dawned that something special was going on, when they were first surprised by the extra distinguished catering for meeting, where a colleague or manager at one point started giving a speech, and where they slowly thought 'that's me'." 

'Touched', 'humble', 'shy' and 'proud' were among the winners' adjectives from the celebrations, along with 'I'm just doing my job' and 'I could have crawled into a mouse hole.'

Guided tour of the Workers' Museum

After the celebration and sharing of stories in Christianshavn, the winners continued to the Workers' Museum, where they after a tour, had a delicious lunch in Cafe og Øl-Halle.

Once again, congratulations to the six winners:

• Daoud Sleiman Reda, Fraud Investigation & Resolution DK
• Lars Lund Pearlman-Aarestrup, Personal Banking Vanløse
• Lene Christine Friis, Business Banking Jylland Syd (Kolding)
• Marikka Byberg Willingshøy, Cash Management Implementation DK
• Niels-Ole Høyer-Hansen, Nordea Finans Danmark, Credit Risk Control & Control Automation
• Pernille Michaela Dehn, Communication DK