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It is nice and pleasant that former union leader at SMB Norway, Stina Lintho Lippestad, supports Olaf Henning Thommessen in the difficult situation he is in now, but it seems limitless how many can step in the same sling (DN March 17).
Thommessen’s legacy is clearly more important than the legacy of all those he has worked with during the five years he was the leader of SMB Norway. Many talented people have come and gone in these five years, and only one, one, from the time before Thommessen was hired, still works for the association.
There is no doubt that Olaf Thommessen has some world-class skills that are almost world-class, but he is not the skilled rhetorician, the brilliant television polemicist, or the demanding and knowledgeable leader who had to leave the association in late January. It was the way he treated his employees, when everything was not going as he expected or wanted, that made him have to leave SMB Norway. The way you use people.
Morten berge
Stina Lintho Lippestad describes a union in freefall and defines a mandate for Thommessen’s employment that has no roots in reality. It seems somewhat strange for Lippestad to comment on this, as he did not have a seat on the federal board of SMB Norway at the time. She was first elected to the federal board at the 2017 Trondheim congress, at the time when the worst around Olaf Thommessen assailed for the first time. And the debate about joining Virke, or NHO, ended at the 2015 congress, that is, a year before Thommessen took office.
The undersigned joined the association as interim CEO of the association in the summer of 2015 (after 8 years on the federal board, including four years as vice president) and obtained a weak positive result that year. With a slight decline on the revenue side, this was primarily due to cost control and a significant focus on savings. This work continued throughout 2016 even after Thommessen was hired. I kept my commitment until 2016 mainly to support Thommessen during the transition period. During this period, there was never a reorganization of the magnitude now claimed. Union revitalization was the mantra and development should apply more than closure. It is true that this was a necessary reorganization beyond 2016, but not the major restructuring mentioned in previous posts.
After four months out of the union, in early 2017, I joined SMB Norway again on May 1, 2017. There were tough fronts internally in the administration and the first strong storm against Thommessen had started. He needed a 100 percent loyal employee who was a “minister of the interior” and followed a team of highly competent employees. Olaf Thommessen was to be “Foreign Minister.” My job was mainly to make Thommessen good. From the fall of 2017 until I decided to join the association in September 2019, there were no negative issues around SMB Norway.
Olaf Thommessen is incredibly good at attracting talented people, also in the hiring process. Today’s qualified staff is clear proof of this. Employees who have now been forced to report reprehensible working conditions in the union are employed by it. I myself have worked with them and I know the important work they do on a daily basis for all the country’s SMEs. It is these employees who open the most doors to politicians and the media, and the ones who “bleed” for members every day. I want to go to war with those people, not get in the mud. Fortunately, it is these employees who now remain in the union. So tomorrow is a little brighter.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content can only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
