Ombrelo 18 years – part 2
This is a true story about how we became Ombrelo. First there was an idea. Then one person. Then two. Then a small group who believed in the same direction. There was no certainty about what this would become. There was only a feeling that things could be done differently – together. This year Ombrelo turns 18. An adult. But this is not a ceremonial speech. This is a 12-part series about how a community is born. How people find each other under the same umbrella. How growth is not just numbers, but trust. This is our story.
Under the Same Umbrella
The name Ombrelo is no coincidence. Ombrelo is Esperanto and means “umbrella” – a language created to cross borders and bring people together without a shared native tongue. It’s a good description of our work: in speech therapy, we promote communication even when there is no common language. And it also describes us as a community – under the same umbrella, each of us our own person.
Ombrelo started in Seinäjoki with entrepreneurs. The first to join were speech therapists Kirsi and Emilia and psychologist Pirita. The professionals shared the facilities and equipment, but each was responsible for their own work. Little by little, employees joined as well – Anne, Päivi and Ilona – on a performance-based pay model that follows the same logic: everyone works as much as they want. The structure was so flexible that when a lawyer once reviewed our employment contracts, he called in astonishment: these people don’t have to come to work at all if they don’t want to. The answer was simple: that’s right, they don’t have to.
Performance-based pay does not mean chasing as many appointments as possible. It means the freedom to decide for yourself how much you work and when. A therapist who controls their own schedule and workload can offer the client exactly what good rehabilitation requires: time, presence, and individual solutions.
Freedom, however, does not mean limitlessness. A cap on the number of appointments is a concrete way of saying that the client’s best interest comes before money – a therapist with a reasonable workload meets their clients better, and the client notices the difference, too.
The same idea runs through everything else we do. From the very beginning, we’ve had a kind of business incubator: everyone who dreams of becoming an entrepreneur can attend entrepreneurship training alongside their job – we go through financial statements, contracts, cost structure, and all that practical knowledge no one else teaches. The same opportunity is open to people from outside as well. We say out loud what others keep quiet about – that’s been our way from the start.