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It is rare that we get to interview an employee who has worked for a company for as many as 50 years. This good fortune fell to us at Nering Bögel, where Jean van Diepen, shipping clerk, has half a century "on the counter.
"Here he comes" Toin Bongers (director) points to Jean. We see him loading a truck with great precision and brisk speed and wait quietly until he has time for us. "With Jean, work always comes first eh," says Toin smiling. With 50 years of service, Jean knows perfectly well what needs to be done each day. "It feels a bit like his own company. He knows what needs to be loaded and unloaded, knows unerringly where everything is, how products should be put together and the trucks loaded most economically. He has a photographic memory for what he has loaded when. A gift that few people have these days, and that has everything to do with the one word that best characterizes him: 'commitment'. In short, in his work he is fast and efficient and Jean works safely above all."
One Thursday Jean started at The Globe, Jean had only two days of work behind him when he was already called to the personnel manager. "I was offered a permanent contract, which was a bit of a shock because I actually wanted to continue my education, I was 14 years old. But with a mother in the hospital and a father out of work, our family-with six children-would be able to use the money well. It was also more of an assignment than a suggestion from my father, when he said I should just go to work."
From 1970 to 1972 Jean worked for the foundry "De Globe" in Weert. Then came the oil crisis and with it the phenomenon of "reduced working hours. "Reason for De Globe to lend me to Nering Bögel (part of De Globe) from then on," Jean continues. "Instead of foundry work, I made the switch to assembly and shipping work. I put grids in gullies and was allowed to load and unload trucks, by hand though! That was hard work, lifting 50 KG each time. So in the evening I came home broken."
When he turned 18, he got his 1st forklift. "I had never switched gears before, but I had to drive a switch truck from Still. My first unloading job took no less than 3 hours for that reason," Jean says, laughing. "Blood, sweat and tears ... but: empty!"
"In just under 3 years, I 'may' retire," the jubilarian says. "Of course I will, then I will enjoy the free time together with my wife. But letting go of Nering Bögel? Surely I can't. I have helped build this company into what it is today, by always putting in 100%. With that, it has also become a bit 'my baby'. And no one leaves their child alone."
