Willem van Duren retires after 49 years of employment

Willem loves the personal and cosy vibe at the office. Grabbing coffee for his team, having a laugh at lunch, making sure the admin is spot on – for all that, he enjoys coming to the office in Zwolle four days a week, often by bicycle. “It’s hard to believe that I’ve been working here for almost 50 years now," Willem says with a twinkle in his eyes. “Especially those early years were fantastic. You could get away with anything,” he chuckles, recounting the office pranks he pulled off. “My uncle recommended me for the job at Human Resources. At the time, the office was in Hasselt, in an old model home. But we soon needed more room, so we relocated to Zwolle in 1992.”

Any job with numbers
You could say that Willem knows the city of Zwolle like the back of his hand. He worked from the office at Grote Voort, and together with BAM, he ended up at the Zwartewaterallee. Before moving to Burgemeester Roelenweg. Also in terms of work, he is a jack of all trades. “My job has always been varied. I’ve done everything from business administration and payroll to financial accounting. Basically, any job that involves numbers,” Willem says proudly. “I always loved working in sales administration. Generating all the invoices on time, and especially the contact with buyers. I did this for 27 years until the company decided to centralize everything.” Willem’s job moved to Nieuwegein because of this. The real estate portfolio and related activities in the Northeast Netherlands were transferred from AM to VanWonen.
“I left home at six o’clock in the morning, and didn’t get back home in Nieuwleusen until six in the evening. So I didn’t think twice when I got a call a few months later with the question if I’d be willing to help VanWonen with the administration for the Northeast Netherlands. Moving to Zwolle was a great fit for me. I could do everything I’d done before, and it wasn’t a huge change. I’d always handled the administration, and most of my colleagues were familiar faces. The only new thing was the programme.”

A suitcase full of money
“Every Friday morning, our subcontractors would line up to collect their money. These days, everything is done digitally. Back then, I’d have to go to the bank to withdraw huge sums - sometimes 50,000 or 60,000 guilders! I’d walk around Zwolle carrying that much cash in a bag.” Willem’s attention to detail is impressive, both in his work and in his recollections. “Every last Thursday of the month from 9 am to 12 pm, holiday vouchers could be picked up. That was the only time. At the bank on the Melkmarkt in Zwolle, so all contractors from all over Overijssel and surrounding areas would flock there to pick up holiday vouchers. Everyone who came from there, you knew that person walked around with a lot of money in their pocket. But it always went well. In retrospect, it was pretty risky, but it was a different time. I was basically a kind of ‘Gaston of the Postcode Lottery’. I’d strut around with a suitcase full of money, though I got to make a lot more people happy,” he laughs. 

Safe broken into
“I’ve also been through the experience of having the safe broken into twice, and I was initially named as the prime suspect. The first incident was on a Thursday evening when 50,000 guilders in holiday vouchers were stolen. And two weeks later again, on a Friday: a cheque book had been taken, my signature was on it which they had forged to withdraw money. The detectives came to talk to my managers, who stood behind me. Luckily, otherwise they would have arrested me.”

Enjoying their golden years together
On the first of November, Willem is hanging up his hat on these adventures to spend quality time with his wife. Together, they plan to explore more of Scandinavia. Willem also wants to convert a camper van to make their travels more adventurous. “Those 49 years of work have flown by so fast. Now we can enjoy our golden years together.”
Today we threw him a retirement party, together with his family and all our colleagues. Enjoy your retirement, Willem!