'At home in security for almost thirty years'

Rijswijker Ben Evers (55) has been working at Werkse since 1994! And is having a great time. After first doing some short jobs at Assembly and Packaging, he joined Security in 1995. He has been working there for almost 30 years now.

Of those thirty years, Ben worked for about eight years at Museum Prinsenhof, which has been closed for several years since the beginning of 2025 due to a major renovation. In 1996, Ben obtained the required diploma Security 2: ‘From that moment I am a qualified security guard. Later I did the training as a Business Rescuer (BHV).’

AIn addition, he did the BHV Team Leader course and a special BHV training for the cultural sector. ‘That was necessary for my work at Museum Prinsenhof. If an emergency occurs there, you also need to know how to bring works of art to safety with policy, in addition to bringing people to safety.

Exciting
The core of the work at Prinsenhof for Ben is to monitor the entire building. ‘That’s different from the work of a suppoost. It is fixed in a room, while the supervisor goes around the entire building.’ The assignment he had as a security guard in Prinsenhof was to ensure that people did not get too close to works of art or touch them, and to intervene if someone became unwell. ‘Hence those BHV courses. I was in the control room in Prinsenhof and was Team Leader BHV from that position. You then have to coordinate in emergencies, ensure that an ambulance comes and that the brothers can be at the scene of the accident quickly. You have to be able to switch and improvise quickly. Exciting and fun to do.’

Customer-friendlyBen also took a customer friendliness course, where he learned how to put people at ease and make them feel welcome. ‘I also learned that when I worked in the hospitality industry as a teenager. Customer friendliness is of course essential there. But also in our company visitors need to be well guided, feel at ease. That starts when they arrive and ends when they leave.’ Ben has taught himself to always greet when people leave: ‘Then someone feels seen and appreciated. I also remember the names of regular visitors, which makes them feel even more appreciated and the contact is even more smooth.’ At the top of Ben’s conception of task is that everyone abides by the house rules. ‘I’m head House Rules’, I always say. That is the most important thing for me, that everyone sticks to it. If you do not adhere to it, it can damage the safety of all other people present. And we don’t want that.’

Vital importance
Work is vital for Ben, he says. ‘Your health, having living space, eating and drinking and doing fun things – everything falls or stands with money. So work is very important.’ He is open to every new challenge that comes his way. Whether he will return to Museum Prinsenhof when it reopens remains to be seen. ‘I now have a lot of valuable knowledge of the Werkse! building on the Gantel. I know the way there very well, know the most important people and faces, and know who I need to be with to get things done. That’s ideal for the organization, so maybe I’ll stay there. I chose this profession to help people; where I do that doesn’t matter much to me.