'At home in security for almost thirty years'

Rijswijk resident Ben Evers (55) has been working at Werkse! and he's having a great time. After some short stints in Assembly and Packaging, he joined Security in 1995. He's been working there for almost 30 years now.

Of those thirty years, Ben worked for about eight years at the Prinsenhof Museum, which has been closed for several years since early 2025 due to major renovations. In 1996, Ben obtained the required Security 2 diploma: "From that moment on, I became a certified security guard. Later, I completed training as a Company Emergency Response Officer (BHV)."

He also completed the Emergency Response Team Leader course and specialized emergency response training for the cultural sector. "That was necessary for my work at the Prinsenhof Museum. If an emergency situation arises there, you also need to know how to properly secure artworks, in addition to keeping people safe."

exciting
For Ben, the core of his work at Prinsenhof is patrolling the entire building. "That's different from the work of a security guard. They're stationed in a room, while the security guard patrols the entire building." His job as a security guard at Prinsenhof was to ensure that people didn't get too close to or touch artwork, and to intervene if someone became unwell. "That's why I took the Emergency Response training courses. I worked in the emergency response center at Prinsenhof and, from that position, was the Emergency Response Team Leader. In emergencies, you have to coordinate, ensure an ambulance arrives, and ensure the paramedics can quickly reach the scene of the accident. You have to be able to switch gears quickly and improvise. It's exciting and fun."

Customer friendly
Ben also took a customer service course, where he learned how to make people feel comfortable and welcome. "I learned that when I worked in the hospitality industry as a teenager. Customer service is essential there, of course. But in our business, too, visitors need to be properly guided and made to feel comfortable. That starts when they arrive and ends when they leave." Ben has trained himself to always greet people when they leave: "That way, someone feels seen and appreciated. I also remember the names of regular visitors, which makes them feel even more valued and communication flows more smoothly." Ben's job description emphasizes that everyone adheres to the house rules. "I'm the head of house rules," I always say. That's the most important thing for me: that everyone adheres to them. If you don't comply, it can compromise the safety of everyone else present. And we don't want that."

Vital importance
Work is vital to Ben, he says. "Your health, having a place to live, food and drink, and doing fun things – everything depends on money. So work is very important." He's open to any new challenge that comes his way. Whether he'll return to the Prinsenhof Museum when it reopens remains to be seen. "I've gained a lot of valuable knowledge about the Werkse!-building on Gantel. I know my way around very well, know the key people and faces, and know who to contact to get things done. That's ideal for the organization, so I might stay. I chose this profession to help people; where I do that doesn't really matter to me.