Text: Susan van Weperen. Photo: Guy Ackermans
They are indispensable on the campus: the cleaners, caretakers, caterers, gardeners, receptionists – the list is long. Resource looks up these key people. This time, meet Arie van den Dool (63), on the facilities staff in Zodiac.
Arie will retire in June and say goodbye to Zodiac after working for Wageningen University for over 40 years. ‘I started working in Zodiac 42 years ago, looking after laboratory animals. I looked after the poultry and cattle until 2008. Then I switched to my current job as a facility worker. When I stopped working as an animal carer, a lot of people asked me if I missed the animals. I always jokingly said: “No, because now I know who the real animals are.”
As a facility worker in Zodiac I do all kinds of odd jobs. One day I’m assembling new office chairs and the next I’m getting meeting rooms ready and putting up white boards. So my work is very varied. Before I started in Zodiac as a facilities employee, I was doing the same job in Axis for a year and a half. After those 18 months I returned to Zodiac, and I was happy about that, because I feel at home in Zodiac. There is a relaxed atmosphere here and my colleagues are a bunch of crazies; we’re always playing jokes on each other.’
Like this edition of Key People, for instance: Arie’s colleagues tipped off the editors without him knowing about it. That’s no problem for Arie: ‘We often joke with each other, so you can expect things like this.’
I feel at home in Zodiac
Now that Arie is retiring, he will miss these jokes. ‘It’s always fun in Zodiac, but now it is time to enjoy some peace and quiet and spend more time with my family. I will move to Vlissingen, closer to my children and grandchildren. Of course, everyone who knows me knows that I won’t sit around and that I will go and work somewhere as a volunteer. And I will find people and sociability there too.’
