40th work anniversary at De Haan for Mark van der Linde

Last Friday Mark van der Linde celebrated his 40th work anniversary at our family owned relocation company in the Netherlands.  

He chose to spend this festively with his former colleagues who, in his own words, molded and raised him from a small rascal from Dordrecht to the experienced, all-round professional he has become. Some of them are now approaching 81 years. They had a lot of stories to tell eachother, as you can imagine!

Mark, 15 years old at the time, lived on Vinkenpolderweg in Alblasserdam and regularly did holiday work at De Haan. De Haan was just around the corner from where his stepfather Theo and mother Hennie also worked. More and more often Mark went along as a replacement on the moving truck. With an LTS metal education in his pocket, he chose De Haan in September 1981. Still today, September 2021, he calls De Haan "an always good and nice employer".

For many years Mark helped out on the moving trucks as a mover. In addition, he was our warehouse manager for more than 15 years. Mark also did the logistics planning for five years. As an experienced and always good-natured mover, Mark is proud to have been able to supervise the office relocation of the American Embassy. More recently, he also led a large group of employees, as foreman on the project relocation of care institution Rosa Spier. Deploying the right people in the right place is what motivates Mark.

That he now encounters the (grand)children of former colleagues at De Haan in the workplace is very nice to experience, says Mark.

Funny anecdote is that Jan Jacobs (brother of Ab Jacobs - current employee at De Haan) got the young Mark fooled for once by saying that he had to take his passport with him because they were going to Belgium. When Mark had forgotten that, Jan asked Mark to hide at the border control (yes, it was still there then!) in a clothes box in the back of the moving van. Young Mark anxiously heard the car stop, door open and footsteps approaching for control. Not knowing that Jan had arranged with a customer that he would pretend to be from customs. You can probably imagine Mark's startled red head when the clothing box he was hiding in was opened!

Mark, who says he has stopped counting how long he has worked at De Haan after 25 years, hopes to become a grandfather to his third grandchild in January 2022. This, however, is not visible to him. Strength training, fitness and moderate running keep him in shape.

 Congratulations on behalf of all of us Mark!