Betty Zuidberg

She was ‘the wife of’ and years later also ‘the mother of’, but Betty Zuidberg never saw herself as any different from the other employees at Zuidberg. She did the admin, drove the trailer around and cooked for the staff. Later, she would become the confidante of the employees there. “It was only during my speech at my leaving party that it really hit me how special these years have been.”

When her husband Henk started his business in 1982, Betty Zuidberg worked outdoors. “Our children, Jeroen and Daniëlle, were about seven or eight. When they were at school, I worked in the greenhouses doing the planting and stuff like that. It combined really well with looking after the children.”

Only drive forwards with the trailer
Henk started his business from his brother Wim’s shed. Betty recalls: “At some point, Henk said to me: you would be better off doing things for me. I’m not at all technical, so I couldn’t help in that area, but I could definitely manage other odd jobs. There was no stock, so if Henk needed something, I had to fetch it. I was going to the wholesaler in Marknesse almost every day or driving to Lelystad to pick up a shipment of steel. I couldn’t reverse with a trailer, so I would always try to drive around whatever premises I was visiting. If that wasn’t possible, I would ask one of the men there to park the car for me.” Admin was also Betty’s job. “In the early years, we did the admin together.”

Typewriter, cash book and telephone
After two years in his brother Wim’s shed, Henk moved the business to newly built premises. “There was a little office there, with a typewriter and a cabinet”, Betty remembers. “That’s when the first employees arrived, which meant my role in the company changed. I had a phone at my disposal and wrote down all the incomings and outgoings in a cash book. When someone had paid, I’d put a little check mark next to it. If the payment was taking too long, I’d phone to follow up on it. Every month, we took everything to the accountant, where I got to understand how the general ledger worked. I was always learning something.”

The arrival of computers was likewise a substantial change. “Henk and I had to take computer classes. There was always something new. The workforce grew. If the employees had to do overtime, then I would cook for them. And I washed their work clothes. We would later send them to a laundry, but in the beginning, we did it all ourselves. Which I didn't mind as I washed Henk’s overalls anyway.” Betty also worked in the canteen and did the cleaning.

Staff confidante
To the staff, Betty became a confidante. “They told me everything, even the things that weren’t so nice. They trusted me with those things. I would only ever tell Henk something if it was absolutely necessary, and I’d keep the rest to myself and never really talk about it at home. I walked through the factory often, asking everybody how they were, if their children were doing well or if somebody’s sick father was on the mend. If somebody had just had their first baby, we’d go visit them.”

‘The wife of’ and ‘the mother of’
Although Betty was ‘the wife of’, she never felt that way herself. “I was an employee, just like the rest of them, and I worked alongside them. I was the boss’s wife, but I didn’t see it that way. You have to do it together, you can’t grow alone. We organised staff parties ourselves, and they went really well. We wanted everybody to have a good time. At those parties, you could see that there was no real difference between the staff. You’d talk to everybody there. Whether you were an office worker, a welder, a receptionist, it didn’t matter. Everybody was, and is, an equally important link within the company.”

After the business was taken over by their son Jeroen in 2004, Betty worked in the company for another seven years. “Nothing really changed after he took over. Jeroen thought it was good the way it was. He really valued having me there. Of course, he’s still my son. He was 35 at the time, but I saw him differently from other 35-year-olds. I mean, it’s your child. I stopped working seven years later, I was sixty then, and there were already about 150 members of staff.”

A doer and a go-getter
Colleagues who had worked for Zuidberg for a long time said that the company could not have existed without Betty. But personally, she doesn’t believe that. “I don’t see it that way. It just happened the way it did; you weren’t in control of it. Henk worked extremely hard, even on Saturdays and evenings. His work was his life, and he still goes in regularly. He’s never actually stopped. I always thought that was fine, and I still do. I had my own stuff and was always busy. I was in a lot of clubs, took the children to sports, kept the household running, did the garden, and so on. Henk didn’t have to do anything at home, and at work, I took the chores off his hands so that he could concentrate on what he was good at, and on what he liked. I was a doer, a go-getter. Well, I still am. I do everything myself, and I manage just fine.”

Familiar faces
When she left in 2011, a large party was thrown in Betty’s honour. “It was a lovely surprise. I felt really spoilt. I gave a speech looking back on all those years. That’s when it really hit me just how special it was. Since I left, I rarely come in anymore, even though we live nearby. But I do occasionally come to the parties, like the recent celebration for the 40th anniversary of the company. I saw many familiar faces there, and I still knew almost everybody by name. I really enjoy looking back on all those years.”