A healthy addiction

When you enter Waterman’s headquarters in Emmeloord, you won’t be able to escape Hessel’s smile. This Frisian man, born in Gelderland and raised in Brabant, manages all transport-related matters and communicates with our customers, transporters and suppliers. Actually, he talks to everyone who has contact with Waterman in any way.

Fitting the pieces together
What he loves most about his job? The puzzling part. Working with his colleagues to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch: that, at the end of the day, everything fits properly and went smoothly. As long as he manages to make sure that all the day’s work is done!

And when the day is over, he enjoys spending even more time at Waterman, because his sports club has the very same name, although that’s not entirely a coincidence, of course.

‘De Watermannen’ is a tug of war club that was initially established to help Waterman’s employees blow off some steam after work. Now, eight years later, it has grown into a fully fledged sports club that has won many a prize. Recently, the youth team won the Dutch Championships for the second time in a row.

Practice
“It’s a healthy addiction,” says Hessel. “It may be a small league, but that doesn’t mean we’re not serious. In the winter months, we have a match every other weekend and we practice about three times a week. The rest of the year, we practice about once a week.”

We train for our matches in a farmer’s barn with home-made setups. What goes for Hessel’s job, also goes for his athletic exploits: it’s all about making sure that everything fits and runs smoothly. Tug of war and working in Waterman’s Logistics department are both great examples of the power of cooperation, that much is clear!