What does your work at Gemba involve?

“I do very different things, which makes my job so interesting. My work ranges from entering purchase invoices and managing the vehicle fleet to, for example, monitoring hours. I have little contact with customers, only in accounts receivable management. I mainly work behind the scenes, and that for three days a week.”

How did you end up at Gemba?

“Through an advertisement in a regional newspaper. At that time, Gemba was still located in Landsmeer and I lived in Amsterdam-Noord. They were looking for someone for the back office for two days a week: Monday and Thursday. I have a lot of administrative experience and it was exactly what I wanted at that moment. My children were still young and it was nice and close. When I stepped into Gemba, it immediately felt right.”

Have you experienced Gemba paying attention to the person behind the employee?

Yes, definitely. I was out of action for almost a year due to a concussion and was given every opportunity to recover. Of course, the numbers count, but it’s important that you’re okay. That says it all.

Why does Gemba feel so good?

The atmosphere is informal, everyone can be themselves, and people think and empathize with you. Our director Jack Lok always says, ‘the employees are Gemba’. If there is something at home, for example, you get time for it. Parents and children come first, I recently experienced that myself. And what company now takes all employees on a trip, like our 25th anniversary to Seville? You don’t hear that often.

Tell me more about yourself?

I am a mother of two children and live with my husband Stefan Hoffmanns in Zaandam. So again close to Gemba, which is now located in Wormer. Stefan is a colleague of Gemba, he is a consultant. We see each other a lot when we are working. We do that partly from home, partly from the office. In addition, Stefan is with a customer two days a week. At Gemba, working from home is not a problem at all, which is nice. Especially because we got an American bulldog during the corona period and recently a French bulldog puppy joined us.

What do you do when you’re not working?

I am very creative and love to come up with and make things. I just got a Cricutmaker for my birthday. That is a cutting machine that you can do anything with. I also enjoy reading and baking and decorating cakes for every occasion, I love that. At Gemba, I am also in the staff association, together with sales manager Johan Knook and technical engineer Larry van Elewoud. We organize all sorts of things together, which is great fun. We just went to Winterberg for a long weekend. That was another great success. So many people came along that we had to book an extra apartment.

How do you see the future at Gemba?

I’m not much of a career tiger and I’m happy where I am. But at Gemba there is always room for growth if you want it. We currently have almost fifty people, quite a few employees have joined in the past year and the turnover is low. I myself have no reason to leave, I am completely happy here.