Their pulses are adorned by the jubilee watch for twenty-five years of trusted service. “Together we have been connected with TU/e for half a century”, Ad and Paulus say with a smile. Which is quite something, considering that they did not fancy the idea at all at first. Paulus (left photo) was tipped about an open vacancy with TU/e’s security service. “I had some doubts, because we had to work in shifts. Still, I did go and have a chat”, he says. Once he had started Paulus became more and more enthusiastic. He enjoyed it so much that he persuaded his brother Ad. Ad did not like the irregular working hours either: “But once I had got used to this, I did not want it any other way!”

Brothers working together, is that a success? The two shrug their shoulders: “It is no different from working with other colleagues.” At home they do not talk about their work a lot; there are plenty of other things to discuss. “We are from a family of eleven children and are a very close-knit bunch. Every first Sunday of the month we drink coffee together. We take turns, so everybody gets their turn to serve.”

When he was 58 Paulus stopped working, but he has returned now as a temporary worker. When there is someone ill, Paulus helps out the doorkeepers. “Well, they couldn’t miss me!”, he jokes. Secretly he really enjoys it, though. “I know how everything works here. And if there is nothing else in my diary, it’s fine with me.” What they both like best about their work is their contact with young people. “We know lots of students. There is always something going on.”

They could fill a book if they had to write about the funny things they have experienced. Especially when they were still working for security, there was often something going. Ad remembers a nice anecdote: “We saw a couple crawling over the lawn at dead of night. It turned out that they had lost a contact lens. We safely avoided the question what exactly it was that they were doing there.” By aiming the headlights of their car at the lawn, the couple fortunately managed to find the lens again.