- Employee
- 15/01/2026
Behind the scenes | Richard Meuldijk, window cleaner
From technicians to schedulers, and from IT specialists to catering staff—it takes many hands to keep TU/e running smoothly. But who are the people behind the scenes? Cursor puts them in the spotlight. This time: Richard Meuldijk, window cleaner at Asito.
Building by building, Richard Meuldijk is getting to know the TU/e. Before cleaning company Asito offered him a job as a window cleaner on campus in September 2024, he had never been here. Born in Breda, raised in Weert, and now living in the Belgian town of Hamont, he used to think TU/e was a bit far away. But he has no regrets: “I have a great job.”
What time do you clock in?
“I start at seven in the morning, four days a week. By then, I’ve already spent forty minutes in the car. Together with all Asito employees and the people from Maas vending machines (for coffee, soft drinks, and snacks, ed.), we start the day in Auditorium with a cup of coffee and some small talk. Then everyone heads off to work. We take an Asito van to the building where we’ll be cleaning the windows.”
“On Fridays, I have my own clients: private customers around Hamont and Weert.”
What does your job involve exactly?
“Together with my colleague Marcel Sprengers, I clean all the windows twice a year. That includes facade glass on the inside and outside, partition glass, and the skywalks. Bird droppings, fingerprints, dust—it all has to go.
I’ve developed my own method and by now I know: good tools are half the job. I have a good squeegee and washer. I only use cloths for hinges, and I don’t use a chamois. My cleaning solution is just tap water with a drop of dish soap. I never add vinegar; that’s better for your hands anyway.”
“By the way, the dullness of some windows—like near the elevators on floor 3 of MetaForum—is something we can’t fix. That has to do with the material; the glass there is fire-resistant.”
“I don’t often use a ladder. Being 1.86 meters tall helps; I can reach most windows just fine. Sometimes I work with a long pole using osmosis water (demineralized tap water that doesn’t leave streaks, ed.), but I find the results less good. Direct contact with the glass works best for me.”
“For exterior work, I actually enjoy getting into a suspended platform hanging from the facade. I’ve done that from the roofs of Vertigo, Flux, and Helix. My colleague really doesn’t like it, so I do all the platform work myself. I pick up the key at reception and exchange phone numbers with the receptionist, just in case something happens.”
“I recently discovered there’s also an indoor platform for the high windows on floor 1 of MetaForum, but it hasn’t been used in years. I wouldn’t even know how it’s supposed to be attached. But it’s about time—there are spider webs hanging there.”
How did you end up in this job?
“I already had my own one-person cleaning business, mainly focused on window cleaning. During the COVID period, that became difficult—people started cleaning their own windows. And since I now have a family, I really wanted a permanent job. As you get older, you get wiser, I guess. First I worked for Asito cleaning at the Dommelsch brewery, and when they offered me a job as a window cleaner on this campus, I said yes.”
How long does it take to clean a building?
“That depends on the building. We do both inside and outside and decide the order ourselves. At MetaForum, we’re busy for about a month. Neuron was done in two weeks.”
What do you enjoy most?
“Hanging from high buildings, and the contact with my cleaning colleagues and the people from the KEMA inspections based in Flux. Every day is different. When I’m cleaning the windows of the outer ring in Neuron, I really get to see things. The first time I stepped into a platform, I immediately loved it. What a view!”
What do you enjoy least?
“I like offices and classrooms less than facades, because under Dutch occupational health and safety rules we’re not allowed to move desks or cabinets. Staff are asked in advance to clear things away. If they don’t, we sometimes skip a section. That’s fine.”
“The trickiest windows are in Flux. On the inside of the facade glass, there’s first a layer of blinds and then another layer of glass. It’s hard to explain, but I have to do some pretty acrobatic moves and use poles to reach everything.”
What time do you clock out, and what do you do afterward?
“We stop at three in the afternoon. I like starting early and finishing early. My son Vince gets back from his Belgian school around the same time, and then my wife and I have some quality time with him. Lately we’ve been busy designing birth announcements, because we’re expecting our second child in February.”
Have you ever seen anything while cleaning windows at TU/e that you weren’t supposed to see?
“No, I’m still waiting for that!”
This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor
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