At 6:30 in the morning, the workshop on Chaussée de Dieleghem in Jette slowly comes to life. The machines start up, and the first whiffs of almonds fill the air. Flori is already there. For over twenty years, this versatile worker has been a fixture at Silly, a company specializing in the production of hazelnut crunch and marzipan.
Her ID card says her name is Florica. But here, everyone calls her Flori. At 52, she knows the workshop almost by heart. Cleaning, production, weighing, packaging, palletizing: she moves from one station to the next with quiet ease. “I like doing a little bit of everything,” she says. “I don’t like staying in the same place all the time. Over time, I’ve learned almost every job.”
Yet nothing suggested she would end up working in the production of hazelnut crunch and marzipan. When she arrived in Belgium, she first held a series of cleaning jobs, then worked for a while in a restaurant. It was through an acquaintance that she heard about the Silly company, which was looking for someone to maintain its premises.
“At first, I came here to clean,” she says. But things changed quickly. Her coworkers showed her the machines, the techniques, and the different stages of production. “Little by little, they taught me the rest of the job.”
What was supposed to be just a job turned into a long-standing story. Twenty-two years later, Flori is still there. Why has she stayed so long? She smiles before answering: “People enjoy coming to work here. The bosses are nice, and so are the coworkers. We respect each other. It’s a truly caring place.”
One word comes up often when she talks about the company: family. “My family is in Romania,” she explains. “Here in Belgium, I have my husband and my son, but at work I’ve found a second family.”
This sense of belonging has developed over the years, sometimes during difficult times. She recalls, in particular, her father’s passing. “When it happened, they told me to go back to Romania and take as much time as I needed. They even offered me financial assistance if I needed it.” It was a gesture that deeply moved her. “I don’t think many companies would do that.”
Today, Flori has a thorough understanding of the manufacturing process. She describes in detail the journey of the almonds: washed, ground, and turned into paste before reaching the workbenches. Even though machines play a major role, human touch remains essential. “In the end, we still do a lot of work by hand: we weigh, we package, and we check that everything is done properly.”
This expertise also gives her a sense of pride. She sometimes gives marzipan to her friends and family. “Every time, people tell me it’s the best they’ve ever tasted,” she says. “It makes me proud, because I know how much work goes into achieving that result.”
But the job gave her much more than just professional skills. When she arrived in Belgium, Flori lacked self-confidence. “At first, I was really afraid of making mistakes,” she recalls. “I was afraid to touch the machines, afraid I might break something.”
Little by little, her colleagues and bosses encouraged her to try new things and learn. “They told me it was okay to make mistakes. That’s how you learn.” That support changed everything. “This is where I learned to believe in myself.”
Today, she feels confident enough to get by on her own in a big city and in a country that wasn’t her own. “I used to be afraid of a lot of things. Now I know I can do it.”
Despite her age, her energy remains undiminished. For her, work isn’t a chore. “The hard part isn’t working,” she says with a laugh. “It’s staying home on the weekends.”
After more than two decades with the company, Flori can’t imagine working anywhere else. “I’d like to stay here until I retire,” she says simply.
And in every kilo of marzipan and hazelnut crunch that leaves the workshop, there is a little bit of that loyalty.