Employment in the Netherlands. It’s a tricky, sometimes difficult, complicated, OMFG WHY sort of situation. There are language and cultural barriers galore which are always interesting to navigate. You might also show up here with your hard-earned set of degrees to only find that they don’t really matter that much. (Stepping back from that rant topic….) Needless to say, it can be frustrating.
On the flip side of that, while I’m envious of some of my former classmates’ ease at finding a job in their field, I’m not jealous of many of the working conditions. One of the biggest differences in work cultures between the Netherlands and the United States is how they handle illness in the workplace.
It was quite normal to talk with friends and family in the US who were at work sounding like they were about to hack up a lung or running a fever simply because they had run out of their sick leave for the year. It’s sad that has had to take a deadly pandemic to make that practice questioned in the least. “Sick leave” is treated the same as vacation time, and it’s totally the individual’s fault for not being able to take the right amount of meds to get back to work. (That last sentence is dripping with sarcasm, but I’m not sure if the splatter sounds are audible through the text.)
I came here with that mentality deeply ingrained in how I reacted to any illness and how I took care of myself. Once I actually had employment here, I learned that the Dutch do not handle it in nearly the same way.
In the Netherlands, if you are sick, GTFO of the workplace, go home, rest, take care of yourself, and come back when you feel better. Your health is a top priority, not your being at the office. While some jobs are probably more demanding about that, it was quite refreshing to learn that if I had a fever, people did not want or expect me to be at work.
I had a health issue a couple of years ago that required me to be away from work for an extended period of time. It was not my idea, actually. I had to be told to go home by someone at work. My job was not threatened for it like I would have expected in the US. You cannot be fired for being ill. Nor can your employer technically reprimand you for being sick too often. That’s almost unheard of in the US.
As I see more and more news articles emerging about the “Great Resignation,” I hope the American workforce realizes that their health and well-being are more important than a company’s bottom line. As the challenge for better work conditions and rewards for their labor continues, I desperately hope that “sick leave” in the US gets a bit more Dutchified.