Work from home is now a legal right in Netherlands - World News:
The Netherlands became one of the first countries to make work from home a legal right after the Dutch parliament approved legislation. Work from home, also known as remote work, is an employment arrangement which facilitates the employees to work from anywhere. They do not need to commute to a central place of work, such as an office building, warehouse, retail store, etc.
Work from home became a common practice during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as globally, companies were forced to shut their offices due to lockdowns.
The pandemic has fueled a shift in attitudes about work, with many workers seeking to maintain some of the flexibility they've experienced over the last two years.
Bloomberg reported that work-from-home legislation was approved by the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands on Tuesday (July 5).
Importantly, the legislation now needs a green light from the Dutch senate before its final adoption. As per the law, employers will have to consider employee requests to work from home as long as their professions allow it.
[...] Now, employers are calling their employees back to the offices as the world economy is gradually opening up. For example, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk last month issued an ultimatum for staff at the company to return to the office, or leave.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 11 2022, @01:08PM (15 children)
How dare peons enjoy their work, that is the right of executives only.
Private jets, private islands, retreats, bonuses, all the toys - none of these help with work, they're simply a vehicle for superiors to Lord it over inferiors. Now back in the cubicle.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Monday July 11 2022, @01:17PM (14 children)
Indeed. It's quite clear that there are many at the top in many companies who don't trust us. I don't want to work for them. It's kind of them to let us know.
I love working from home. I am so much more productive and it is so much less stressful. I get peace and quite to focus and I can speak to people at the touch of a button when I really need to.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Opportunist on Monday July 11 2022, @01:36PM (5 children)
More importantly, I can NOT talk to people when I need to, and I can pretend to listen to the droning narcissist whose only reason to hold meetings is to hear himself talk about drivel nobody needs to hear.
Yes, C-Suits, I look your way. Nobody gives a fuck about your awesome performance that is actually my performance, and if you have visions, tell it to a shrink.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 11 2022, @01:59PM (4 children)
Well, the point of those long meetings is not to listen to the noise. It's so everyone sees how much better it is at "the top". Even if it isn't, the point is to crush souls and hand out moralistic advice - "I'd like to see more effort" and "You need to think about your choices". Gee, are these pearls of wisdom free or will you take it out of my paycheck?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday July 11 2022, @03:04PM
When management speaks to me like that, I go home and update my CV.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Monday July 11 2022, @04:09PM (2 children)
Frankly? All I see is "You call yourself a business leader? You pay 100 bucks an hour to have me sit here, you could have a bum listen to you drone for much less!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 11 2022, @04:54PM (1 child)
Your pain is more valuable than a bum's pain.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Tuesday July 12 2022, @06:54AM
It's not that painful when you realize that you have a billable hour where you can essentially shut down your brain and have it ponder more important things like the ass of that intern over there.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 11 2022, @03:07PM (7 children)
Should they? I notice that there was a bunch of class envy in this thread. It's not a stretch to consider that many of the same people whining about the comfort and pathology of the executive class might use the same arguments to rationalize slacking off at the home.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 11 2022, @04:19PM (4 children)
I think you'll find the thread is not about comfort but about denying comfort to others for no purpose other than to make comfort a rare commodity.
Sure you could do your work on a nice chair, but sitting on a metal spike would really drive home your worthlessness. Sure you could have a chair, but I prefer you sit on a spike.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Monday July 11 2022, @04:27PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday July 11 2022, @04:42PM (2 children)
Literally aren't enough chairs in many offices to sit every on. The idea being to get you voluntarily coming in earlier to guarantee you a seat
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 11 2022, @04:56PM (1 child)
Oh the shame of being last - it's like musical chairs. Wouldn't surprize me if they have a betting pool for who will be standing up today.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday July 11 2022, @05:06PM
It's a form of bullying. The employment contract specifies hours of business, when you should be present and working, yet they don't provide enough workstations so you are forced to participate in some kind of humiliating contest to get in earlier and earlier to fight over the seats. It's like reducing your employees to being like scavenging animals fighting over the scraps of a rotting carcass.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday July 11 2022, @05:07PM (1 child)
The thing is, we're grown adults, professionals with jobs to do, a common business goat to work towards, customers to serve and money to make. Some people will abuse that, no doubt. All systems are open to abuse. But at some point, there has to be some trust. I thought you of all people would see that?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 11 2022, @07:04PM
Your comment reminded me of a comment from a wide receiver made on some NFL team where a coach was let go. The coach was known for yelling and screaming at the players. When the wide receiver was asked about the coach's departure and demeanor, the receiver basically said what you said: we're all grown adults here and professionals and there is no reason that you should be screaming at me as part of my job. What's funny is that I never thought of it that way, having only played sports to a low level myself, where I was used to coaches screaming (fortunately, almost all of the coaches I had didn't do this, but you'd get the outlier, or you'd hear them across the field from the other team).
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Monday July 11 2022, @03:28PM (5 children)
From what I can tell it says nothing about the companies actually be required to offer such positions. Instead it's an "... employment arrangement" and "... per the law, employers will have to consider employee requests to work from home as long as their professions allow it.". So nothing about it being up to the employee, except to make the request, but they employers might have to consider their request which can then be denied for more or less any flimsy reason they desire. Sure they can go to the next company etc and try their luck there. It will be interesting to note if this actually has any kind of effect etc.
I guess it might be a lot of government jobs that can be done from home as someone will have to lead by example. Simply cause the private sector is still to full of themselves about "corporate culture" and that the job is apparently not a job but a way of life and something that grants meaning and fulfillment to my existence if I am to believe HR. So I just need to be in my cubical/office to feel and experience all those things.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday July 11 2022, @03:59PM (4 children)
Well, this is the Netherlands, not the US. An employee can actually flip an employer off over here and not drop into poverty immediately. If I make that request and it's fairly reasonable (because, say, I'm not in retail and think that working from home is a sensible option because I can stock my own shelfs as well as yours), and you say no, rest assured that you'll get a "k, fuck off" in reply as well as looking at my backside while I exist another 3-6 months on the dole.
Well, ok, I would not because it's friggin' impossible for me to be unemployed, even if I wanted, but let's assume the average worker.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 11 2022, @04:06PM (3 children)
I assure you that there's a lot of flipping off of employers in the US too.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday July 11 2022, @04:11PM (2 children)
Sure, but then you bite the bullet, grin and bear it.
Over here, if you tried half the shit employers get away with, you'd have a note on your desk in the morning:
Dear boss,
I found something new.
More of money
less of YOU
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Monday July 11 2022, @04:16PM
Except, of course, when that doesn't happen.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 11 2022, @08:29PM
Yes, and no. For most of my life, jobs were fairly easy to find. I had a reputation for being a hard worker, as well as being pretty smart, and needing little if any supervision. I could walk off of a job, and get 3 phone calls the next morning, asking me if I could come to work. When I moved across country, I had to reestablish my reputation, but again, when one job ended, anywhere from 2 to 10 people would call me, asking me to come to work.
In fact, we had a layoff at completion of the project, and I fully intended to sit at the house for a couple months, working for myself and drawing unemployment. I made it 5 days, before I got an offer that seemed too good to be true.
Today - not so much. Immigration has changed things drastically. A construction foreman can hire a whole crew for the wages that I'm willing to work for. So, I switched occupations, and got into maintenance. Crap - I only thought that politics played a role in construction hirin and firing. It's ten times worse in maintenance - but I've stuck it out.
Guaranteed though, if I wanted a job tomorrow, I could find a decent job, sans the seniority I have now.
Younger people might be just as hard working, and just as smart as I am, but they don't have the years of experience, and years of reputation that I enjoy. A lot of them might be truly screwed if they tell the boss to fuck off. It only takes one bad reference to screw a person badly.
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