As promised, to celebrate one month here in Amsterdam we’re releasing a series of posts on our first impressions— the delightful, surprising, annoying, and whimsical things we’ve noticed about Amsterdam, Holland, the Netherlands, and Dutch life since we’ve arrived.
It likely won’t shock any of you that one of the reasons why we chose to leave the U.S. was because of work culture.
We felt that we had very little work-life balance, and we struggled to set boundaries around our personal time, even when we were on vacation. We would often get emails at all hours of the day and night, and it was hard to “unplug.”
And of course, for people who (obviously) love to travel, 10 days of vacation time per year is simply not enough.
Here, we feel like kids in a toy store so far.
It was really easy to move over here paperwork-wise, and the job interview and contract process was much more straightforward than in the U.S.
Office culture is open, friendly, and laid-back, and we are settling into our new lifestyle really well here.
1. Eligibility
Full disclosure, it was definitely easier for us to move here than for the average foreigner. Tegan has Italian citizenship, so she can live anywhere in the European Union, and the Dutch government allows her to extend her status to Alex.
For Americans specifically seeking to move over here, though, there is a way!
The Dutch-American Friendship Treaty (or DAFT), is a bilateral agreement between the two governments from back in 1956 that allows for easier movement between the two countries for purposes of entrepreneurship or trade. The Netherlands has a similar treaty with Japan.
If you’re looking to open a business (whether brick-and-mortar, freelance, etc.) you can apply for a visa that allows you to stay in the Netherlands for 2 years. After the 2 years, you can reapply, and after 5 years (total) you’re eligible for permanent residency.
This is a great way for American and Japanese citizens to be expats, even temporarily! Check out the IND’s requirements if you’re interested.
For European Union citizens, there is a guaranteed and inalienable right to free movement within the EU– it’s part of the Union’s charter.
Due to this, Tegan is allowed to live and work in the Netherlands for however long she’d like, and doesn’t need a visa, residency requirement, etc. to do so. This also extends to European Economic Area (EEA) citizens.
As her long-term partner, Tegan’s rights extend to Alex, even though he does not have EU citizenship– this is a really cool thing about the Netherlands, specifically, and one big reason we chose to move here!
If you’re planning to stay in the Netherlands for less than 4 months, you don’t even need to tell the government.
Since we are permanently moving here, though, we had to register with the city and with the national government for tax purposes. You need proof of a mortgage, lease, or permanent address in the Netherlands to do this.
In order to sponsor a non-EU partner (Alex), we had to fill out a registration form and a verification against EU law form. Alex had to go in for biometrics and they do a background check as well.
If this process applies to you– start early! The supporting documents (birth certificate, marriage or partnership certificate, etc.) must be in English, German, French, or Dutch, and must be apostilled.
An apostille is essentially an internationally-recognized notary stamp. In the U.S., the Secretary of State is the only authority who can grant these, and they can take quite some time to process. Start this process months in advance!
To register with the city, you call the Gemeente office for an appointment, and bring the required documents with you– apostilled birth certificate, passport, valid lease, etc. It all must be on A4 paper, a paper size that does not exist in the U.S.
In the Amsterdam office there are very long wait times for appointments, so this is something else to do ASAP. They verify and copy your documents, and give you a BSN number, the equivalent to an American Social Security Number (SSN.)
Your BSN allows you to collect a paycheck, register for (mandatory) healthcare, and open a bank account, as well as pay taxes and receive other government benefits.
2. The interview and job contract process
We started our job search back in the U.S., in hopes of qualifying for the 30% ruling, a Dutch tax perk for foreign nationals with specific expertise that cannot be satisfied by a Dutch employee.
Since the cost of living is so high here and you will likely incur some costs moving over, you can get a 30% “discount” on your taxes for 5 years.
There are a few requirements to satisfy. You must have signed the contract outside of the Netherlands, and you can’t have lived here before. You must make a certain income and have certain degrees (a Master’s degree, minimum.)
For example, Tegan was hired in her new role while still in the U.S. Since the role needs someone to write English-language educational content, in an American English style, targeted at an American audience, this is considered expertise not found in the Dutch labor force. Thus, she qualifies. Alex was hired for his new role after we arrived in the Netherlands, but may still qualify (TBD!)
While interviewing, we noticed that in general Dutch companies care a lot about “culture fit.”
Interviews were much more laid-back than we were used to. Companies expressed an interest in getting to know us as individuals– our motivations, work styles, hobbies, and personal lives.
As one hiring manager said, “I can see that you’re qualified for this role from your CV. The point of interviewing is to see if you’d be a good fit, and for you to see if you’d be interested in the role.” Definitely a departure from the grilling we’ve experienced in American job interviews!
Most roles seemed to have 2 interview rounds, with an assignment or trial day between the first and second round, in order to gauge how you would perform. While the assignments could be very time-consuming and were uncompensated, it was beneficial to see if it was the type of work you’d like to do full-time.
The interview process can take quite some time– up to two months. It was our experience that companies seemed more interested in getting the right person in the role than rushing through the process.
When we accepted our new jobs, we signed contracts. These include many more protections than we had in at-will jobs in the U.S. After a probation month, there’s a contract extension of 6-12 months, and then the contract is renegotiated. After (maximum) 36 months in one role, you become permanent, but apparently most jobs offer you permanent status before this deadline.
It is apparently very difficult to be terminated if you are within your contract here, so job security is a great perk.
Tegan ended up accepting an offer at a really neat education technology start-up, and Alex at a compliance firm. All in all, the process took several months, but both of us feel really satisfied with our decisions.
3. Working from home
As we mentioned, work contracts are quite pro-employee, and Dutch law protects you from sudden termination or harmful work practices. What’s “harmful,” you ask? For one, a “non-ergonomic home office setup.”
Yep– if you work from home, even infrequently, the Dutch government has the right to come inspect your house to make sure your employer has supplied you with a sufficiently ergonomic work setup.
At minimum, this entails a 2nd screen, a pre-approved rolling desk chair with support for your back, a wireless mouse and keyboard to protect your wrists, and a laptop stand so both screens are at eye-level.
The day after Tegan started her new job, all of these things magically appeared on our doorstep, even though she will primarily be working from the office.
You also get a subsidy from your employer to cover extra utilities consumed while working from home, as well as a “kilometer subsidy” for your commute.
Yes, even for commuting by bike!
4. Work perks
It’s also apparently the norm here to provide lunch to your employees in the office, as well as Friday after-work drinks, called “borrel.”
Every day at 12:30 sharp at Tegan’s office, a healthy and delicious lunch (hearty sandwiches, salads, and soups) are dropped off.
On cue, everyone stops working, gathers around a large table, and eats family-style– swapping stories and jokes, chatting, and spending time together. Half an hour later (on the dot!) dirty plates are stacked tidily and everyone gets back to work, quietly focused on their tasks for the rest of the afternoon.
The office has healthy snacks, unlimited tea and coffee, and an open and spacious floor plan. Everyone is given Bose noise-cancelling headphones. If you need to make a call or have some privacy, there are soundproof booths.
There are FAR less meetings than we experienced in American roles, and you’re more free to be autonomous and make decisions you think are best. Tegan went from having sometimes 9 meetings each day to perhaps 3 per week.
It’s much more productive this way– people know that they have a nice, relaxing break at lunchtime, and are largely focused the rest of the day.
People are usually dressed in jeans and sneakers– transitioning out of wearing a pencil skirt every day has definitely been a breath of fresh air! Though biking in a pencil skirt would have likely been an impossibility, anyhow.
On Fridays, everyone unwinds together over a Heineken or two in the office prior to going their separate ways for the weekend– where, it goes without saying, there won’t be a single Slack message or Asana task until the work-week starts again on Monday morning.
We get 25 and 30 days off, respectively– not including holidays like Christmas or Kings’ Day, and we also qualify for something called “13th month pay.”
This is essentially a bonus– you’re given the equivalent of a “13th month”, or 8% of your salary, in the summertime, with the idea that you’ll use it specifically to go on vacation.
History lesson: Apparently (back in the day), families complained to the government that despite the fact that they had adequate days off to take their families on vacation, they didn’t have enough money to. So the government stepped in and started granting “holiday allowances.” This tradition has endured, though today it’s the employer that pays it.
5. Waiting for the other shoe to drop…
While work culture is overall pretty grand here, it’s not all roses– salaries are distinctly lower here than in the U.S., which means we aren’t able to save as much per month as we were before.
Full disclosure, we each took about 30% pay cuts in our new jobs– which actually pay very well for the Dutch market– and the cost of living is only a little bit lower than in Boston. Groceries and rent are slightly lower, but utilities and taxes are definitely higher.
Credit cards are basically unheard of here, so we’re not racking up statement rewards like we used to, either– stores are almost-exclusively cash or debit (called pin-pas.) It’s apparently “un-Dutch” to accrue any sort of debt, even if you pay it off at the end of each month, so credit cards haven’t really caught on here.
History lesson, part II: We learned that the lower salaries are due to the fact that Dutch labor unions historically always advocated for more time off and “quality of life” guarantees, which is why vacation time is so generous and work-life balance so sacred. In contrast, American organized labor tended to advocate for higher pay, without the quality of life consideration. Food for thought…
Parting thoughts…
Even taking into account the pay cut, we can already see that the move over here has been the right choice for us.
The Dutch government is communicative, accessible, and easy to navigate. If you have a question, you can call the city or the national immigration service and have an answer immediately, from a real human.
Dutch colleagues are friendly and welcoming, and Dutch employers seem to be genuinely concerned about your happiness and wellbeing in your new role.
Working from home is a right, not a privilege, and many people work 32 or 36 hours a week, rather than 40.
9-to-5 is not enforced, and you’re encouraged to work whenever you’re most productive and take frequent breaks. If you’re not using up your vacation time, you can expect to be asked why.
What questions do you have about life as expats in Amsterdam? In honor of our first month, we’ll be releasing more “first impressions” content shortly– housing, biking, grocery shopping, and more! But as always, feel free to let us know in the comments if there’s anything you’d like us to cover, and you can follow along on Instagram or Facebook!
