DUTCH TREAT
They take 'stress' so seriously in Holland, says
Fraser Bailey, that if you feel a bit unhappy
you can get a year off work on full pay
HAVING lived and worked in the Netherlands for nearly five years. I know what a wonderfully comfortable place it is. There is full employment and everyone goes home at 5.30 p.m. On sunny days, many people simply call in sick from the beach. To be granted six weeks' annual leave is not unusual. Public transport is cheap and efficient and, of course, everyone is free to wind down quite openly with the drug of their choice. But, despite this enviable lifestyle, an average of 90.000 Dutch employees fail to turn up for work each year on the grounds of being `overspannen' — a condition which allows them to take a year off on full pay and then, if they are not cured, to enter into the benefits system for the rest of their lives.
Overspannen is a uniquely Dutch concept relating to a feeling of work-related stress. Worried about an upcoming merger? Teased or ignored by your colleagues? Don't like your desk? Faced with a long commute? Overworked? Undenvorked? Feel like a break? Simply get a doctor to agree that you are under a little stress and a year off work on full pay can be yours. After 364 days you can simply walk back into work — and then walk out again a few days later and join the ranks of the overspannen for another year. And your employer can do nothing about it, because nobody can be fired or made redundant if they are overspannen.
A Dutch colleague describes the state of overspannen as follows: An overspannen person starts crying when somebody asks, "How are you?" An overspannen person is paranoid. Think of John Cleese in FawIty Towers. He acts like an overspannen person all the time.' But instead of being told to go and do something a little more suited to their tolerance of stress (like working in a sweet shop). those who experience overspannen are indulged by both the state and (rather more reluctantly) their employers.
Wander into any bar or café during the day in downtown Amsterdam and you are likely to bump into someone who is too overspannen to go to work, but who is beginning to feel a little better and might be ready to return in a few months. At a small company rocked by murder and sexual scandal, the entire workforce decided they were overspannen, leaving the boss to struggle on alone. (A British workforce, one feels, would have rushed to work each morning, eager for news of fresh scandal and delighted to work in such a lively environment.) The typical 'victims' of overspannen are not, as you might expect. lowly factory workers, cleaners, road sweepers and the like. No, in large part they work in cushy, well-paid professions such as advertising, marketing, banking and accountancy. Research shows that they are very likely to he educated managers aged between 35 and 55. Many women, having had a child, delay their return to work almost indefinitely by deciding to go overspannen. Teachers, nurses, prison guards and army personnel are also highly susceptible to a bit of overspannen. In fact, some members of the armed forces were so worried about going to Bosnia that they simply went overspannen instead. Forestry workers, astronomers, beauticians and librarians, on the other hand, are never overspannen.
So obsessed are the Dutch with the idea of stress that there is even a kind of ministry for its study and regulation — the Arbodienst'. As far as the Arbodienst is concerned, stress is never caused by weakness or incompetence; instead, it is a fact of modern life, caused by a working environment that is less than perfect. It distributes leaflets concerning the management of stress within the workplace, encourages companies to set up 'internal steering groups to define structures for stress management', and says that the best solution is 'listening and talking'. It aims to reduce the number of those who suffer some form of work-related stress (currently 1.7 million people annually) by 10 per cent by the year 2003.
And, of course, the Arbodienst pays regular visits to places of work, where it rigorously examines working conditions. Does everyone have enough space, enough light and nice flooring? It asks the employees if they are happy, and encourages them to fill in questionnaires where they are able to put a tick beside statements such as At the end of the day I feel empty.' It then diagnoses the health situation and assesses the risk of stress. Needless to say, the embattled employer does not have a leg to stand on, and failure to comply with the recommendations of the Arbodienst will lead to a fine. The company I worked for was compelled, following a visit from this resolute body, to replace one set of perfectly good chairs with another set of chairs which, as far as I could tell, were very little different from the first set.
The roots of overspannen lie in a Dutch belief-system that says that everybody must be equal and happy — especially in the workplace: a system where every grievance must be indulged; where there should be no criticism of anybody's work; and where nothing is ever anybody's fault. And the undoubted success of the Dutch in having built a successful economy has only fostered these beliefs. 'The Netherlands has become a heaven on earth. People have no material or physical problems, so they have to invent problems in their mind — hence overspannen,' say Dutch friends. It is, essentially, no different from the 'stress' imagined by rich New Yorkers, except that in the Netherlands it is employers and taxpayers who pick up the bill.
Of course, there are many Dutch people who despair of this malingerers' charter. A period of overspannen is coming to be seen as a sign of weakness, and doesn't look too good on one's CV. More market-oriented politicians are pointing out that a situation where almost one million people in the Netherlands are permanently 'unable to work' and are claiming disabled or stressrelated benefits (almost 10 per cent of the working population) is unsustainable. One such politician recently forced through the draconian (by Dutch standards) step of compelling those who are overspannen to be properly assessed by a psychiatrist before being allowed to receive benefits for life. Meanwhile, a major Japanese company has simply given up trying to work within such a system and has decamped to the United Kingdom, and others are thinking of following their example.
But, despite the growing stigma of being overspannen, fans of the condition are not lying down (not metaphorically, at any rate). Instead, they are raising the stakes. Overspannen, it seems, is for wimps. These days, you have to experience burn-out. If you thought burn-out was something only experienced by people who had worked 14-hour days in ultra-stressful circumstances for years on end, think again. In the Netherlands, burn-out is something you experience after a few months of driving from Amsterdam to Rotterdam and back each day as a mid-level banking employee in a nice office. And according to the Arbodienst it takes you three years to recover. Nice absencefrom-work if you can get it.
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