The Truth About Working in the Netherlands as an American

No, we don’t ask you what kind of work you do and we don’t ask you how much money you make.

Very often you can find shared working spaces at the railway station, or public libraries

Go to the big 4. Den Haag, Utrecht, Amsterdam en Rotterdam. You will have a lot of places where you can bring the laptop to a café😊

As you already stated road maintenance in the us. Would love to hear your take on infrastructure and the likes. Also love your vibe. Needed more cats this video tho! :p

Check out seats2meet, that might be what you’re looking for

work ? you mean you signt up for '' OF '' XD

public establishments are not your work office or your personal office . GET THE HELL OUT !!!! GO HOME !!!! if not , just buy and pay for coffee and a snack , finish it in less then 15 minuts and '' GET OUT !!!!

Look on the web where remote working places are. Some cafés, bars and bistro's are on the web promoting themselves for digital nomads. Like, in The Hague the municipality itself has a dedicated webpage where such places are. According to the municipality theater Amare promotes their bistro as an excellent working spot for remote workers. And some places are dedicated spaces for remote workers where you can rent desk space for around 20 to 35 euro's per day. Including all kinds of facilities, like great WIFI, tea, coffee, bathrooms,. And a chance to meet other digital nomads for networking purposes.

I ussualy work remote from home but since i work with privillged client info i can't work in a public space so going to a cafe and work there is a big nono for me. As in generale i totally agre that you shouldn't be allowed to work or look at your screen in a a normale cafe it ruins the vibe of a place. Now can there be specialist combi places where you can? sure as long as it isn't in the place i visite to relax after work.

There are "work Cafe's" where you can work, but yeah, not every cafe likes to have people setting up a 'work station' and keep a table occupied all day.. That is just lost revenue for them,, Instead of selling 5 or 6 cappucinos, they can sell only one to you, maybe two.

It's misconception that taxes are higher in The Netherlands than in the USA. As self-employed / free lancer / non-citizen i wouldn't know. But as a Dutch citizen working for a boss vs an American Citizen employed in the U.S. up until about 50k a year you pay less tax in The Netherlands, above 50k you pay less tax in the U.S. Especially if you have a low wage, like working full time for minimum wage, you pay a lot less tax in The Netherlands. And this is even not taking into account that people with lower incomes get compensated by the Tax-office for instance at min, wage you get compensated for health insurance and your health insurance (that covers almost everything) cost you €10-15 a month, effectively. People who rent a house also get compensated.

I don't know Amersfoort very well. Here in Amsterdam there are plenty of places that also cater to people working on their laptops. And public libraries are also pretty OK for this. And then there are places like WeWork, where you can pay a small fee for a work spot.

Muricans should learn the difference between "working extreme long days" and being efficient.

And for some strange reason you make me fantasize of a 9 volt battery, ;-).

The ikea in Amersfoort has some pretty nice spots to work with outlets. I usually go there if I don’t feel like going to my regular office. You can also pay for a coworking space.

The no-screen policy of cafe and coffee place owners is a reaction to the development of the last ten to fifteen years. Back then it was totally normal and accepted to work in a cafe or coffee place, but in some places it got so bad that you only saw laptops and quiet people drinking one or two coffees per day. So it’s understandable that they are taking back control and have been (mostly) banning people with laptops. I used to work a lot in those places, so I had to find alternatives as well. What I found is that libraries offer free work places (with additional services, like maybe a meeting room or printing services). It’s a bit less crowded than a cafe, but I find that I get just enough distractions to make it interesting. Also, special work “hotels” or similar places have been created for working remotely. I tend to work one or two days from home, one at a library, one from the office and then a fifth day I split up between sneaking in a few hours at a cafe, or even a store restaurant (like HEMA, or IKEA).

Btw, don’t you just love the beginning of fall in the Netherlands? Like those red/brown leaves and the beautiful mushrooms behind you. And the smell! I love it.

Welke prutser heeft die verwarmingsbuizen zo scheef vastgemaakt?

Go to the coffee corner in the library.

Internet on your mobile is cheap!

Years ago when I was New Zealand you get a coffee and you had 15 minutes of free internet. But now they want free internet access for a coffee.

In Amsterdam it’s normal to work in a cafe

The Netherlands is not USA

They drive zigzag in Chicago to avoid bullets 😅
In one of the vlogs, an American said that's what she was taught in school.

Try people@places at Central Station, flex workplace at 3 euro 1/2 a day inc coffee or tea

I can fully understand that there are times that you have to work but being alone gives you the urge to look for a place where there are other people around. So a nice coffee shop has some attraction for that. I've read some comments that I think might have had a little more empathy/sympathy for you. The suggestion of a library is a good one ofcourse. I hope you will find a nice and more permanent place to work if you feel the need to.😊

A café full of alone sitting working people isn’t inviting for people looking for quality time.
In the end you’re not paying for your space and aren’t consuming that much, people there for pleasure order cake or bitterballs people who are working order a few drinks.
You also have shared workspaces where you’ll pay for your space and get free drinks. So guess you should look further than just cafes what you’re used doing in the US.

I fully understand why a café bans working there. It's not an office, it is not your home, it is a place where people come to relax, have a drink and/or meal. Not to hog a table on just a few, or even one drink. Personally I'm lucky, as I already had one of my bedrooms turned into an art studio, which now also serves as my wfh room. So I don't feel the need to go outside to work, as I never feel cramped. Perhaps if I lived in an apartment, or smaller house, I might feel differently.

As programmer working free lance funny enough i use often exactly spots where you where talking from if the weather allows i often do remote work in public parks.

Working at your computer in most cafés isn't allowed because no one in the Netherlands ever said "Hey, let's go to a café where we are surrounded by dickheads working on their computer and giving us the impression like we're in an office."
To the people who don't want to work at home, go to an office, where you belong.

You can go to a library.

There are tons of places you can go to for remote work, don't go to a cafe where people are relaxing.

There are multiple options to share offices with other people working remotely.

Hey girl, there are also special spaces for remote workers that are usually affiliated with the local library where you can work and chill

I know an owner of a coffeeshop in the USA who doesn't allow laptops in his shop anymore. People were sitting in his coffeshop for hours on one cup of coffee. They occupy space, usually a table for four so they have room to work, that he can't use for other custumers. It also ruiend the atmosphere in his coffeshop, so he said, that's enough, no more laptops, ipads and so on. Wifi isn't available for customers in his coffeeshop. And if you pull out a laptop you will be politely asked to go somewhere else. And I think he is right.

We work to live, we don't live to work.

It's always funny how some immigrants keep calling themselves expats to set themselves apart from other immigrants.

In Leusden which borders onto Amersfoort you can work in Huis van Leusden. They sell snacks and serve coffee. I’m not sure if you need to register.

In Amersfoort go the Seats2meet next to the station for a free working station.

I used to complain about taxes in the Netherlands a lot, but since Americans point out how low taxes has an effect on government spending (on road infrastructure, electric infrastructure, quality of tap water, etc.) i stopped complaining.... mostly. Taxes on new cars and gasoline are ridiculous.

If you remote work from a cafe you can also go into the office.
The entire concept is meant for working from home not a cafe.
Work ethics from Americans is horrible

You will love Douwe Egberts cafés. They fascilitate working and studying.

Why did you go to the NL when you not plan to work in an office? Do you need to be in the same time zone?

If you want to work somewhere out, the best place is a hotel restaurant. Lots of people use hotel restaurants as a workplace. There are job interviews there, work meetings and people who simply type on laptops all day. I've never had a problem with working in a hotel restaurant (during the day, obviously).

Really annoying American accent /way of talking
Interaaaaaaaction,Cafeeeee
Coffeeshooop ,Laptoooopp
Treeeee,,

Nope, I refuse to work in what would amount to basically a security nightmare with bad ergonomics and a horrible UX.

There's plenty of co-work spaces to be found.

Just an observation. You start the video with a title “ as a American freelancer”. Is there a typo?

The Dutch also don't get the 30% tax break.

I see people working at Starbucks and other places around the Central Station. I like working at the large library at the Eemplein, especially in the tiered middle section where they allow food and drinks in your work spot.
Enjoy Amersfoort! ❤

Try the library. You can work there and have a coffee. Just make sure to make a online reservations for a workplace, it can be busy.