A Dutch employee has reignited global debate over work-life balance after publicly recounting how a newly appointed New York-based manager at their US tech firm attempted to reprimand them for leaving work on time.
The account struck a chord online by illustrating deep differences between labor expectations in the Netherlands and the United States.
The dispute was triggered by three specific issues: the employee ending their workday at 5 pm, ignoring weekend emails, and refusing unpaid evening meetings.
“I honestly feel bad for you guys in the US,” they wrote. “The fact that you have to apologize for having a life outside of work is insane to us.”
A Dutch employee went viral after recounting their experience working for a New York-based manager
“Last week, we had a 1-on-1 meeting where he told me he was ‘concerned’ about my dedication to the team,” the worker wrote.
“He didn’t like that my Slack status goes offline at 5:01 pm every single day. He was annoyed that I didn’t reply to an email he sent on Saturday morning until Monday at 9:00 am.
He was especially frustrated that I refused to join a ‘team bonding’ Zoom call that was scheduled for 7 pm my time, which is 1 pm his time.”
The Dutch worker made clear these actions were not unusual in their labor context.
Standard working hours in the Netherlands are typically 36 to 40 hours per week, and the Dutch Working Hours Act sets statutory limits on how long employees may work and requires minimum daily and weekly rest periods.
While Dutch law does not mandate a universal legal ‘right to disconnect,’ contracts and collective agreements often reflect cultural norms that respect boundaries around work hours, and mandatory rest periods mean employees must have significant uninterrupted time off.
In the Zoom meeting, rather than apologize or acquiesce, the employee challenged the manager’s assumptions about dedication and time logged.
They told the manager that in the Netherlands, “if you can’t finish your work by 5 pm, it doesn’t mean you are dedicated. It means you are inefficient or understaffed.”
The worker added, “I told him I am neither.”
The matter was escalated to HR after the manager threatened the employee for leaving work on time
The worker went on to remind the manager that their employment contract stipulated 40 hours per week, and did not include nights or weekends.
“My contract is for 40 hours, not ‘40 hours plus nights and weekends,’” the post stated.
The manager, unfazed, attempted to escalate the matter. He threatened the employee with a Performance Improvement Plan over what he saw as poor commitment.
Instead of backing down, the Dutch worker took the manager’s email directly to human resources.
“She literally laughed when she read it and told me to ignore him. She said she would have a ‘chat’ with him about local labor laws,” they wrote.
The intervention worked. In the days following the HR conversation, the employee reports that the manager has not sent a single email after 5 pm.
The worker’s critique of US “hustle” culture is not unfounded. Especially when taking into account the most recent data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
According to official statistics, the US lags considerably behind other developed countries when it comes to work-life balance
When accounting for work and job quality, as well as work-life balance, the Netherlands ranks at nº 6, slightly behind Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Conversely, the US ranks at nº 28, slightly ahead of countries like Chile, the Slovak Republic and Israel.
According to the OECD Better Life Index, the nº 1 country for both of these metrics is Norway.
“American bosses act like 5 pm is the end of the world, not the start of someone’s life,” a reader wrote.
“I hate managers who don’t care about results, they only care about how much time you put in,” another added.
Others shared personal anecdotes of expected on-call access, after hours messaging, tools deployed to tether employees to their work devices, and psychological pressure.
“My job tries to get you to download Teams and Outlook on your phone for updates’,” one wrote.
“There is one guy who was like, ‘I will never ever do such a thing.’ And they’re like you’re missing out on so much information’ and he’s like ‘who cares.’”
“Oh, leaving early?” another added. “No, I’m leaving on time.”
“The American mind cannot comprehend this,” a reader wrote
