Column | The Netherlands is a large festival site where visitors can enjoy themselves completely
High work pressure. Falling colleagues. Endless administration. Working in the public sector is no longer fun for many people. Just a little while and then no one wants to become a teacher, agent or nurse in the Netherlands, the SER says. So social employers must take action. To make the work useful, attractive and promising.
Important and useful advice from the SER, I think. But if we really want to keep things healthy, a lot more is actually needed. As a society, helped by our government, we will also have to take a more honest look at ourselves.
Our social sectors are inundated by work that we produce ourselves. 17.4 million people behave as they see fit. And care, education and the police are allowed to clean up after the mess. A few examples.
Concern Healthcare is bursting at the seams, but in the meantime we live on it. We eat wrong, exercise too little, stress, smoke and drink. And wear a bicycle helmet, why?
Right now, more than half of us are overweight. Of course we do not consciously choose this. It is a complex interplay of ability, will and environment. That is precisely why a more robust prevention policy would be welcome. Including the hefty pricing of what is bad for us. Maybe give a few NRC-readers: I can manage my own movement, tobacco and alcohol use, diet and stress. I understand. But then show solidarity with the very many in our society, including your loyal columnist, who could use some help in this area.
Education You don’t often hear teachers complaining. In the meantime, they talk well among themselves about the big problems. Such as: many children die at home when they learn Dutch badly. But also: children whose parents are too busy to raise them. In all cases: the attention, care, exercise and education that our children do not receive at home, that is what our teachers and masters pay for. And most of them already work many more hours as standard than they have to be paid for.
Police Police officers really are the mess clearers of our country. According to the Trimbos Institute, more than a million Dutch people used cannabis in the past year, more than half a million pills and nitrous oxide, and almost a quarter of a million cocaine. a week ago I read in this newspaper that drug use among students is completely found. A quarter smoke weed and many students regularly buy something to swallow or sniff.
What we don’t talk about enough: this lifestyle is one of the lifebloods of organized crime in the Netherlands. And the problems that arise may continue our politics.
Sometimes a large festival site is where visitors can let off steam and get under paid, anonymous people muck up the place afterwards. If we want to show solidarity with our nurses, teachers and connections, then perhaps we should not ask them to mop slimmer, better or more fun, but turn the tap a little further ourselves.
Ben Tiggelaar writes about personal leadership, work and management.
A version of this article also in the newspaper of May 28, 2022