Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 1:07 pm
Dutch media keeps saying that there are all kinds of job openings right now in the Netherlands, and then there’s becoming a stroopwafel maker at Markus & Markus Stroopwafels, which has to be someone’s dream job.
The stroopwafel company in Waddinxveen, South Holland needs a few people to make the Dutch treat from 6 am to 6 pm in the morning. The right candidates also have to be accurate, independent and flexible, and ideally have ‘a Christian mindset’. The company’s treats are made ‘the old-fashioned way’, honestly and with natural ingredients.
You might have to taste them, but that’s not your main role. Applications can apparently be sent in by e-mail until end of business today.
Ten former prostitutes are claiming 1.2 million euro from seven procurers before a court in The Hague.
The claim is part of a criminal case in which seven Hungarian men are accused of sex trafficking, AD reports. Twenty Hungarian women say the men forced them to hand over the money they made in prostitution. The damage claims run from 700 euro to 460,000 euro.
The sex trafficking case is the result of a police raid in April 2011 in the Doubletstraat in The Hague. The police cordoned off the street and talked to 157 prostitutes.
A court decision is expected in December.
(Photo of the Doubletstraat from Google Street View)
Being in debt is a valid reason to be fired as a police officer, a court has ruled.
The Centrale Raad van Beroep, an appeals court for civil servants, came to this conclusion in the case of a police man with ‘many debts’, as NOS Nieuws puts it. He had been reprimanded in 2005, and when that did not work he was fired in 2009.
The court argued that officers with access to all kinds of databases open themselves up to blackmail, which makes them a greater security risk. Police officers are therefore expected to live up to higher standards.
In the Netherlands jobs are protected. You can only fire an employee through the courts, unless there is a strong reason for immediate dismissal.
In its Bright Spot series, tech mag Bright reviews Rotterdam barbershop Schorem (‘scum’) which caters exclusively to men.
If you want, you can get a haircut and a shave there (55 euro all included) with old fashioned tools such as straight razors, and you can apparently have a beer while you wait. Only for men, because “every man has the right to a place where he can be a man”.
Last year Noël Schoolderman created a series of short documentaries about ‘old crafts’, and the first episode was about Schorem:
One of the barbers says in the video: “A man should only be touched by three other men in his lifetime: his doctor, his tailor and his barber. […] These days you can see a proliferation of Albert Heijns, Blokkers, Xenoses, all the big retail chains. I think people these days have a need for something unique, something with that special touch.”
My only memory of someone being creative to get a job is some guy in my hometown of Montréal who carved his CV in ice and made sure the employer he was trying to win over saw it– and it worked.
“This ‘Job Hustle’ film by Bas van der Poel and Daan van Dam speaks for itself. They wanted a job and got one at Boondoggle by using Twitter in an unorthodox way. It’s on target, inventive and effective. They used technology to get a message across, not just to show they are geeks.”
Filed under: Technology by Branko Collin @ 3:52 pm
Two weeks ago the court in Amsterdam held that trying to get your competitor’s Twitter followers to follow you is indeed perfectly legal.
Mediavacature.nl (which means ‘mediajob.nl’) had asked the court to stop mediavacatures.nl from abusing their trademark. The court ruled that trying to hijack your competitor’s followers is not illegal per se (PDF, Dutch):
4.10 Twitter
The defendants admit that the Twitter account @mediavacatures is being used to follow customers of the plaintiff on Twitter. Twitter is all about following and being followed. Furthermore all data on Twitter are public. Following the followers of a competitor can therefore not be seen as an illegal act per se. What is more, profiting of somebody else’s product, effort, knowledge or insight is not illegal by itself, even if this harms the other party. This only becomes illegal if a Twitter user (intentionally or otherwise) causes confusion with the general public.
Unsurprisingly the court ended up finding for the plaintiff, but the defendant did not have to turn over their Twitter account, domain name and brand, as they were no longer allowed to keep using them anyway. The defendants call themselves MV Jobs Media now.
At Arnoud Engelfriet’s blog somebody claiming to work for Media Vacature (plaintiff) pointed out that the Twitter claim was just a small part of their set of claims.
I grew up in Blerick, a town with a town hall but without the political body to inhabit it. See, in 1940 the town was added to the neighbouring city of Venlo by the Nazi occupier, which made the possession of a town hall moot.
Interestingly the previous municipality that Blerick belonged to, Maasbree, once had three different town halls, and the council would rotate among them until in 1904 the Blerick town hall was made the permanent one.
The Frisian islands of Vlieland and Terschelling (formerly of Noord Holland)
Rent control and renter protection (including the right to live in a house forever)
Job protection (including the right to keep a job forever)
In a number of these cases the occupier made into law what was already on the books. In other cases the law was kept because it made sense. For instance, with housing shortages being rather prominent after the war, it made eminent sense to protect renters from price gouging. In such cases the Germans had unwittingly produced both the diseases and the cures.
For a growing group of younger professionals, the appetite for a shorter, more flexible workweek appears to be spreading, with implications for everything from gender identity to rush hour traffic.
There are part-time surgeons, part-time managers and part-time engineers. From Microsoft to the Dutch economics ministry, offices have moved into ‘flex-buildings’, where the number of work spaces are far fewer than the staff who come and go on schedules tailored around their needs.
The Dutch culture of part-time work provides an advance peek at the challenges — and potential solutions — that other nations will face as well in an era of a rapidly changing work force.
Radio Netherlands wonders if society’s demand that fathers take a more active role in the upbringing of their children will lead to new Super Dads. Surely men will have to spend more than just one Daddy Day with their children to earn that moniker? When the term was applied to women, it meant women with two full-time jobs: one at home, and one at the office. It seems that even in the gender equality debate, a man gets the same reward as a woman for less work.
* Several provinces have instated hunting bans for a variety of animals because of the cold weather. Zeeland, Drenthe, Noord Holland and Limburg have ordered a general hunting ban, while others have limited their bans to a selection of animals. The Party for the Animals (PvdD) has called for a nationwide ban, Trouw reports.
* Car navigation software voiced by porn actress Kim Holland was the most popular of the Navigatiestemmen.nl stable in 2010, Blik op Persbericht reports. Her voice was also the most popular in 2009. The winner of 2008, Clown Bassie, came second this year. Unrelated: recently Holland’s demand that Internet provider Ziggo release the personal data of a customer suspected of infringing her copyrights was rejected on appeal.
* The most wanted job title on Monsterboard.nl in 2010 was secretary, just like last year. Visitors searched 500,000 times for the title. Manager and controller were other popular job titles, Blik op Nieuws writes.
* Almost 1 billion worth of guilder coins and bills are still hiding underneath mattresses and in other places, Z24 reports. Half of that money is in coins, and can no longer be exchanged for euro. Paper money can be exchanged at the central bank (DNB) until 2031. The amount of unclaimed banknotes seems to be the same as last year’s.
The Queen is looking for a lackey, and according to jobtrack.nl her job ad drew 8 times the regular amount of responses for comparable positions, says NOS.
So what is expected of a lackey in her majesty’s service? He or she must
Have a high school level diploma, preferably hotel school.
Speak English
Know how to take care of silver and crockery
Know protocol
Have a service oriented attitude
Be able to work flexible hours, and
Have a driving license
The maximum salary offered is 2,338 euro per month.
Ten former prostitutes are claiming 1.2 million euro from seven procurers before a court in The Hague. 
Being in debt is a valid reason to be fired as a police officer, a court has ruled. 
In its Bright Spot series, tech mag Bright reviews 
Two weeks ago the court in Amsterdam held that trying to get your competitor’s Twitter followers to follow you is indeed perfectly legal.
I grew up in Blerick, 
* Several provinces have instated hunting bans for a variety of animals because of the cold weather. Zeeland, Drenthe, Noord Holland and Limburg have ordered a general hunting ban, while others have limited their bans to a selection of animals. The Party for the Animals (PvdD) has called for a nationwide ban, 
The Queen is looking for a lackey, and according to jobtrack.nl 