{"id":5986,"date":"2025-06-24T08:55:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T05:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/stijn-blom-in-nrc-on-working-from-home-what-can-an-employer-require\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T15:45:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T12:45:56","slug":"stijn-blom-in-nrc-on-working-from-home-what-can-an-employer-require","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/stijn-blom-in-nrc-on-working-from-home-what-can-an-employer-require\/","title":{"rendered":"Stijn Blom in NRC on working from home: What can an employer require?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>More and more employees want to work from home part-time or full-time, but what if your employer suddenly changes its mind?<\/strong>  On April 21, 2025, the NRC published an article by journalist Tan Tunali in which employment law attorney Stijn Blom of Arbeidsadvocaat.nl explains the legal aspects of work-from-home arrangements. This is a familiar dilemma that is becoming increasingly common in practice: an employee has been working partly from home for some time, but is suddenly subject to a policy requiring them to return to the office for the majority of their work. What are the legal implications?  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Using a real-world example, the article illustrates how tensions can arise between the individual wishes of employees and the interests of teams and organizations. Stijn Blom addresses questions such as: Is there a right to work from home? When does a <a href=\"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/definitie\/wat-is-een-verworven-recht\/\">right become vested<\/a>? And what may or may not an employer unilaterally change?   <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Below is the full article from NRC dated April 21, 2025, written by Tan Tunali. It discusses the tension between individual preferences and organizational interests regarding remote work, as well as what labor law has to say on the matter. The full article from NRC can be found at the bottom of the page.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Article: <em>Help! My boss suddenly wants me to come into the office more often. What should I do?<\/em><\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nrc.nl\/nieuws\/2025\/04\/21\/help-mijn-baas-wil-opeens-dat-ik-vaker-naar-kantoor-kom-wat-nu-a4890605\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Published in NRC on April 21, 2025<\/a><\/em> &#8211; Tan Tunali<\/p>\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/KF_6364_def-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2551\" style=\"width:406px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/KF_6364_def-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/KF_6364_def-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/KF_6364_def-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/KF_6364_def-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/KF_6364_def.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr. Stijn Blom, an employment law attorney at Arbeidsadvocaat.nl B.V. Stijn has extensive experience in employment law and assists employers and employees on a daily basis with a wide range of employment law issues. From dismissal cases to drafting watertight contracts and policies\u2014with his practical and personalized approach, he helps employers and employees move forward. Want to learn more? Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/over\/team\/stijn-blom\/\">Stijn\u2019s page<\/a>.    <\/p>\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1745306150067.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:870px\" aria-label=\"Embed of 1745306150067.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-9d3d9e9a-8a29-4e12-8cc4-0f4f76829044\" href=\"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1745306150067.pdf\">1745306150067<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1745306150067.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download=\"\" aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-9d3d9e9a-8a29-4e12-8cc4-0f4f76829044\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Help! My boss suddenly wants me to come into the office more often. What should I do?  <\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Work-from-home policies are becoming increasingly common, but they remain a challenge, as employers must balance the interests of individual employees, the team, and the organization.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dilemma<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I work as the manager of a \u201cself-managing team,\u201d and I alternate between working from home and at the office. This summer, I plan to move, and because of the long commute, I\u2019d like to be in the office only one or two days every two weeks. In response, my boss presented me with an internal policy stating that I must be physically present 60 percent of the time. What should I do?   <br\/><em>Woman (45), name known to the editors<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mutual Agreements<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy freedom ends where yours begins\u201d is a saying Marjolijn Feringa grew up with. As an interim director and executive team coach, she regularly cites it in discussions between employers and employees regarding requests to work from home. What she means is that you can\u2019t just look at an employee\u2019s individual interests. Ultimately, employers and employees must decide together how and where the work can best be done. And that depends on the nature of the work and the company culture.    <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Feringa, there are always three parties with their own interests: the individual employee, the team, and the organization as a whole. \u201cEveryone\u2019s interests matter, and it\u2019s important to reconcile those interests,\u201d says Feringa. \u201cThat\u2019s not always easy, because when you start a job, you agree on what you\u2019ll be doing, but usually not exactly how.\u201d In this regard, an employer is entitled to set certain requirements, argues Feringa, who notes that an employer cannot simply ignore an employee\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\" style=\"border-radius:0px;font-style:normal;font-weight:200;letter-spacing:px;text-transform:lowercase\"><blockquote><p>&#8220;A rule like the 60 percent rule seems fair, but is, of course, very arbitrary&#8221;<\/p><cite>Marjolijn Feringa &#8211; <strong>Executive Coach<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although most large companies have implemented a work-from-home policy since the COVID-19 pandemic, this still often causes problems. \u201cIf one colleague says, \u2018I\u2019ll only come into the office on Mondays and Tuesdays,\u2019 and another colleague says they\u2019ll only come in on other days, you\u2019ll never run into each other,\u201d says Feringa. And that turns out to be important. \u201cWhen you know each other in person, you\u2019re more inclined to help one another.\u201d That benefits the organization as a whole. Just like the casual conversations at the coffee machine. \u201cThose are great for discussing informal matters, but they also often lead to good ideas,\u201d says Feringa.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a coach, she sees how many companies are trying to strike a balance between the wishes of employees\u2014who, for all sorts of reasons (\u201cI can work just fine from home,\u201d \u201ccommute time,\u201d \u201ckids\u2019 swimming lessons\u201d)\u2014increasingly want to work from home, and the need to meet in person. This is often laid out in policies with strict percentage requirements. \u201cA 60-percent rule like that is, of course, very arbitrary. It seems fair, and many companies think it will save them the hassle. But the focus should, of course, be on how we can best organize our work.\u201d    <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Feringa, it\u2019s important to first determine what kind of work actually needs to be done, where it can best be done, and what suits the company. \u201cIf I need to focus on a specific task, it\u2019s nice not to have to sit in an open-plan office. If I have a large meeting with people from all over the country, it might actually be more efficient to hold it online. And if you want to brainstorm together, that\u2019s actually better done in the office.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Acquired right<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Labor law attorney Stijn Blom also frequently encounters this balancing of interests in his work. He emphasizes that there is no legal right to work from home. \u201cUnder the Flexible Working Act, you can submit a request to your employer to work from home, but ultimately, it is the employer who decides.\u201d Because there are no clear guidelines in this area, it remains a gray area. A bill that would have addressed this issue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eerstekamer.nl\/nieuws\/20230926\/eerste_kamer_verwerpt_wet_werken\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stalled in the Senate a year and a half ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In employment law, there are frequent references to reasonableness and fairness\u2014prerequisites for good employment practices on the part of both employees and employers. Once you\u2019ve reached an agreement that you may work from home (part of the time), this can become what\u2019s known as an \u201cacquired right.\u201d \u201cAt that point, it has become a term of employment, and an employer would have to be in a very strong position to justify why that wouldn\u2019t be possible,\u201d says Blom. The attorney notes that there are criteria for this. \u201cAmong other things, they\u2019ll look at how long someone has been working from home and whether other colleagues are also allowed to do so.\u201d    <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>&#8220;If someone doesn&#8217;t meet their targets, an employer might say, &#8216;We want you to come into the office more often.'&#8221;<\/p><cite>Stijn Blom &#8211; <strong>Employment Law Attorney<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo an internal policy like that could very well be valid,\u201d says Blom. \u201cThe question is whether working from home has become an acquired right and whether the employer has a sufficient interest to be allowed to change that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blom knows that disputes over working from home rarely end up in court. \u201cWhen they do, it\u2019s often related to the employee\u2019s poor performance. For example, if someone isn\u2019t meeting their targets, an employer might say, \u2018We want you to come into the office more often.\u2019\u201d  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Blom and Feringa, another factor at play in these kinds of dilemmas is the tight labor market and the demands that employees can make as a result. \u201cThe Netherlands is a leader in remote work, and employers generally take a pretty flexible approach to it,\u201d says Blom. Large companies that want to attract young talent really have no choice but to offer these conditions. Blom: \u201cYou simply won\u2019t attract young talent anymore if you don\u2019t offer very flexible, trendy employment conditions.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">So<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is no legal right to work from home, so whether you can do so depends entirely on the arrangements you make with your employer. These arrangements must take into account the interests of the individual employee, the team, and the entire organization. If you\u2019ve been working remotely for some time, it may have become a term of employment, but that\u2019s not necessarily the case. So make sure everything is clear before the situation becomes untenable.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More and more employees want to work from home part-time or full-time, but what if your employer suddenly changes its mind? On April 21, 2025, the NRC published an article by journalist Tan Tunali in which employment law attorney Stijn Blom of Arbeidsadvocaat.nl explains the legal aspects of work-from-home arrangements. This is a familiar dilemma [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"navigation_state":true,"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-niet-gecategoriseerd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}