Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

9 Responses

  1. Likeahike says:

    I’m wondering what kind of office this might be, where only four people are allowed to work simultaneously.

  2. Chris V says:

    Washington state and Colorado just legalized marijuana in the recent US elections. I imagine they’ll soon want to know where to buy these signs.

  3. Brandon says:

    “Only be in…”? I can only assume that typo was intentional. Were you shooting for rasta-speak? “Only be in de Amsterdam offices ’cause dey smoke da ganja, mon.”

  4. Invader_Stu says:

    Likeahike – It’s actually a radio station studio room and not a very tiny work force.

    Chris V – We could sell them to the yanks. This time next year we’ll be millionaires.

    Brandon – Opps. No it was not. Well spotted. It is now fixed. I swear I was not smoking when I wrote it.

  5. VallyP says:

    Haha, that is so true, Stu, but only in South Africa do you get signs telling you that you may not take guns in to the office :)) I saw that several times in Johannesburg when I lived there. I wonder what other special signs other people have in their cities!

  6. You have no idea how much this photo cracked me up. XD

    I have, however, noticed the significant lack of the “no smoking” symbol. Are people allowed to smoke indoors in Holland? (In France, it became illegal in 2008 to smoke indoors in a public area.)

  7. dragon lady says:

    I didn’t get the one with the table next to the dog. Does it mean you MUST polish the table till it shines?

  8. Likeahike says:

    I don’t think tables require polishing anymore. That would suggest wood of a certain quality was used. ; -) It probably refers to the ‘clean desk policy’. In some offices you don’t have your own desk any more(to decorate as you see fit), but just use the first empty desk on your floor or within your team. You take your stuff with you (or store it in a locker) and leave the desk bare again at the end of the day for someone else to use the following day.

  9. Invader Stu says:

    VallyP – Yikes. I would not want to have to go into a meeting room where they feel a need to put up a sign like that.

    Barb the French Bean – It is sort of illegal but pretty much the whole of Holland decided to slowly ignore that law. I don’t really get the impression it is enforced as much as it was in the beginning. At least not in bars any more.

    Dragon Lady – They are two separate rules. No dogs and the tables must be kept cleaned.

    Likeahike – A few different people use the studio so that must be what it is.

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