Dilemma
Are you allowed to apply during working hours at a full -time job because otherwise you will not be in charge, or then ‘steel’ the boss?
Don’t secretly do it
“During working hours you have to perform work,” says employment lawyer Samantha Kranenburg. “If you want to deal with a private business, you have to do that outside of working hours. Or you have to take leave for it.”
According to Kranenburg, that principle stems from the principle of good employment. You can expect an employee that he or she will do his best, is present and simply do his or her work during working hours.
“The main rule is that you have to apply in your own time,” says Kranenburg. But exceptions are possible. “In some collective agreements it says that you can get the opportunity for this during working hours, for example in a reorganization, if there is a social plan.” Because employees can lose their work in that case, they can look for another job during working hours.
“You may also be able to get permission from the employer in consultation,” says Kranenburg. “Sometimes an employer thinks: rather lost than rich, you will just apply during working hours.”
Where Kranenburg often sees that things go wrong, it secretly happens when applying for. “Take the employee who drove a company car to a job interview, and pretended to be a work -related appointment.” That employee was dismissed immediately when the employer discovered this. The came to court in 2022. He agreed with the employer.
Kranenburg also has situations in which an employer refused to pay part of the wage. The employee had secretly went to a job interview during working hours or had worked on motivation letters. “If an employee lies on this, it often leads to a break in confidence,” says Kranenburg. “You are not obliged to tell you that you are looking for another job, but if you do it during working hours, different rules apply.”
Yet in practice, employees often turn out to lie, says Kranenburg. Especially since the Coronapandemie, in which working from home, private activities became easier during working hours. “This has created a culture in which employers sometimes shut a blind eye. For example, when an employee goes to the hairdresser or turns a laundry.”
If in the working culture it is great to do something for yourself for an hour during working hours, then according to Kranenburg, the employee may get away with it. “If you can prove that the rules were not clear, and if other colleagues or former colleagues confirm this, for example, the employer might find it difficult for the court.”
Talking
If you can’t find time to apply, there is a risk that you will stay in a job that you don’t like, says career adviser Carlien Kloes. But that does not always have to be due to lack of time. “I also ask yourself why you are stuck, I always advise. And: talk about it with a friend, your partner or a coach. Are you afraid of financial uncertainty? Or do you think from uncertainty that a new employer will not hire you, check whether those assumptions are correct, often that is not.”
It is also possible to work with these questions through the employer, Kloes sees. “Sometimes the collective agreement says that employees can do a career check once in a while.” Employers also have an interest that an employee is having a good time at work and is not faltered due to stress or boredom. After all, they are not waiting for high absenteeism costs. “Occasionally considering whether an employee is still in his or her place can help prevent failure in the longer term.”
Sometimes, according to Kloes, it is also possible to openly discuss with your employer that you want to look further. “I often get the question from employers whether I want to take a look with an employee at the wishes for his work,” she says. In many cases, such an employee will stay with the current employer, while he or she first thought he had to change employers. “Often the employer and employee adjust the tasks in consultation, and thus a large part of the dissatisfaction has been resolved.”
In this tight labor market, the preservation of employees is so important that employers are much more willing to think and move with the employee much more than before, Kloes, who has been in the business for more than twenty years. There are now often employers who say: “I would like to keep this employee. How can I take care of that?” Kloes: “Then it often turns out that a function is slightly different – Job Carving We call that – the work is soon much more fun to make. “
So
In principle, applying during working hours is not allowed. Unless there are agreements in the collective labor agreement, for example when a reorganization takes place. If it is accepted in the work culture to sometimes undertake private activities during work, then an employer may not be able to make you much if it comes to a lawsuit. And: you also wonder why you are not applying for applying. Maybe there is something else behind it than lack of time.