A Texan entrepreneur was amazed you can’t fire someone in Europe if they get sick and the whole of Europe responded as one

Time to return to the apparently depthless well that is the cultural chasm between the United States and basically everywhere else.

Specifically relating to the workplace after a Texas entrepreneur railed at Europe’s ‘insane’ employment laws after he found out you can’t fire someone because they get sick.

And not only that, there are a load of company-funded hoops to jump through before you can finally let them go, said @jwmares over on Twitter.

European hiring rules are genuinely insane.

For example – if you own a company in the Netherlands and one of your employees gets sick, you are required to pay at least 70% of their wages for up to 2 years.

If they can’t go back to work after 2 years and you haven’t done enough for their reintegration, you pay their wages for 1 more year. And you can’t fire them until after that extra year!

— Justin Mares (@jwmares) October 28, 2026

‘European hiring rules are genuinely insane.

‘For example – if you own a company in the Netherlands and one of your employees gets sick, you are required to pay at least 70% of their wages for up to 2 years.

‘If they can’t go back to work after 2 years and you haven’t done enough for their reintegration, you pay their wages for 1 more year. And you can’t fire them until after that extra year!’

And we mention it not just because it’s an eye-opening insight into stateside employment attitudes, but because it prompted no end of supremely satisfying responses from this side of the Atlantic.