Werkeloos

unemployed, out of work
[adjective]
[wer-ke-loos] 

I quit my job end of April and as a result I am officially ‘werkeloos’: unemployed. You may also encounter ‘werkloos’ which means the same thing. I think ‘werkeloos’ is more common in daily speech. Note that the latter can also mean ‘without action / not operating’.

In DWOTD Voetstuk I covered the song ‘Over de Muur’ by the 80s band ‘Klein Orkest’. They also had a song about being unemployed which we will cover below. In the song ‘Koos Werkeloos‘ the character ‘Koos Werkeloos’ sings about being unemployed and that he is actually quite happy with the situation. Dutch people who are old enough may refer to this song by calling somebody who is unemployed ‘Koos Werkeloos’. The lyrics have some interesting Dutch expressions to take note of.

Lyrics

Mijn naam is Koos en ik ben werkeloos, de mensen zeggen: ‘Ga toch werken Koos’
(My name is Koos and I am unemployed, people say: ‘Go find a job Koos’ [literally: ‘Go work Koos’] )

Nou ik wil er best wel tegenaan, maar dan wel een leuke baan
(Well, sure I want to exert myself, but only in case of a nice job [note that the singer says “ik wil d’r best …” which is common in speech] )

Want anders hoeft het niet voor Koos
(Because otherwise Koos can’t be bothered [or: ‘Koos is not interested’, ‘Koos does not care’ etc. A typical example of this usage of ‘hoeven’ is: ‘Het hoeft niet meer voor mij’: “I don’t care anymore whether or not it’s going to happen”, “I don’t want to continue anymore”, “I don’t care anymore about it” etc.] )

Laat Koos maar vissen aan de waterkant, mij niet gezien achter de lopende band
(Just let Koos angle by the waterside, me (working) at the assembly line; no way! [Literally ‘mij niet gezien’ translates as ‘not seen me’ or “you won’t see me”. It means something along the lines of “you won’t see me doing that, no way”.] )

En Koos gaat ook geen vakken vullen, zeker om de zak te vullen van de fabrikant!
(Neither is Koos going to stock shelves, that would serve no other purpose than lining the vendor’s pockets! [‘Zeker om (…)’ means something like ‘Clearly the real purpose is to (…)’. For example: “Schat, ik ga even de stad in.” – “Ja ja, zeker om weer een middag in de kroeg te hangen!”. The expression ‘de zak vullen’ is more often used in the form ‘(zijn) zakken vullen’: to make profit, to cash in to line one’s pockets. It typically implies making money based on amoral motives.] )

Werkeloos, laat mij voorlopig lekker werkeloos
(Unemployed, why don’t you just let me be unemployed for now)

Al dat gezeur van ‘ga toch werken Koos’, Koos Werkeloos!
(All that whining about “why don’t you find a job Koos”, Koos unemployed!)

Werkeloos, laat mij voorlopig lekker werkeloos
(Unemployed, why don’t you just let me be unemployed for now)

Al dat gezeur van ‘ga toch werken Koos’, Koos Werkeloos!
(All that whining about “why don’t you find a job Koos”, Koos unemployed!)

Mijn zwager Jan die spreekt er schande van, die zegt vaak: ‘Koos, gebruik je handen man!’
(My brother-in-law Jan he cries shame over it, he often says: ‘Koos, use your hands man!’)

Maar hij werkt met zijn ellebogen, heeft zijn schapen op het droge
(But he uses his elbows, he is home and dry [the expression ‘zijn schapen op het droge hebben’ means ‘to have his sheep on dry ground’] )

Nou verbrand maar Jan
(Well then burn Jan)

Die politieke Haagse maffia, die blijft maar korten op de minima
(That political The Hague Mafia, who keeps on cutting back on minimum wage earners)

Nou laat ze zelf maar betalen, want bij Koos valt niks te halen
(Why don’t they pay up themselves, because Koos doesn’t have any money [the expression ‘er valt niets te halen bij (…)’ means something like “there is nothing of value that can be got from (…)” ]

Sorry dat ik besta!
(Pardon me for existing / being alive!)

Werkeloos, laat mij voorlopig lekker werkeloos
(Unemployed, why don’t you just let me be unemployed for now)

Al dat gezeur van ‘ga toch werken Koos’, Koos Werkeloos!
(All that whining about “why don’t you find a job Koos”, Koos unemployed!)

Jawel!
(Yeah that’s right!)

Werkeloos, laat mij voorlopig lekker werkeloos
(Unemployed, why don’t you just let me be unemployed for now)

Al dat gezeur van ‘ga toch werken Koos’, Koos Werkeloos!
(All that whining about “why don’t you find a job Koos”, Koos unemployed!)

Kijk hè, je hoort vaak zeggen, waar moet dat heen?
(Look, often one hears people say, where will it all end?)

Straks doen computers al het werk alleen
(What if at one point computers will do all the work)

Maar mensen, het gaat toch prima zo
(But people, things are fine as they are, right?)

Gratis vrije tijd cadeau, en dat is voor Koos geen probleem hoor
(Free time for nothing, and that is not a problem at all for Koos [note the use of ‘hoor’: it is put at the end of a sentence to say ‘in case you thought/expected otherwise’. The use of ‘gratis’ and ‘cadeau’ is a contraction of ‘Gratis [noun]’ and ‘[noun] cadeau krijgen’. You should really user either one, but not both.] )