Cyclists and staff report culture of anxiety at Picnic-PostNL
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The professional peloton has reached the front pages for reasons unrelated to sport. Cyclists and staff at the Picnic-PostNL team have reported a culture of anxiety so severe that one rider reportedly considered self-harm. Investigations are now trying to determine how the team environment became quite so toxic.
The civil service has grown by 40% in recent years, a figure the current cabinet hopes to trim by €3.4bn through efficiency. They may find the task difficult: previous attempts to shrink the bureaucracy have largely resulted in more of it. Elsewhere, the state’s digital record remains consistent; a €55m project at the benefits agency has been scrapped after failing to facilitate communication between employers and staff.
Public order and private charging have both proved combustible. Riot police were deployed in Amsterdam-Noord after emergency services were targeted with fireworks, while a charging e-bike battery in Zaandam caused a flat fire that sent three people to hospital. Meanwhile, a long-standing political debate over whether to ban primate testing continues to result in more debate and more testing.