Set between 1979 and 1982, this volume depicts a time when unemployment and economic crisis shape life in the Netherlands. Although there is plenty of work to be done in Maarten Koning's Amsterdam office, the signs of the times are evident: The ministry sends out a self-evaluation questionnaire to identify potential savings, using a term that colleagues have to look up in the dictionary: Output. However, there is at least one positive aspect to it all: In times of need, people come together to fend off the attacks of the hostile outside world, and there is almost a sense of harmony between the departments—if it weren't for the proposal from a politically engaged employee of Maarten's to serve only fair trade coffee in the break room instead of the conventional kind. The seven-volume novel series "The Office" by J. J. Voskuil explores life in Amsterdam.