Pete M
19 Jun 2008
Life / How do you Poles feel about the fact that so many Poles work abroad? [145]
Greenback wrote;
"If its like it is in the UK my girlfriend is Polish and I'm English - she came to work in the UK 3 years ago after being accepted to work as a cashier at one of our major banks HSBC - she worked in the bank head quarters where she was subjected to constant bullying and discrimination due to her being polish and the english workers fearing their jobs would be lost."
How true! I am English and my partner is Polish and she came to the UK 18 months ago. When she first came here I was so looking forward to it and so was she. I am 59 years old and she is 9 years younger than me. She came here also because her daughter and son-in-law are here.
I naively thought that she would be readily accepted and had a belief that not many British people are prejudiced or discriminatory. How wrong I was. It has been a real uphill struggle for her and still is. She is a lovely, caring, friendly woman and I have despaired to see her sometimes leave work almost in tears because of the way she has been spoken to or treated. She is both a qualified dietician and accountant but is working as a housekeeper in the local NHS hospital (with other Poles, Russians, Estonians, even Phillipinos and a guy from Uruguay!!
She has been paid wrongly on several occasions, has been refused leave when she has wanted it (I believe for no other reason that British workers are given first call) and called names and been asked to do work that native people refuse to do (or don't do properly when asked.
Her daughter has a degree in sales and marketing from Poland and was made redundant in January as the firm she worked for went bust because the (English) people running it were leeching off the profits. She speaks near perfect English and she has applied for over 120 jobs and had a number of interviews but still nothing. She has refused to do menial work in case she gets stuck in it for the rest of her life and is now trying to get a loan to start her own business as that is the only way she can see of working in what she wants to do and keeping her self respect.
Frankly, I am totally gobsmacked in seeing what I have seen as I really believed that the UK is mostly tolerant, welcoming and friendly.
How wrong I was!
Greenback wrote;
"If its like it is in the UK my girlfriend is Polish and I'm English - she came to work in the UK 3 years ago after being accepted to work as a cashier at one of our major banks HSBC - she worked in the bank head quarters where she was subjected to constant bullying and discrimination due to her being polish and the english workers fearing their jobs would be lost."
How true! I am English and my partner is Polish and she came to the UK 18 months ago. When she first came here I was so looking forward to it and so was she. I am 59 years old and she is 9 years younger than me. She came here also because her daughter and son-in-law are here.
I naively thought that she would be readily accepted and had a belief that not many British people are prejudiced or discriminatory. How wrong I was. It has been a real uphill struggle for her and still is. She is a lovely, caring, friendly woman and I have despaired to see her sometimes leave work almost in tears because of the way she has been spoken to or treated. She is both a qualified dietician and accountant but is working as a housekeeper in the local NHS hospital (with other Poles, Russians, Estonians, even Phillipinos and a guy from Uruguay!!
She has been paid wrongly on several occasions, has been refused leave when she has wanted it (I believe for no other reason that British workers are given first call) and called names and been asked to do work that native people refuse to do (or don't do properly when asked.
Her daughter has a degree in sales and marketing from Poland and was made redundant in January as the firm she worked for went bust because the (English) people running it were leeching off the profits. She speaks near perfect English and she has applied for over 120 jobs and had a number of interviews but still nothing. She has refused to do menial work in case she gets stuck in it for the rest of her life and is now trying to get a loan to start her own business as that is the only way she can see of working in what she wants to do and keeping her self respect.
Frankly, I am totally gobsmacked in seeing what I have seen as I really believed that the UK is mostly tolerant, welcoming and friendly.
How wrong I was!