The differences in business cultures between the west and Poland
Westerners come here and want it to be like the west, happy meals, have a nice day and are shocked when it's not.
If all places become the same, you may as well stay at home.
I have read reports on this forum of people coming here, drinking and eating McD's and bugger all else.
Polish people smile with their eyes, eye contact here is much more important.
Firm hand shakes with every single person you work with is also important, while looking them in the eye, but not over a door and you must take your gloves off (if applicable).
The Polish, I have met, hate falseness.
An example can be found in the greeting "how are you?".
It is considered a joke here because it is not a real question and the answer is always "fine", even if your family got sent to Siberia.
But react in the exact same way to true friendliness and honesty.
You also have to understand the historical aspect, communists were not in fear of getting fired, they had a job for life, smiling or not.
Perhaps the flip side of this is that in the class system in the west, you had to kiss arse to keep your job.
People in shops here perhaps see, that they are no better or worse than the person they are serving.
I am not saying that is the case in the West all the time but the customer is always right could be an example here?.
And just for the record, I too like to see a smiling beaming face (Dollar signs in their eyes? ha ha ha) when I walk in to a shop, after all I am there to spend my money.
Perhaps if people were given a commission instead of a wage things would be different, maybe maybe not.
But most people here (I am talking about Malapolska) are grand.
I have walked out of shops because of the lack of or bad service, sure.
There is a noticeable difference between people who have worked abroad and people who have not.
But to round it all off I hate the bureaucracy more than anything.
It just slows down and sometimes stops business from getting anywhere.
But this is changing, quite quickly, the world crisis is the perfect opportunity to make these adjustments.