Polish Work Ethics: One guy working, 5 others watching?

Seriously! 1 guy works while 5 others watch? Or if you are lucky they work at all! I know of some people who think it is perfectly ok to go shopping once they have made it to work! Yes they leave work once they get there to go get milk bread and what not! The work ethics here are crap because that's what people are taught from day 1. I think a little politeness or a smile from someone at work would be nice. Is it like that in any other country? Is the quality of service just as bad?

There are some places where communist work ethics still lingers:
Czy się stoi, czy się leży, dwa tysiące się należy.

(Standing or lying, you deserve 2000[zlotys])

your lucky my polish workers always shop for beer once they get to work. There are no work ethics in this country at any level from the construction workers to the heads of hospitals corporations and government. This is true unless drinking, stealing, lying, and sleeping are considered a positive work ethics.

You have same thing here is USA with union workers, one guy is working and 5 other guys stand and watch.

Where is this...? i would like to see this.....!

Poland still has to catch up a lot with Western Europe. Polish work efficiency is about 50% of Western.
However, every year after the fall of communism we have incresed our efficiency by 10%. So, you can imagine what it looked like in communist times. No wonder the old system had to collapse.

I'll second that. It seems more prevalent in unionized positions here than in private industries. And I've seen it all across the USofA.

And busturds are not giving the thanksgiving off !!!!!!!!!11111111


You know what work efficiency is ?

If Polish work efficiency is so low, how come the chaps I work with put in as much effort as they do? They work hard, are focussed on the work and often look for more efficient ways of getting the job done. Not always - there are people who do things in a more difficult way than they have to (a kind of "I know best even when I don't" attitude, but that doesn't seem to be a Polish thing). I think low efficiency in Poland is far more likely to be a hangover from the practises of the olden days than anything intrinsically Polish.

Switezianka, that was priceless. You deserve an award for saying that. The classic, 'we deserve it' approach. Totally negating the idea of a meritocracy.

There is a lot of standing around but I saw that in the UK too. A lot of Brits are far from industrious too.

I found in the UK there are a lot of people working there to save money. Therefore they want to save as much as possible, do all the hours god sends and go home to put a deposit on a house, buy a car or something like that.

Cardno85, I agree, but the point I was making was that it is less to do with work ethics than it is to do with outmoded practices in some sectors in Poland.


Thanks (assuming you mean mine!) Yours hasn't changed for a while. You're still looking alert and distinguished as always.

hahaha love it but so true

Just last week, my neighborhood had a power outage, and several trucks from our local power company, PG&E, came over and they were digging up the street. When I drove by, I saw four big trucks parked on the street, about five or six guys standing on the street right on the edge of the hole they dug up, and one guy was in the hole with the shovel digging.

It sounds like where I work and I work in England :)

One guy works while another 5 watches? Sounds like utopia so long as I am not the one doing all the work. Why not just alternate days?

Ever been to a government office in the greater Western world? lol

(i had to put down my newspaper , take my feet of my desk, and reach keyboard to type that haha )

*leaves for hour lunch break* ;)

Work Ethic

No That is the African-American work ethic: 1 White man working, 5 Black men watching.

That was uncolled for