The Polish work ethic - or the lack of it

Something that's really irritating me today :

I want to buy a new router for my workplace. I know roughly what I want, but I'm happy to go to a small independent shop and get some advice before making a final decision.

But can I find an independent shop that's open today? Nope. I've tried several places, all of them are closed today - it's like they don't actually want the business. Yet the big chain stores are all open, and I'll go there in a short while to pick up something. I might have to pay a little bit more, and the advice won't be as good - but they are open when I need them to be open.

I need the router for Monday morning - so I don't have time to wait for independent retailers to actually bothering turning up to work.

In your experience, is this common in other areas of business? I know that for me, there's absolutely no sense in trying to do anything on a Monday/Friday if the Tuesday/Thursday is a holiday.

"Poor Planning on your Part does not constitute an emergency on Mine"

Ancient Project Management Saying....

You've hit the nail on the head. They probably want the day of rest if they can get it. That's one of the perks of being a small business. I never ever work on weekends or bank holidays either.

it is not the weekend it is Friday or is there some kind of national holiday today?

Too true, but well - it's no big deal on my part to go to a chain shop. It's their loss - 10-20zl isn't going to make any difference to me.

As for that Friday/Monday holiday thing - I'm used to it. I was amazed to get an e-mail this morning from a supplier :)


Holiday was yesterday - so the culture is to take the day off as if it's a holiday too. Nonsense, but that's how it is.


The thing is - can they really get it? By all accounts, domestic demand is slumping - you'd think they would want the business!

It's an unofficial 'yesterday was a holiday and tomorrow is Saturday so I ain't working today' holiday.

odd to have a national holiday on a Thursday, Monday or Friday would be better.....

It's only a matter of time until the holidays are moved. The only people who support the current system are the religious nutters and they are dying off every day.

It's a great way to make sure that the country shuts down for several days, and with it, economic productivity.

I am sat in my office as the only person on my floor working - 8 in from a roster of 150. On the plus side it is a fantastic day for getting a backlog cleared, commute in half the time etc.

I guess GDP/productivity etc is not everything in life so if people want a day off then its a free country. On the other hand, as with the agitation to restrict Sunday trading these small traders then grouse about the big boys having too much clout.

Exactly. If they don't want the big boys to win - why let them have an easy victory?

Not to mention the opportunity lost - yes, I need a router, but what else might I buy if persuaded? I could certainly be tempted into buying some extra ethernet cables, and I would be open to buying a second router if I could be persuaded as to the usefulness of it. It's not much, but how many other people are thinking like me?

Believe me - most other people have also taken the day off, and ethernet cables are not uppermost in their mind ;-)

Personally I always enjoy the unofficial long weekends: the city empties out wonderfully and the 'working day' is filled with even more staring out of the window while scratching my balls than usual because so many of my colleagues have taken the day off there is very little to do.

Allow me to put on my P3 hat for a moment.....

Changes hat....

I see that you are putting economic productivity ahead of family values, and that you support the destruction of the wholesome, functional families by forcing them to work instead of spending time together as a cohesive family unit....

Changes hat....
Whew, glad that is over.


Malingerer. Detracting from the economic out put of his adopted homeland...

Actually, I can see one benefit Delph, at least you don't have to wait in traffic :-)

Average annual hours actually worked per worker (2012):

Poland: 1929
UK: 1654
France: 1479
Germany: 1397
Netherlands: 1381

Seems like Poles deserve more time off whenever they can get it.

stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=ANHRS

More is not always better. If nations can manufacture the same output with less hours, then the productivity is much higher than in other countries. Germany puts significant less hours in than the UK for example, but they outcompete the Brits in many fields.

Delphy, are you working for living, or living for working?

I've worked perhaps 30 actual hours in 6 weeks, spending some time buying some cables and a router really isn't a strain you know ;)

(for what it's worth, Komputronik got my money, despite being more expensive...)

So, you don't have to bust your ass, but those you perceive to be "poor" or "struggling" - must, just to make you happy and give you that priceless feeling that all's right with the world. In other words, the smaller store(s) annoyed you by choosing to enjoy a long weekend when you wanted to bestow on them the huge honour of buying several złoty's worth of computer odds and ends.

Isn't this more a matter of what career choice you made? If you own a small retail shop - at a time when domestic demand is slumping - how can you complain about the big boys if you can't even be bothered to work normal retail hours?

You hear so often about how these independent shops are struggling to compete against the chains - yet they simply don't put in the effort that the bigger chains do. Taking Friday off when it wasn't a holiday at all - is it any surprise that they end up going to the wall while the big boys win?


It wasn't several zloty, but rather several hundred with the possibility of repeat business for a much bigger order that will need to be made at some point soon.

At the end of the day, it's their choice - but they can't complain when the foreign-owned businesses step in and take all their customers (and thus livelihood) away because they don't see any reason to close the shop at the slightest reason. The shopping centres were very very busy yesterday - why would anyone in retail close their shop on such a busy day, especially if all the corporate workers have taken the day off?

Exactly. They either made an informed choice or are bad at business, if the latter is true they will know soon enough. But whatever the reason, you don't need to get upset about it. You still bought what you wanted, end of story.

Just leave them be, mother Nature (or rather mother Market Economy) will take her course. They did not take anything away from you or harm you in any way. Even if they did make a huge mistake, it will be a valuable lesson for the future. On the other hand, they might have kept their shop open in similar situations in the past and lost money that way. Who knows? But they still got the long weekend off, and that's what counts ;-)

Delph and I rarely agree on much, but I'm right with him on this one.

It's not an "areas of business thing", it's a Polish thing. coming from a totally different country with a totally different work ethic, I simply never understood it.

Christmas is 3 days (on the books) but extends to 5 or 6. Easter is 2 days (on the books) but geeze, how can anyone imagine working the day before the holiday or the day after the holiday for that matter....sick leave is unbelievable....a common cold lands you a week at home with a doctor's note and a prescription of antibiotics (for a virus? what?!) and people just randomly don't make it to work for whatever reason they conjure up.

on average, if you stick me in an office in Poland with 50 people for a year's worth of working, i'll be scratching my head week to week wondering why people can't seem to put in a full 5 day work week.

i could never be any sort of manager of people in Poland, I'd end up hurting a lot of people's feelings.

+1 Delph.