Life / 37020 British expats in Poland [25]

Thanks but I am very far from convinced. There is a slight chance commercials are being bought but it's not res and it's not 37K. I prefer the embassy as a source of info rather than a commercial enterprise and a pretty obscure one at that with no numbers and no detail. You should note the article appears to be sayingbuy now or miss the boat, foreign money's coming! That should say plenty to one's inner voice.

There's not one jot more reason to believe 37K Brits here having read that. I still reckon it's 4000 and probably will remain there or fall as the country's economic situation looks to be heading for choppier waters. Looks like it's a credit driven respite if anything now. Anecdotally, locally, things are far from buoyant. And recruiting programmers from overseas as is happening here adds to the impression of cost cutting galore to stay afloat.

Life / 37020 British expats in Poland [25]

Link to this stat please? Of residential property to live in? Or commercial buildings? Or lets to rent out? It is indeed fairly common for flats to be owned by Poles in the UK and let out, but private Britons are definitely not buying res property in anything other than the smallest of trickles. British owned developers? Hmm, well perhaps there's 1 or 2.

Highly unlikely from the agents I spoke to (dozens) not one mentioned buyers from the UK. They cited Germans, Italians, Spanish, Norwegians. There are very few Brits here in this city, between 100 and 150 max from my enquiries, and almost none are owner occupiers.

There's no way 37000 Brits live in Poland. It's more like 4000.

Having googled, it seems the British Emb in Warsaw said 2500 in 2007, so if one imagines the number was really double that back then, I'd still doubt it would leap from 5K to 37K in 7 years. There's very little in the way of financially viable job opps for anyone from the UK etc even if they have programming skills, as wages are 1/3 or 1/4 or worse. The only Brits here usually are entrepreneurs and managers of big multinationals on UK money while posted here, plus of course a few with ties who make ends meet with family businesses giving them work or a measly income from teaching or whatever.

theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/12/poland.helenpidd

Real Estate / What is the Rent for 1 Bed Room Flat in Wroclaw & what is the security Deposit? [8]

domy.pl/en

Life / 37020 British expats in Poland [25]

Yes, that's also what I was hinting at, and yes again the price of used cars in PL is rather high. I think I'll stick my neck out and say 50% more has been my experience generally, occasionally pretty much double.

Life / 37020 British expats in Poland [25]

Maybe it's true and there are thousands here because I'm certainly seeing something of a real increase in British number-plates on cars as I wait at bus stops and survey the passing traffic! (Or maybe it's more like in anticipation of a relaxation in the regulations about legalising right hand drive cars from January.)

Life / Pepper Spray in Poland? [36]


Well, that would probably put you through to something like Yellow Pages. for the UK, it's 999 for all emergency services, and you'll be asked which service you want, ie police, ambulance, fire or lifeguard. 112 (not 119) also gets you through to the emergency operator. (119 is for Japan & Korea primarily)

matadornetwork.com/abroad/how-to-dial-911-around-the-world/

Life / Pepper Spray in Poland? [36]


Your guess would not necessarily be correct in the UK. I am not a Pole and I don't know Polish law. However, I do know that in certain circumstances in some countries the carrying of the article you mentioned would be construed as an offensive weapon. The fact that the can label reads fly spray is not a get out of jail card.

You can find this info in many places, but it's quite clear here (I have no connection to the source whatsoever)


(source: norriewaite)

Work / 100,000 PLN (per year) in Krakow - Is it enough for a couple to survive on? [18]


You said


That doesn't sound like a cheap diner, but anyway, yeah you'll be fine if you want to go to a semi-fast food place for dinner, sort of like a UK truckers' café or semi fast food sort of place, like a gyros, then 50zl a head should buy something just about if you choose wisely.

If on the other hand you meant a dinner at a proper restaurant, and we're not talking with its own orchestra or smartly dressed waiters, just a normal one that people go to but that isn't a gyros, then 50zl won't go far at all, budget for 100 min. For a fancy shmancy impressive one btw, you're talking 250zl+ a head anyway and more likely 400 to plus whatever wine you choose etc.

Life / 37020 British expats in Poland [25]

Thanks Harry.

Gosh I have to chuckle when I read the low statistic for several of the nationalities here! 100% wrong, for sure. I don't know how they calculate the data but it seems to be very, very wide of the mark for several if not all nationalities. If they're the 2012 figures, they weren't even right then, IMO.

Life / 37020 British expats in Poland [25]


It all sounds a bit Pete Tong, doesn't it. Whilst I have noticed a few more British accents here of late, they number <10. So that doesn't really account for the implication of thousands. If there were, the shops would stock more British lines of food, I think. They certainly stock a lot of lines for other communities whose presence is much more numerous, but sadly not much in the way of British food for the simple reason that there aren't many of us here.

Life / 37020 British expats in Poland [25]

Or on the other hand did they just add a digit by mistake, for example is it 3720 instead of 37020?
4000 I'd agree with, because it seems to be something like 75 to 150 in each major city (very rough, unscientific estimate based on various scraps of info, admittedly)

Life / Which is the best credit card to get in Poland? [10]


And the thing many hate is the 4.99zl charge for some current account internet customers every time they pay in or withdraw at a branch, and sometimes for payments to third parties it's 9.99zl.

(can be avoided with some accounts if a certain amount of money is paid in to the account each month, but some other banks don't make this charge, so Millennium should take note as people vote with their feet)

Work / 100,000 PLN (per year) in Krakow - Is it enough for a couple to survive on? [18]


Well, tak, JR. Typical menu when taking one's spouse or significant other would come to well over 50zl unless exercising very obvious budgetary restraint and you'd need some excuses, such as

"Soup shmoop. If you've tasted one you've tasted them all. Let's go straight to the main course."
"No, no, a starter would just fill us up and spoil the main course, darling!"
"No dear, I heard the [insert name of dish] isn't too good here, try the [insert name] it's cheaper I mean much nicer."

"Dessert? We can share!"
"Coffee - who needs it?! Plenty at home! Tap water will do? ...What, tap water's not available?!"



Exactly what I want to say - nail hit.

Work / 100,000 PLN (per year) in Krakow - Is it enough for a couple to survive on? [18]



Yes, snap. Same here in Wro. 50zl each in Wro is almost what people spend at a supermarket café for a quick lunch plus a drink and small dessert.

Cheapest places here are 6zl small soup or special offer soup in some places, 10-20zl usual serving of soup, 30-50zl pretty typical main course, 10zl typical modest dessert, 10zl coffee.

People earning here about 1000 after tax per week then have to spend at least 20 a day on a modest lunch, plus a drink of 5-10. Not cheap at all, despite there being eateries everywhere you look.

50zl a head per week would only be a realistic budget at McKings'.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Still seeing the same flats at the same prices, hanging around now for what must be best part of a year. One or two developers in the better areas have cut prices to what I think are the lowest I can remember, sub 300K for one of them, and am pretty sure they were 350K a few months ago.

Elsewhere, some reasonable value creeping in to some parts of the city but still hard to really see how they're affordable to anyone but managers.

Given that I'm seeing the same apartments unsold many, many, many moons later, it doesn't look buoyant for apparently unrealistically priced property in some areas. Of course, being Xmas, that could be a factor now for greater stagnation.

History / Can anyone from Poland tell me about Auschwitz and The Ghetto? [582]

Merged: British PM visits Nazi deathcamp Auschwitz in Poland

thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/190226,UK-PM-Cameron-pays-respects-in-Auschwitz


auschwitz.org

Life / Move to Poland or UK? (Advice needed) [51]


I'm not indicating anything as fact, if you again read what I say I included the caution BBC TV poll (not verified, votes may not have been unique)

Life / Move to Poland or UK? (Advice needed) [51]

I'm not racist but I no longer consider multiculturalism to be viable. I am not alone. BBC TV poll (not verified, votes may not have been unique) 95% don't think multiculturism is working

telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11053646/Multiculturalism-has-brought-us-honour-killings-and-Sharia-law-says-Archbishop.html express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/443677/A-multicultural-hell-hole-that-we-never-voted-for
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-my-war-on-multiculturalism-2205074.html
academic essay
lse.ac.uk/socialPsychology/faculty/caroline_howarth/Howarth-and-Andreouli-paper-FINAL.pdf

Work / Average salary to live&work in Wrocław? Local Credit Suisse opinions. [33]

You're Wrocław's outstanding remunerating employer are you? Must be a path beaten to your front door then. If you read Monitor's comments about salaries, I concur fully with that, and my knowledge of local salaries was sharpened considerably in the past 3 months. Despite some wage growth, the wage suggested by Pau86 is not inferior. Quite the opposite. As you pay so much, perhaps he should apply to your firm, so maybe PM him with your better offer and fight it out with CS.

As for whether that salary is viable, that's open to debate, I agree. Poland is more expensive than people realise. It would be a case of cutting one's cloth according to one's means rather than lavish.

Work / Average salary to live&work in Wrocław? Local Credit Suisse opinions. [33]

You obviously know fairly little about local wages.

Work / Average salary to live&work in Wrocław? Local Credit Suisse opinions. [33]


Because we're not short of JFCs here, that's why.
In the UK, we're short of early morning sandwich makers and cleaners in hotels, and so many foreign nationals take those roles. We're also short of some specialist app developers in Ireland and maybe the UK, ditto. We would not likely, in the UK, recruit abroad whether in Spain or Singapore or Paris or Las Vegas for a junior financial controller when we have our own. Even if it's for Spanish or Mandarin language skills, I can assure you there are plenty of Poles who speak Spanish. I hear them on the bus, and yes they are Poles. I'm almost positive that in the length and breadth of Poland there's a JFC who can speak Spanish and would like to increase their wages by working in a big city. There's probably even one somewhere who can speak Mandarin, because this is not a tiny island.

Work / Average salary to live&work in Wrocław? Local Credit Suisse opinions. [33]


It doesn't matter whether he comes from Catalunya (Singapore) or Catalonia, I don't agree with importing foreign labour except where strictly necessary. I said the same in the UK, by the way. I have heard all the "best person for the job" arguments and I think it's hard to believe. Firms should recruit from the local workforce for all but the most specialist roles or where economics may dictate otherwise. It is hard to be persuaded that it is cheaper to hire someone from abroad than from within Poland for this sort of role. Let locals earn and pay taxes locally, there's no special advantage to foreign labour doing that (and foreign labour often send their wages out of a country anyway).

There were many raised eyebrows in the UK when a firm there only advertised jobs in Poland and not in the UK (presumably because they wanted to pay less). Locals rightly felt shut out, by the way. But it actually should be illegal to hire anyone from abroad (ie to relocate them especially) for a job not on the official skills shortage list. If you can now produce that list and show me that it says JFCs are on it, I shall probably decide that I am asleep and this is a rather unpleasant dream about globalisation gone mad.

Work / Average salary to live&work in Wrocław? Local Credit Suisse opinions. [33]


Even if from Catalonia (the poster here is not), in Poland there are a good few JFCs who speak Spanish. The relocation bill (if any) for hiring someone from Lublin, or Gdansk, or another town where salaries are less than Wrocław's, would surely not exceed that of relocating someone from another country. Quite apart from that, here in Wrocław I have seen far too much of this as it is, not at CS but other firms. They are probably given tax incentives to set up shop in Poland and hire locals, yet their sites have head scratchingly large numbers of foreign national "managers" or whatever other "specialist roles" from their home country or elsewhere (in their hundreds if not thousands) and far fewer local Polish workers than should be the case. This seems to me to say that something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Work / Average salary to live&work in Wrocław? Local Credit Suisse opinions. [33]

It's probably a salary that quite a few local JFCs would like.

I'd have to assume that someone recruited from Singapore would be needed for Mandarin (assuming it's in demand, I've never seen an ad here requesting it) or another language in demand apart from English, because to the best of my knowledge there's no shortage of JFCs with several years of experience locally who can speak English as well as their native Polish (and even German or French).

Of course, you could be a troll. And frankly I'd be happy if you are, because it's my view that it's completely unacceptable for any local employer to recruit outside of Poland for a role that a Poland resident would do for the same money.

Having been to local firms and met nationals from other countries, I had assumed they were doing software development jobs where there's a skills shortage locally. Unless I am totally confusing the role of Junior (and Senior) Financial Controller, it is not a post where experienced applicants are few.

Work / Average salary to live&work in Wrocław? Local Credit Suisse opinions. [33]

I asked a question, as you're not a local in Wrocław I'm surprised that you feel you can answer. But perhaps you can. So if you have knowledge of why there were no suitable local applicants for the role apparently offered to you by CS then post them here as I'd be very interested to know why the local workforce could not meet CS's needs in respect of a role that sounds very unspecialised.

Work / Average salary to live&work in Wrocław? Local Credit Suisse opinions. [33]

What puzzles me is why Credit Suisse cannot find a Junior Financial Controller among the high number of unemployed in Wrocław, and instead hire a foreign national.

Real Estate / House for rent - cost per month in Poland (Wroclaw). Affluent neighborhoods? [7]

@Monitor, I'm not sure that map is correct. I would say Biskupin is more expensive than for example Krzyki. And Ksieze Wielki the same price as Biskupin??! Whaaat? Perhaps the size of apartments and houses skews the price per square metre, but there's no way Biskupin is the same price as KW when comparing like for like.


For real or having a Monday morning giraffe?

Work / Finding English teaching jobs in Poland [19]


I found that to be reasonably true when I was there, remarkably enough. Most Germans seem to know far less English, even in many major cities.

I also found a larger proportion of Germans to be 6ft 3 plus! And seemed that many supermarkets didn't sell black tea bags or black tea ?!

Law / Right Hand Drive cars in Poland 'indefinitely' but not registered - doable? [21]

Thank you very much, Looker :)