Are Poles workaholics?

Are Poles Workoholiks or not? Perhaps are other Europeans or Americans better?

Short answer : No. They are traditionally more about working to live rather than living to work.

And due to generations of low wages and bad working conditions they're not especially hard workers absent sufficient compensation.
But when they are well paid and have decent working conditions they often work very hard.

Maybe depends where in Poland. I remember reading something (written by a Polish businessman) a few years ago that mentioned the old zabory. He said that people in the Russian part were like that, wanting immediate rewards whereas people in the west of Poland were closer to Germans in their attitude to work. I forget what he wrote about people from the Austrian zabor.

The article was fairly lighthearted though he did mean what he wrote. It was on the BPCC website. I just had a look for it however there are dozens of pages of articles written since about 2015 with no search function and this was from at least a decade earlier.

Well that's where I am and it's very relative. One thing I noticed back in the late 90s was that the inequality gap was much more visible in Warsaw than former Prussia - and the most wealthy in the latter (which I had some indirect contact with) were more likely to hide their wealth or try to blend in while the better off in Warsaw were much more into conspicuous consumption...

I'm not sure how valid that still is. I did read an article about mentalność wielkopolska (more German than usually found in Poland) but the conclusion was that after decades of attack and undermining in the PRL it's now really only found in Poznań (within the city limits).

I am one. I work a lot everywhere I am - at the job or on vacation. I must be busy all the time - otherwise I feel uneasy, like I waste a part of my life.

Me too, I need to keep my mind occupied or I feel uneasy and weird.... but it doesn't have to be busy with work...

Same. I quit a job a few weeks ago thinking I'd have a fortnight at home in PL then off to work but it's been 5 weeks now and I'm climbing the walls. Apparently I've got another 2 weeks before it starts and there's a limit to how much one person can clean their home and bake things.

Similar to me but I see a major difference. I work a lot to hush down my restless mind which, when allowed to go freely on a thinking spree, tends to create incredible ideas and concepts which eventually cost me a lot of stress and worry coz I am a natural born pessimist. To cope with those stressful moments and retain a good mental shape, I must unplug my mind with hard physical work or energetic teaching.

Some Poles are workoholics. For expl. a few years ago a lorry with furniture from Poland come to us at 10 pm. The lorry driver was a self made want to be a milionar. Virtualy impossible in Germany.

Poles still work more than other nations, often working during weekends or have several jobs. Poland still stands out here from Western Europe.🛠

New technologies allow to reduce the overall time spent at work. Poland needs to catch up with Westerners in innovation, so the time spent at work will diminish.

@pawian
Ha,ha, that's right.
Poles deserved to be bosses, at least in their own country.

Some Poles want no more to work in Germany because it is not enough profitable for them now.

They don`t get paid anymore in Deutsche Mark which used to be the second currency after dollar in the value ranking long ago.

@pawian
Euros are not enough?

Euros are new while DM had had a decades-long reputation. HA!

Poles are not workaholics.
They only work hard because they have to.

So I am an exception.
As usual.

You are an exception in every sense!
But not necessarily in the ways that you would like!

What do you actually mean?

Hardworking is different then workaholic,not many Poles that I have met in Poland.But Poles are hardworking for sure not in Poland but in a foreign country.

Largely true. A lot does depend n whether they're working for themselves or for an employer and a few other factors. I've come across people who sleep under their desk sometimes so they can be in early in the morning and others who won't stay an extra minute.

In antiquity Slavs were popular as slaves. Just as the Africans in the New World, Slavs were valued for being able to work hard, if not for being hard workers. Slavs seemed to be able to take on more punishment, and complained less than Greeks or Romans. Good beasts of labor, essentially. They were also valued for the unusual hair and eye color by Mediterranean standards.

So if history is any use, then we can say that Poles, as Slavs, are good at dumb labor demanding great physical exertion. After, it is important for them to lie down, and take a nice nap.

In my experience, Poles always had the reputation of being most industrious! Still recall the name of my first Polish textbook from the Communist Era, "Pracowita Matka", praising the image of the hard-working Polish mother, in accordance with the propaganda of the period:-)

Abroad, though rarely in Poland.

Perhaps because as immigrants abroad, they felt they had to work twice as hard.

Partly that, partly being in a different environment with a different work ethic, and partly that for some, emigrating was a last chance and a golden one.

Can't argue with ya there, jon.

Poles work fo sure more often on weekends and after hours.

There is some truth in that.
They will work hard when the money is good.

Poles are hard workers when they can see benefits from their hard work.