Holiday 2022

Here one photo from each city I visited during my last summer holiday

Lodz Fabrycna

Wroclaw old market square

Poznan

Wilanow in Warsaw

Review of Accor hotels in Poland

Room of ibis in Poznan

I spent 2 weeks in Poland and during that time I stayed in Ibis Budget in the center of Warsaw, Ibis old town in Poznan and Novotel in Lodz which all are different category hotels of Accor. In this post I'm going to compare the experience in their different price category hotels. In each hotel I stayed in a room which was for three people. Ibis budget is 1-star hotel, Ibis is 2-star hotel and Novotel is a 4-start hotel.

Surprisingly the room of Ibis budget was the biggest and it was the only place where you could find place to sit for three people. Three stools were available but in other higher class hotels a sofa was converted to a bed so then only one chair was available for having a seat. The loud ventilation in Ibis Budget stood out negatively and many might find sleeping difficult with the loud humming. Also the overall look of the room was cheap compared to Novotel and Ibis. All the hotel rooms were clean and in good shape. In Ibis budget you didn't get a hand towel beside the towel for having a shower.

In every hotel you could also buy a breakfast for about 10 euros. There was a remarkable difference between the breakfast served in Novotel and Ibis Budget. The breakfast served in Novotel had at least 3 times more options available than in Ibis Budget. The biggest difference between Ibis and Novotel was the breakfast and more spacious shower and toilet of Novotel. Novotel had a small gym so I managed to get a workout done.

Ekstraklasa First League of Poland

Stadion Miejski

Today I went to see Polish First League match in Poznan. The home team Lech Poznan lost 0 - 2 against visitor Stal Mielec. The stadium has capacity of 43 000 people, the first round league match brought 12 000 spectators to the stadium. Almost everyone was wearing the Lech Poznan scarf and shirt. The whole crowd welcomed the teams by standing and supporting. Home team had a loud group of supporters chanting through the match eventhough home team didn't perform well. I believe they had about 1 000 fans singing the full match. The atmosphere was good eventhough most of the seats were empty.

Here listed my previous matches seen abroad

The background of people working in outsourcing

Last month I wrote about the high turnover of personnel in BPO/SSC.  EU has given chance for many people to go work abroad. On the other hand EU has made it possible for corporations to centralize activities in service centers in one country and moving activities from many different countries under one roof in one country. This has created demand of people speaking different languages. I will shed some light to the backgrounds of people who work in language dependent outsourcing activities.

The workforce in BPO/SSC is female dominant. Even 70 % of the personnel are females. Outsourcing of language dependent activities have given a chance for language students to enter corporate jobs. Therefore you can find many locals with the background in studies of humanities. As the language skills is the most important criteria there are the native speakers with different kind of backgrounds who move from their home countries to work abroad with their native language. Some people do not have any degree after high school studies, some have changed from other field to corporate work and others have just started their career.

Finding people who speak big European languages like Spanish, French and German is easier than finding speakers of small European languages like Finnish, Swedish and Dutch. Hiring person from another EU country is easier for paperwork wise than hiring someone outside of Europe but as finding someone inside Europe can be challenging some companies are ready to hire also from outside of Europe. One friend of mine who works in HR of BPO/SSC said that "We would hire a monkey if it spoke the required language"

High turnover of personnel in BPO/Shared Service Centers

I have been working for three years in BPO/Shared Service Center environment. I have paid attention that the turnover of the personnel is fast. My desk has been in an open office space with around 50 other employees. My feeling was that almost every week there was a farewell gathering around someones desk who had decided to quit. High turnover is considered a challenge in BPO/Shared service centers (Ruppel et al. 2013). I started to wonder the reasons why people were leaving the company. I do not have any collected data about the turnover of personnel in BPO/Shared Service Centers but I found a research made by Juho-Erik Kolehmainen regarding the turnover in one HR Shared Service Center in Philipines which provides service for companies in USA.

The decisions to leave a company were classified to internal and external reasons in the research of Kolehmainen. I have observed the same reasons contributing to the high turnover of personnel in Poland as well in Spain. The top external reasons for leaving a company was career development (38 %), salary & benefits (28 %) and personal reasons (28 %) like starting studies or moving elsewhere. The top internal reasons for leaving a company were work environment (25 %), management (19 %), job tasks (19 %), career development (16 %) and salary & benefits (16 %).

The most of the service in Poland is provided to other European countries and therefore the work environment with night shifts caused by time difference between continents is not an issue like in Philippines where the service is provided mainly to the companies in USA. Though there is also service provided to outside of Europe in Poland. In Poland as in Philippines there is competition between the companies for the qualified work force. Many of my friends changed their job as another company could offer them better salary & benefits.

There are  many foreigners working in the BPO/Shared Service Centers to perform language dependent activities with their native language in Poland. I have seen many foreigners coming to work in Poland with the attitude to stay one year working abroad and then moving back to home country. Career development might not be as attractive to foreigners as you might lose your language bonus if you get a promotion. You might end up having the same salary despite the promotion. Also your team leader might be against your promotion or moving to another department as it can be difficult to find a replacement with your language skills.

I have observed also issues in the job tasks which leads people quitting. It might be that before the "go-live" you are barely having any work and some people quit before as they get too bored before the actual work even starts. The cultural differences affect a lot how activities are performed in different countries and that makes estimating the needed work time challenging. I have seen that within the same department some people have too much workload as some have work just for few hours each day Even though job tasks are simple some people struggle to perform the tasks and get laid off while others get bored and quit the job.

This was opening article to my observations in BPO/Shared Service Center environment. I am planning to write some more in the coming months.

• Kolehmainen Juho-Erik (2015) Employee turnover and reasons for the turnover. CGI Global HR Shared Services, the Philippines, Master thesis
• Ruppel, C., Sims, R. & Zeidler, P. (2013). Emotional labour and its outcomes: A study of a Philippine call centre. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration, Vol. 5, Issue 3, 246-261

Social security system in Finland

Finnish social security system guarantees you better income than full time job in Poland. In Finland Unemployed person gets 1100 EUR/month in gross according to Savon Sanomat 14.4.2015. The 1100 EUR/month is formed of 600 EUR unemployment support and then support to cover rental costs which can be 500 EUR/month in the capital area. It is hard to imagine Finnish speaking person to be motivated to move to Poland for work if he/she gets paid better in Finland unemployed than having full time job in Poland. Though by working in Poland Finnish speaker has good chance to earn better than average. So one could have better income compared the neighbors  Earlier I wrote a post of salary differences between Poland and Finland and how appreciated Finnish language skills are in Poland.

2 years in Poland

Graffiti in Centrum

Two years ago I wrote about my decision to move to Poland. I was enthusiastic to learn Polish in the beginning but my language learning motivation decreased little by little. Therefore I never learned fluent Polish but at least I can speak a little. I decided not to extend my contract and therefore I am going to Finland for one month. I do not know yet what I will do or where I will go after the holiday in Finland. At the moment I am considering and looking for different options. Lets see what the future will be.

Salary differences between Poland and Finland

I have few Finnish friends and foreign friends working in a service desk job in Poland. From them I found out that you get paid very well in Polish standards. Before I have also written about the job opportunities for Finnish speakers in Poland. I decided to study the topic little more and compare the salary of service desk worker to the salary of a doctor in Poland. Click "read more" and find out the exact salaries.

Top Posts 2014

Art in Lodz

I have been even less productive in posting than last year. I have picked still my favorite posts from this year.

1. I realized that in Poland there a lot of job opportunities for people who speak different European languages.
2. Traveling is not necessarily glamorous even though everybody seems to love it
3. Early maternity leave in Poland
4. Holiday to Georgia was unforgettable
5. My point of view to beauty of Polish women

Top posts from the previous years 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.

Polish Christmas Table

It is Christmas time and I will introduce what you can find in a Polish Christmas table. Now in supermarkets you can find a big fish pool. The fish pool is filled with carps. Interesting that in Poland carp is considered a good fish to a festive table as my granddad would not eat carp because he considers it trash fish. Also families like to prepare big amount of dumplings which can be eaten during Christmas days. There are many things on the table but meat is not eaten traditionally on the 24th of December.

Probably the most interesting tradition is to prepare a seat and plate for an unexpected guest. It is not common to receive an unexpected guest to the Christmas table but still the place is prepared.

Learning Polish

Clueless alien

Polish is known for being one of the most difficult languages to learn. That would be a good excuse to say why I have not learned to speak fluent Polish in 1.5 years. Despite the reputation of Polish being a hard language I believe that I could have learned it in this time. I can speak some Polish and I can have a conversation in Polish. I believe that I could actually fully live in Polish if I would be patient enough to speak only in Polish and also communicate with friends who would be patient to listen me speaking slowly Polish.

Before coming here I was aware that the biggest obstacle for me to learn Polish would be that I end up spending time with people who do not speak Polish. I wanted to learn Polish and I still ended up spending my free time mostly speaking other languages than Polish. It was just much easier to live and rely on the languages I already know. I have been living in this bubble of foreigners in Poland and therefore have not learned to speak fluent Polish.

Maternity leave in Poland

Yesterday I got surprised when one lady from our office announced that she is going to maternity leave. Why did I get surprised? well, because I had not noticed anybody in the office who looks like being pregnant. I found out that in Poland you can start maternity leave already after being pregnant one month. You do not get actually an official maternity leave but doctor writes you a sick leave until you give birth. In Poland it is normal that while being pregnant you get a sick leave. In Finland you have to work and you get the maternity leave just few months before giving birth.

I found out also that abortion is illegal in Poland. Though I have been told that there are some illegal clinics where you can get the job done.

Street Art

Despite the ugly grafitis you can also see well done street art in Poland. Today it was a sunny day so I rode around the city center and took pictures of visible street art.

Dressing room behaviour

In Poland I have been going to gym and playing floorball in a team. Naturally after doing sports you take a shower. I noticed that in Poland everybody likes to walk to shower in their underwear and take them off once they are in the shower. As in Finland you remove all of your clothes and put a towel around you if you want to cover yourself on the way to the shower.

Graffitis

Few graffitis

In Poland you can see many ugly graffitis.You can find grafifittis on the walls of flats, on the walls or basically on any public building. Graffitis have been covered maybe few times but soon there is another one done on the covered one. Especially graffitis of Widzew and Łks are popular. Widzew and Łks are the local football clubs. So there is very little respect on the buildings in
Poland.

Beautiful Polish Women

Polish women have the reputation of being the most beautiful women of the world. One Mexican friend of mine even stated that 80 % women could be considered good looking. I think that the beauty of Polish women is exaggerated. Though I admit that style of Polish women is more feminine compared to style of Finnish women. Especially during the night all women are wearing a nice dress and high heels. Also during the day high heels are much more common in the street picture of Poland than in Finland. It is also rare to see alternative looks what you can see in Hel Looks. Having colored hair is also quite common like in Finland. All women are not skinny and you can see naturally women of all sizes.

Ekstra league finished

League phase of Polish Ekstra league is now finished. There are three teams which are superior compared to other teams. The rest of the teams are quite equal but clearly behind the top teams. Our team ULKS Jozefina finished last by collecting 5 points. In the play offs we will face league winner MUKS Zielonka. Our chances to win against Zielonka are tiny.

I started the season as a left winger and played last 6 matches as a defender. I made 3 goals and assisted 5 in 14 league matches. Playing as a defender was more enjoyable because I could have the ball much more. Probably the stick handling is not the biggest problem of the team. I see looking free space and moving without the ball much bigger problem.

Some snow

Finally some snow which seems to stay more than just one day on the ground. I saw also few snow plows taking care of the snow. At least here they seem to be taking better care of the snowy streets than in Turkey. Though I noticed that here they use a lot of salt compared to Finland. Salt makes snow melt and therefore riding a bike was much more harder on wet snow than it would be on hard snow. Bike lane and pedestrian street was not taken as good care as in Finland so I think I will be using public transportation instead of bike when there is snow on the ground.

Finnish language lessons offered in Poland

I did a little experiment by publishing a Finnish language lesson advertisement in one Polish website. I wanted to find out if there would be anyone interested in learning Finnish. I put double price compared to all the other language lessons offered in the website so I was not expecting to be contacted many times. I got contacted by three person who were interested in taking private Finnish lessons. Also two recruiting agencies approached me and offered me a job interview for a full time job where fluent Finnish was a requirement. I did not end up giving lessons to anybody as I have already full time job and I want to have also free time. Probably I could have started giving Finnish lessons if I would be ready to offer the lessons with the same price as other teachers who are offering private lessons in other languages.

Top Posts 2013

Green Horizon

This year I have been less productive blogger than previous years but still I am going to name the top posts of the year 2013.

1. Different drinking habits in different countries
2. Some people are more friendly in Facebook than other
3. I had a chance to visit Germany and see my friends there
4. Awful Polish way to make movies understandable
5. Playing floorball in Polish ekstraliga

Top posts from the previous years 2012, 2011 and 2010.