A Parting of Ways

In the end of October I had a nice surprise visit from Aunt Valerie, Nancy and Beky. The first two days they were here, Manda and Andrew came with them so I got to spend some time with a big chunk of the family. I had a great time seeing everyone and the last night they were in town we had a lovely evening together; lots of laughs.

Right around the same time family was in town, Kasia and Darek went on their honeymoon to Tunisia. While they were gone, they let me and Krzysiek stay in their apartment. They have a great place and it was so nice to have my own space for awhile. I had been living in so many cramped situations for the last six months it was a huge treat to just relax in a virtually unshared space. Living with Krzysiek was also unbelievably easy. He is just as much of a neat freak as I am so there were no arguments regarding cleanliness and it was fun to have someone to come home to and share meals with. It was a completely different dynamic than I have with my roommates. We would spend hours talking over giant cups of tea, go on walks and watch movies together. Krzysiek was working a great deal more than I was, so I often had the place to myself. I had enough space to actually practice yoga and I also spent a lot of time playing in the kitchen. Needless to say, I was a very happy camper :-)  

The approach of November brought about another holiday in Poland - All Saints Day. I miraculously got the day off work (American companies rarely observe Polish holidays), and so Krzysiek and I headed to Wola to spend the holiday with family. All Saints Day is usually spent with family as it is the day you honor family members who have passed by visiting their graves. And that's exactly what we did. We all got up and went to mass, then visited the graves in the churchyard which are from Krzysiek's father's side of the family. Then we went home for lunch before heading to two additional graveyards a little further away, where relatives from his mother's side lay. Then it was time for coffee and cake with Grandpa and his girlfriend. After Grandpa went home, we wrapped up the evening with some vodka and good conversation. 

An afternoon of Wine and Hookah

When I got back to work after the holiday, all kinds of drama exploded. The training I was going through was supposed to be three months and at the end of those three months each trainee was supposed to be offered a contract. It just so happened that that week concluded the three month training period for two of the trainees. When one of the trainees, Krzysztof, asked about a contract, he was greeted by shocked surprise and even anger. Obviously, they had not been planning ahead. Nevertheless, a contract was hastily drawn up that evening and the next day he forwarded me a copy as well.

It was the most ridiculous legal document I had ever seen.

It was an independent contract, meaning each of us would have to create our own company. Additionally, the provisions in the contract were not at all conducive to that of an independent contractor and were actually more binding than a regular working contract. There was no paid time off, sick days or benefits. You had to give two months notice if you wanted to quit and there was a 2500 Euro fee for breaking the contract any time before two years. 

We called a meeting with the boss.

You could probably say I did most of the talking in tha meeting as I am the only native English speaker. My boss, his wife and our manager were very defensive and confused as to why we were so upset. My boss kept saying that he was a reasonable person and that if something personal happened to us he would never hold us to the restrictions of the contract. I kept emphasizing that certain things needed to be amended and he agreed to amendments concerning everything except the fee for breach of contract. When asked why we couldn't sign regular contracts like the current employees, he explained that this was better for us because we would make more money because we would be paying fewer taxes. And lastly, I wanted to know exactly what the steps were to create your own company in Poland. He didn't know so he arranged for his accountant to come and talk to us the next day to explain everything. Throughout the discussion, my boss kept saying, 'Madeline, I've never seen you like this. You have so many questions.' It made me incredibly angry to hear him admit that he had underestimated me.

The next morning two of the trainees met with a lawyer downtown only to discover that the provisions in the contract were in conflict with Polish labor laws. They both decided then and there to walk. I thought I would most definitely do the same, but I wanted to go and relay the news in person.

Getting ready for my four o'clock meeting I was a little nervous. My boss always has tricks up his sleeves and he always gets what he wants. He's a true businessman in that sense. He has a way of putting a rose-colored glow on everything and getting people right where he wants them. I've seen him in action and he had had a great deal of time to prepare. On my way out the door I suddenly turned back and grabbed my black suit jacket and through it on. I had the feeling I'd be needing it. 

My comfort food

When I walked into the building I could hear a multitude of voices coming from my boss' office. There definitely was more than just an accountant in there. I went into the break room and waited. 

Within moments my boss came in and lit up when he saw me. He instructed me to follow him and I immediately noted that he was dressed to the nines, in black. As I followed him into the office I was greeted by a roomful of suits. A lawyer, two CPAs, my boss, his wife and my manager. Also wearing black. I was never so happy to be wearing my suit jacket. 

After a moment of panic I reminded myself that I hadn't signed anything so they had nothing on me. Then I pulled my acting hat on and, masking my fear, I walked around and graciously introduced myself to each person individually. Finally, I took a seat and waited. 

My boss held up two pieces of paper that looked like first grade math problems written in sharpie with the answers highlighted in neon yellow. This annoyed me. Again, he was underestimating my intelligence. One piece of paper contained figures demonstrating the net salary, taxes and gross income of an independent contract and the other was that of a normal working contract. The difference was about 800złoty, which is significant in Poland. Now that he was allowing us to choose between the two contracts I wanted to see the second contract in writing. He looked at me in shocked surprise and said he'd get me one and that I could even sign it that day. I didn't like that he was in such a rush as I was supposed to in training for yet another month. It turned out that they didn't even have any originals, so they blacked out the personal info of one of the current employee's contracts and handed it to me. 

It was in Polish.

I voiced that I was not a native Polish speaker and would need to receive a translated copy. They didn't have one, but if I could wait TWO HOURS one of the trainees would be in who was a certified translator. I found this ridiculously amusing and declined.

So the CPAs didn't speak very good English and had a great deal of difficulty with my questions so I had her tell me in Polish. I found this ironic, as my boss speaks absolutely zero Polish. It turns out that it's a little more complicated and time consuming for me as a foreigner to create my own company and my boss wasn't willing to wait for the paperwork to go through, so my only option was to go with the normal contract which was not enough money. 

I informed them that I would be going home to look over the contract as I also had to get it translated and that I would give them my response in 24 hours. It was 5pm. They were stunned, 'you're not going to stay for your shift?!?' I thought that was unbelievable and honestly couldn't see the point, but I just said no. Then they started laying it on thick. How valuable I was, how I'd picked everything up faster than anyone else with the least amount of training, how they liked working with me, etc. It was all true, but I had never heard them compliment me until then. They were always attacking everyone to be better. But that week I had consistently made over $2500 for the company daily. I was raking it in and they didn't want to lose me. In that moment I probably could have negotiated just about anything I wanted, but I wasn't interested in working with those people. They were money hungry, disorganized and pathetic. 

I waited in the break room for the other trainees to go through the same process. When they finished, they turned in their keys and Krzysztof asked if we could receive the money we were owed for the two weeks we worked in November. My boss threw a fit like a two-year-old. Saying we were stealing from him by taking his money, training with him just to use what we learned somewhere else, that Krzysztof had some nerve asking for money, that we had never worked there (despite the fact that we had been working as full-time agents even though we didn't have full training), blah, blah, blah. I made my decision right then and there. This was not someone I could trust or someone I wanted to work for. 

The next morning I received a call, text and email from my manager first thing in the morning enquiring about my decision. I was not happy. I was supposed to have 24hours. Later that afternoon, I sent him and my boss an email signaling my resignation. I received a nice response from my manager and a creepy response from my boss: 'wherever you go God will be with you. Time will tell...'

And that was the crash-burn ending to my first employment experience in Poland.