I am a human ,there are ( put your own words here) all over the world the older you get the more you notice but for all the bad ones there are loads of good ones ,they just go un noticed.
I truly believe that we are witnessing a unique time in our history.
The British employers are taking advantage of the cultural differences that the Eastern European brings into the workplace.
Eastern Europeans have a completely different work ethic because of the way in which they have been treated in the Eatern Bloc, so they are used to being treated, what we in the West, would call badly.
There is no comparison…They have been downtrodden for decades, treated like dirt and taken advantage of and it continues in the UK.
The problem I had, was that the majority of drivers where I was working are Eastern European, so they treated everyone the same, unfortunately the treatment was akin to the soviet regime that has now all but disappeared…It is thriving in this company that I worked for(Through an agency)
I have found out that the majority of British drivers on this agencies books, will not go into this company to work, as they will not put up with the way in which they are treated…They would rather go without work than work in this place.
I had a very enlightening chat with the agency owner today…It seems that it is not just drivers they are treating like dirt! 
I am glad that I have experienced this, however, when are the Eastern Europeans going to get a fair deal? Are they going to continue being exploited by British employers…I for one think that they are.
I like working, I like being part of the whole scheme of things, but I will not be exploited and treated like dirt, just because the majority will put up with it.
Thankfully, I have found something else to do at the weekends now, with a different company…So all is good again.
att:
Eastern Europeans have a completely different work ethic because of the way in which they have been treated in the Eatern Bloc, so they are used to being treated, what we in the West, would call badly.
As if you knew how was to work in Eastern Europe.
I will give you just one example: there was a popular proverb saying “Czy siÄ™ stoi, czy siÄ™ leży, 1000 zÅ‚otych siÄ™ należy” which means “no matter, if you stand here, or if you lie down, you will be paid your 1000 zÅ‚oty salary”.
I know that you heard something about Stachanovitz movement, but I doubt that any of Polish migrant workers in UK remembers Stalinist period. I would say that many of them do not remember communism at all, as they were small kids when it collapsed.
During these times, economy was completely unreal, so your salary was completely not related to the work you do (or not). And often there was no work, as thanks to central planning it was impossible to do any work due of lack of the raw materials for example.
I give you just one case study: My neighbour was a taxi driver. He needed lot of tyres, but the tyres were reglamented so it was really hard to get one. But the trailers weren’t reglamented, so he was buying a trailer (because it was awfully cheap to buy one) and just removing the wheels and putting it on his cab. Then he stopped driving at all, as petrol was also reglamented, but as he was taxi driver, he had much higher quotas. So only driving he was doing it was to drive to the petrol station and then back home, when he was selling his petrol on the black market - he would never be able to make such good money by driving a taxi.
I remember when I was young it was people on the taxi stands queuing and begging some taxi drivers for the lift, offering them some extra money, not the other way round.
So everyone was sneaking out of his work place - no wonder, when to buy some basic provision you had to queue in the shop for hours, and if you wanted something extra, in some cases for many days.
The work culture was very low, as eveyone had more money than he could spend (not that they were so rich, but it was simply nothing in the shops) and the inflation was so high, that after few monhts your money was not even worth the paper it was printed on. So what’s the point in working?
Some people miss these times, as life was easier: you had nothing to do at work, you was paid, and despite you had to spend lot of time to get some basic provisions, you had state founded holidays, schools, health service etc. And you could not see that this life is not the best one, as you have nothing to compare - the media were cenzored, and foreign movies and books strictly selected.
So the work attitude of the Eastern European migrants is definitely not coming from that they were treated by the state as slaves. You are wrong on it.
So where it comes from? You might want to ask that question.
Well, I would say that it comes from that people were doing everything for themselves. During this times everyone was fixing his own car, doing some builders work in his house, building his own furniture in some cases etc. Because it was easier to do it yourself than to buy or to find someone who will do it for you. So people are skilled. Even my dad, who is an university lecturer was always doing most of the work around home and car himself. He even installed central heating in his home, build an extension and constructed a garage in a part of the basement. And even young people, like me, or younger, were raised in such atmosphere. Therefore we know that if the job has to be done, it has to be done.
Also: from my observation there is a bigger sense of community and solidarity between the workers. My Scottish collegues go to work to do “their job”. I go to work to do “my share of pushing company forward”.
I worked for some time driving lorries and delivering to the construction sites. On many occasions stuff had to be handballed. If there were Eastern Europeans on the site, you could always ask them for help - for 20 people this is 3 minute job. Ok, they don’t do THEIR job for this three minutes, because they are helping our company, but the next day there will be delivery for THEIR company, and they know that they can save ages of handballing, as other people will help them.
With British people it was very rare: they are there to do THEIR job and they are not bothered with other peoples problems. Eastern Eueopeans weren’t there just to do their job - they were there to build the house.
Another reason why Eastern Europeans have different attitude to work: they are used to solve the problems. They had a hard life under the communist regime, and they were poor for most of the last 20 years. You were living in relative luxury, so you are not worried about many things - if you need something, you just buy it or call someone who will do it for you. Poles had to solve many problems themselves.
I have to say this is not only the workers thing: many of the Scottish companies I used to work, including my current job, do things in such illogical way, that if they did business like that in tougher market, they would be out of the business very soon.
We hear on this forum on many occasions how the competition from Eastern Europe is killing the industry, but your fight with them would be much easier if some people would look into their own yard and organize things better. You know it yourself, there is plenty of examples of that forum of stupid TMs, bad planning, money wasting, H&S ■■■■■■■■ etc.
Off course you cannot do anything about cheaper fuel in Europe or cheaper labour costs, but you can save a lot of money by working more efficiently.
Case study:
In my place if we are in Eastern Europe, we often run back empty. I spoke to the one of the guys from the office and asked about it. I offered that we can sign up to the Polish cargo market and I can find the return loads. He said it is not economically viable, as the rates in this part of Europe are too low. So we often run empty from Eastern Europe as far as to Holland or Belgium and load there. But it would be possible to get some freight from Eastern Europe to Belgium at lower rates and then from Belgium to Britain at British rates. They prefere to run empty. He told me that “this will teach the Eastern European speditors to earn more”. What a load of crap! There is a queue of the Polish or Czech vehicles waiting for the cargo and happy with the rates. So by not taking this stuff, we dont only loose money, as we have to run empty, and this rates would at least cover our fuel and some costs, but also we leave more work to our Eastern European competition.
Ok, but I went off topic here.
You are right that Eastern Europeans sometimes allow their employers to be threated badly. It has nothing to do with the work attitude: it is just the position they are in:
- they often speak poor language, have not too good knowledge of the job market etc. So if they say “we don’t like how we are threated here” and quit the job, it will be much harder for them to find a new job (especially under current economical circumstances). It has to be mentioned as well, that despite many employers value Eastern European workers, many don’t like them and prefer British people over them.
For the same reasons they dont go on strike or to the Employment tribunal - they lack language, knowledge of the British law and procedures.
So I think this is the only reason why some of them allow to be threated badly. I bet if you worked overseas, you would also be more careful about raising your head than you would be in your own country.
■■■■, another much too long post, please forgive me
Orys, again your post makes more sense than all the preceding ones who dismiss Eastern Europeans as wasters.
+1
I give up with this place.
No one seems to read the content, and my thread gets moved to an obscure place where it actually states, regarding content “Anything but trucks”
So long and thanks for all the fish. 
att:
:roll: I give up with this place.
No one seems to read the content, and my thread gets moved to an obscure place where it actually states, regarding content “Anything but trucks”So long and thanks for all the fish.
Everyone read the content and commented on it.
att:
Just because you are in the EU does not make you civilised, nor does it make you palatable, infact, quite the opposite.
I have had the displeasure of working amongst them for two weeks now, I have had enough…I am chucking the towell in.
My experience is that of rudeness, ignorance and low intelligence…I am qualified to comment and gave the benefit of the doubt to start with, but now…I realise they are just third world refugees, who do not fit into a civilised country such as the UK.Just my experienced opinion after two weeks in Lincolnshire.
Fit for landfill, nothing more.
Thankyou.
Seems as well as being a failed manager you are also a failed suicide!
Wheel Nut:
att:
:roll: I give up with this place.
No one seems to read the content, and my thread gets moved to an obscure place where it actually states, regarding content “Anything but trucks”So long and thanks for all the fish.
Everyone read the content and commented on it.
att:
Just because you are in the EU does not make you civilised, nor does it make you palatable, infact, quite the opposite.
I have had the displeasure of working amongst them for two weeks now, I have had enough…I am chucking the towell in.
My experience is that of rudeness, ignorance and low intelligence…I am qualified to comment and gave the benefit of the doubt to start with, but now…I realise they are just third world refugees, who do not fit into a civilised country such as the UK.Just my experienced opinion after two weeks in Lincolnshire.
Fit for landfill, nothing more.
Thankyou.
Seems as well as being a failed manager you are also a failed suicide!
As maybe, but t least I am not a perfect ■■■■■■■
att:
Wheel Nut:
att:
:roll: I give up with this place.
No one seems to read the content, and my thread gets moved to an obscure place where it actually states, regarding content “Anything but trucks”So long and thanks for all the fish.
Everyone read the content and commented on it.
att:
Just because you are in the EU does not make you civilised, nor does it make you palatable, infact, quite the opposite.
I have had the displeasure of working amongst them for two weeks now, I have had enough…I am chucking the towell in.
My experience is that of rudeness, ignorance and low intelligence…I am qualified to comment and gave the benefit of the doubt to start with, but now…I realise they are just third world refugees, who do not fit into a civilised country such as the UK.Just my experienced opinion after two weeks in Lincolnshire.
Fit for landfill, nothing more.
Thankyou.
Seems as well as being a failed manager you are also a failed suicide!
As maybe, but t least I am not a perfect ■■■■■■■
That must be an oxymoron
Noun.■■■■■■■ - someone who is unable to walk normally because of an injury or disability to the legs or back.
att:
My experience is that of rudeness, ignorance and low intelligence…I am qualified to comment.
You are, aren’t you!
It’s the type of people you meet which makes you think they represent all of that type that makes prejudice such a wonderless thing. Orys himself has stated many Europeans think the Brits are thick because of this reason IMO. Many colonials used to think “white people” never did any hard work till they visited this country (only the “natives” did the labouring).
“Eastern Europeans” are as diverse a bunch of people as “Western Europeans”, they do not necessarily share characteristics, any more than the Spanish share characteristics with Norwegians.
i don’t wanted to start a new thread, but I found something silly:
There is that new “documentary” on BBC on Eastern European young people.
bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 … Over_Here/
I haven’t seen it yet, so I am going to watch it now.
But I am amused at people’s reactions: my British friends are unhappy as they claim “it shows Britons in bad light - as bunch of idiots in contrast to to this smart young guys from Eastern Europe who know what they want and go for it”.
I was even linked an article on that: sandymillin.wordpress.com/2011/1 … over-here/
At the same time my Polish and Czech friends are unhappy as they claim “it shows Poles in bad light - as a bunch of idiots who work themself off in stupid jobs for pennies when they actually can be much better off - either back in Poland or here in UK”.
Even the people who star in this movie are not happy about how BBC portraited them:
lublin.gazeta.pl/lublin/1,35640, … etle_.html
So it seems that it generated completely opposite rections for the members of both nations
I am going to watch it, if you have time, watch it too and then we can exchange our opinions
EDITED:
Ok, I watched it. I have to say I am really impressed by the work done by BBC Researchers 
I live here for many years and never came across such a bunch of muppets:
- The Hungarian guy. Infantile guy, who claims to be passionate about UK and has not a clue. Who is 24 and thinks that he can be an interpreter in four languages… Who comes to London without checking the prices… Does they don’t have Internet in Hungary?
- The Polish lass. She has studied sociology and she claims Poland is crap and there is no chance for her for career. Off course there is no chance, you stupid cow, because you choosed to study sociology, a speciality which had too much graduates already 10 years ago. If you decicded to study engineering, well, then you will be happy like a donought in a fat, but for that you should learn math, but it’s easier to study sociology, pedagogics or etnology and then complain about that country has nothing to offer to you. And then she came to London without any work experience hoping to have good job on the spot… But there is still hope for her - she learned her lesson and she started some useful studies now
- The couple from Czech and Slovakia - come one, guy who dumps his managing job in family company to become a second Brad Pitt in London while he speaks worse English than me… man, get back on Earth, it’s not too late!
- This Russian girl was watching Cinderella too much, I think
- The Polish guy who wants to study in Oxford - I think from all these people I liked him most. He still have very naive picture of England, but he is young, and judging from that Oxford offered him a place he propably spent most his time learning. he looks a bit like a hipster, he is from Warsaw, so he propably was in some posh lyceum there… Yet he is not affraid of hard work…
I really did not liked the way BBC filmed Lublin, altough I have to admit that they made a lot of effort to hide that this is a vibrant city with beautiful old town full of nice cafes and a beautiful castle… Still the “terrible tower block” the girl was living in looked much better than their equivalents in UK…
In general I would say that from my point of view even if BBC really wanted to show them in bad light, they failed. And I don’t think this was their aim. I think they look quite good compared to this English guys in the seaside resort or the taxi driver…
I found some commentaries a bit manipulative: the characters say something, and the commentary takes its further, and I doubt they will agree with that commentary - like when they are shocked about this colour people in their neighbourhood - I don’t think they think anything bad about them, it’s just different. Or when the Polish girl says that her neighbourhood is quiet and Nottingham streets are busy - I feel that filmmakers tried to use this to show that she is coming from some place where cars are not invented yet, while actually she just pointed out, that she is now living in worse part of the town than she used to back in Lublin…
So no tragedy for me, but I would not call it a good documentary. And what are your views?
That lad who went to Oxford needs to lower his sights, and his trousers waist 
It didn’t take them long to work out that there are too many mosques and black faces.
And every English lass is like Vicky Pollard
Wheel Nut:
And every English lass is like Vicky Pollard
Well, I have to admit that you see that type of ladies much more often in England than in Eastern Europe…
Wheel Nut:
That lad who went to Oxford needs to lower his sights, and his trousers waist
You don’t get it. He is a hipster, this is an idea to carefully pick your clothes in expensive shops under the big names who make a clothing and accesories which makes you look as you are complete idiot.
This is a way to show that you are so trendy, that you don’t care about fashion 
orys:
Wheel Nut:
That lad who went to Oxford needs to lower his sights, and his trousers waistYou don’t get it. He is a hipster, this is an idea to carefully pick your clothes in expensive shops under the big names who make a clothing and accesories which makes you look as you are complete idiot.
This is a way to show that you are so trendy, that you don’t care about fashion
When in Rome Orys The fashion here is for your trousers to show your arse cheeks and drag on the floor, the baggier the better, he was trying to look like Rudolf Nureyev
I don’t get that either 
The problem with the Eastern Europeans… is Football
Hero Polish goalkeeper from 1973 World Cup qualifier ‘a communist spy’
As for the migrants doing their homework, they should put posters up at all international terminals warning that in Britain you can buy a 4 cans of baked beans cheaper than you can buy a bag of potato crisps.
All in all, the programme was light entertainment and like Trucks and Trailers, Ice Road Truckers and The Apprentice, they pick the biggest load of tossers to represent it.
Like trucks and Trailers, the programme only interests people who do not know anything about the industry.
Poles, Russians or Hungarians coming to England only upset the neanderthals who sit drinking on Southend Pier who cannot get a job because they cannot string a sentence together.
The black guy who ran the familiarisation tours had more about him than most people in any city street
Wheel Nut:
When in Rome OrysI don’t get that either
You obviously haven’t been near any Uni recently. This hipsters are a plague. I am really happy that we have some Erasmus girls from Czech Republic now - Poles always joke that Czechs are 10 years behind fasion, but at this moment it’s very good
bullitt:
Im sure that there are quite a few of the “older hands” on here who, when travelling throughout Europe and beyond in the 80`s, would have recieved some sort of mechanical breakdown help from some of the Eastern European drivers of the time.Hungaro camion drivers always seemed to be willing to help out if they could and usually had quite a few tools etc with them. Most of them had quite a good knowledge of things mechanical and wernt afraid to offer help…more than could be said of some of the Brit drivers at the time!
If you were parked up somewhere and there were a few of the Eastern drivers about as well they would usually invite you to join them in a camion stew of sorts and share a bottle “hooch”!!
I’ve also experienced Hungarian hospitality. For that matter, Czech & Slovak as well.
newmercman:
Coffeeholic:
att:
My experience is that of rudeness, ignorance and low intelligence…Yeah, I’ve heard them say that about Brits they have had to work with before. Still never mind, I’m sure you’ll find something more suited to you soon.
Having travelled throughout Europe and beyond, I tried to learn a little of each country’s language, the first words I learned were please and thank you, not many immigrants do the same when they come to England
Now I earn my corn in North America so there’s no language barrier (well…
Shiny Tracksuit and flip flop brigade Classic
A lot of people over here comment on how polite we Brits are, bearing in mind that none of us here are upper class twits, I’m a big mouthed lorry driving Londoner, we ain’t exactly known for talking with a plum in our mouths
I have a lot of dealings with Eastern Europeans over here, any truck on Illinois plates will be manned by the shiny tracksuit and flip flop squadron, they’re animals with no regard for anyone else