After reading my last article about 10 things I love about Poland you may have an impression that we live in a perfect country… but that would be far from the truth. In this article I would like to present you some of the shortcomings of Poland.
Having lived in Poland since 2006 I grew very fond of this country and choosing only 10 things I love about it for the previous article was not an easy task. But, as it is with anything, there is also a different side to it. To be fair I will also share with you the things I simply don’t like about our country.
- Wasting the beautiful Polish nature
Unfortunately, I often see plenty of cigarettes, plastic bottles or even large garbage thrown away in the most beautiful forests, mountains, rivers and lakes, or in the street. Polish people should care more about their natural habitat and ecology.
Dustbins should be available everywhere, especially in parks and forests. We should provide better education about ecology in schools and public media. Children should be obliged to regularly pick up garbage in the streets and forests. With such actions, kids would become more careful and educate their parents to take care of ecology.
Another thing related to ecology, that bothers me, is smog.
- Polish bureaucracy and civil servants’ attitude
At Sii we frequently experience examples of absurd Polish bureaucracy with accounting and tax rules, VAT, CIT, PFRON, ZUS, etc.
Moreover, in public offices civil servants are sometimes not pleasant and they have little knowledge about proper customer service. It seems like they don’t care about citizens although they are nothing less, than their customers.
Civil servants, like US (Urzad Skarbowy) or ZUS employees, are often arrogant towards companies like Sii, thinking that they manage us, or treat us, behaving like we are their enemies. They are unpleasant both face to face as well as on the phone. It should be quite the opposite – we should be treated as customers, being provided with the best quality of service, support, help and professionalism. The civil servants should be happy and thankful that we pay high taxes and social contribution in Poland. (Civil servants seem not aware that they receive their salaries thanks to taxes paid by Poles and by companies present in Poland, like Sii).
Moreover ZUS and US employees have poor understanding of business. Polish government should get inspired by countries like Singapore, where public institutions and public services are more efficient. Of course, they must control if we respect and execute the regulations, but at the same time they should also serve with a positive, helpful and respectful attitude.
Heavy bureaucracy is also visible when we do business with the public sector (small business for us, less than 2% of our revenue). Instead of agility and flexibility, we face huge bureaucracy but I may write later an entire article dedicated to this subject.
- 500+
There are positive aspects to 500+. This program helped some Polish families to have a better life. I am also a strong defender of the idea that society must support women with young children. It is a huge challenge to be both a mother and have a successful professional career.
But I am personally against 500+. Giving money for nothing is never a good idea and a very expensive system. Even public services should not be free for citizens. We should always pay something to use them, even a symbolic amount.
But Polish people love 500+ because getting money for nothing is great! This populist law contributed to PiS winning the last election. This rule is bad for several reasons:
- It motivates people to be lazy and to become or remain unemployed (hundreds of thousands of women stopped working because of 500+). 500 PLN should be given in exchange of something, for example for the education of children from poor families on condition that they go to school and get good grades. If a kid does not go to school, does not do any effort, their parents shouldn’t receive 500+.
Too many social benefits may kill a country’s competitiveness, e.g. France, Greece or Italy. Poland should be very careful not to become a socialist country, like France. The many social benefits are extremely expensive for the society, especially the middle class, in terms of taxes (I will write a dedicated article on why the situation is so bad in France and why Poland shouldn’t follow these footsteps). The problem is that it is easy to give something to the citizens. But it is almost impossible to take away those social benefits (the political party, which will stop 500+, will lose the election following such decision).
- 500+ costs us 25 billion PLN a year. It’s a huge amount of money and there are better ways in which the government could spend it helping families with children:
- on education: increasing the salaries of teachers for example, building more schools or nurseries, hiring more and better teachers, lowering the number of kids per class, implementing more efficient education system in general with less bureaucracy.
- invest in our health system for kids, especially hospitals or special schools for mentally or physically impaired children.
- Support certain activities for kids, like sports or cultural associations for example or invest in sport equipment’s in schools.
- Polish drivers and their lack of respect
In Poland, and especially in Warsaw, drivers are quite often aggressive and show lack of respect towards other drivers. They are rarely so kind to let you overtake them or let you in when you’re trying to join the traffic.
- Winter and switching the time twice a year
Don’t get me wrong – there are times with sun and snow during Polish winter when it’s really beautiful outside. But on majority of days between November and March the weather is rainy and the skies are grey. It gets dark very early and it is simply depressing. In my opinion we should stop switching time from winter to summer twice a year and keep the latter during the whole year.
- Polish architecture (partially)
It is often grey, sad and lacks charm. In particular residential buildings built during communism are generally ugly (except the Palace of Culture: I like the architecture of this building). But also buildings made with cheap materials during last 30 years, often called ‘grey blocks’ for a reason.
I understand that money can be a challenge. Majority of inhabitants in Poland can’t afford exclusive properties built with elegant materials. But beautiful and elegant buildings can be made with affordable materials as well. In my opinion there is not enough focus on architecture – how it looks and how it makes people feel.
However sometimes it is quite the opposite. Some Poles, especially those who became wealthy recently, build houses in bad taste to show off – flashy, with a lot of marble, silver and gold (Trump style), not elegant and beautiful. But of course they have the right to do it and it is always good to have some diversity (it would be boring if all houses, blocks or people would look the same. I love diversity!).
- The level of Polish football clubs and behaviour of some football fans
Poland is a rich European country. We should have at least 2 or 3 strong football clubs, which could rival with European leaders from England, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands or Russia. Currently there aren’t Polish clubs who could fight in the Champion’s League.
I myself have taken a mission to build such a club. For that reason, I have bought Polonia Warszawa and hope to bring it back to its former glory. (You can read more about why I decided to invest in this historic football club and how I plan to develop it in the coming years).
Also I don’t like the behavior of some Polish football fans: some of them are intolerant and dangerous. I am a football fan myself and I love this game. It is normal to strongly support a team and to cry when it loses. But at the same time we should respect our opponents, being happy to drink beers with them after the match instead of having fights. We share the same passion with them. This friendly attitude and mutual respect between supporters of different clubs is missing in Poland.
- Toll gates on motorways
- For example, on A2 motorway, between Łódź and Poznań, there are 3 toll gates quite close to each other. What’s the point of it? 1 gate would be sufficient in my opinion, especially since every gate is a major slow down.
- Also, I am wondering why A2 has only 2 lanes for cars and therefore is often blocked. Such large motorways should have at least 3 or 4 lanes.
- What is the point of handing our credit card to a motorway employee in toll gates? The payment should be electronic and automatic resulting in better capacity. I don’t understand why Polish authorities still aren’t able to fix this problem after so many years.
- Lack of tolerance (towards LGBT, different race, etc.), unhealthy atmosphere of hatred and oversensitivity
- A minority of Polish people have too extreme views, such as fundamentalists, nationalists, racists, anti LGBT, anti-Muslims, anti-Jews, anti-EU, etc. They are not open-minded and not tolerant towards other values, cultures, sexual orientations, nationalities and religions. In my view it is scandalous not to consider all people equal. Those Extremists and fundamentalists ideas are always dangerous to the human kind. They cause terrorism and were the reason why the II World War started.
- An unhealthy atmosphere of hatred is visibly present in Poland. There is for example a lot of viciousness between PiS and PO, PSL or SDL defenders. Those feelings are encouraged by public media, like TVP, and by fake news published by thousands nationalists and populists on social media every day. It results in bad atmosphere present in the entire country. For example I don’t understand why PiS hates Donald Tusk? I am not a Tusk fan either. But despite different opinions, PiS should be proud that a Pole was the president of the EU. The fact that we differ greatly in many ways does not mean that we should hate each other. Despite those different opinions, we should respect each other, even like each other, avoiding this unhealthy feeling of hatred. A PiS fan can be friends with a PO fan. A Catholic can love an Atheist, a Protestant, a Muslim, a Hindu or a Jew.
- Many Poles are too proud, oversensitive, and as a result they don’t accept any critics, They don’t want to hear anything negative about their country or their behavior. It is great that Poles are proud of their great and wonderful country, culture and of Poland’s long history, but they must accept some critics and also be able to laugh at themselves.
- Some Poles are also quite cold and unwelcoming to strangers. They rarely say ‘hello’, even when met in the street or a corridor. They use curtains everywhere so that nobody can see them, even during the day. French people are warmer, especially when met for the first time.
It is great to defend our opinions and values, being engaged and passionate, but at the same time we must listen to other points of view, tolerate people, who think differently and always be respectful to everybody.
- What I hate the most – Polish public media, especially TVP

17.02.2019 Krakow , Aleja Slowackiego . Protest przeciw propagandzie TVP pod siedziba Radia Krakow . Fot. Adrianna Bochenek / Agencja Gazeta
Private media have the right to defend their ideas. For exampIe I don’t share the opinions of Radio Maryja, but they can spread them however they please. The same rules apply to Gazeta Wyborcza, TVN or any other private media (newspapers, radio, TV stations, websites and blogs, like this one).
But government should never use public media, like TVP, as a tool of political propaganda. Public media is financed with our taxes and therefore should be politically neutral. Moreover the management should be chosen autonomously (like in France, where independent CSA authorities – not the French government – appoint French Television’s CEO). Currently TVP is a tool in the hands of PiS, feeding the nation with political propaganda. Similar power is owned by Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey or any other dictator party.
I always feel bad after watching news on TVP presenting all those fake news, trying to bias Polish citizens against EU for example. Poland shouldn’t accept the fact that the public television is serving naive people propaganda and manipulating them, all of it being paid for with our taxes. Especially since it puts in danger our liberty and freedom, which guarantee independent press and media, who can and should criticize the government.
I also feel bad when I visit PKN Orlen, the state-owned oil company’s petrol stations. Why only the pro-PiS newspapers are displayed? It’s simply disgusting. PKN Orlen is an oil company and should not be used as a means of propaganda by the ruling party.
Another important point is that we should never avoid critics. Constructive criticism and feedback are necessary to improve and grow. Media liberty and impartiality is strategic to proper development of all countries worldwide, i.e. having TV stations, newspapers, radios and websites, which defend different opposite opinions, media which regularly criticize public authorities. Without it, most countries would become dictatorships, like in Russia, China, Turkey or many African countries… Democracy is not possible in those countries, because opposite parties can’t defend their opinions and criticize the ruling party, which has the ability to manipulate the citizens according to their needs. Polish people should never accept that. They should always defend press liberty and separation of public authorities from justice. Otherwise Poland will become a dictatorship.
@Mr Kaczyński, Morawiecki, Duda, Ziobro and other PiS politicians:
I understand your ambitions to win elections and keep the power over Poland. Congratulations on having won them in 2016. I respect you and I admire your engagement, but I really hope you will lose the next ones.
But no matter what the voters decide, please respect the fact that we may have different opinions and values, than yours. Always fight for liberty and freedom in Poland. Accept critics. Never come back to the dark times of communism. Never make people scared to criticize ruling party in Poland again.
Be happy and proud that some media criticize your government and ideas, even encourage such critics. Accept and respect them. Free media prove that Poland is a healthy, democratic and free country, with fundamental rights, such as liberty.
Also always keep the legislature, executive and judiciary powers separate. Never let Poland become a dictature, like Russia, where all media supports Putin and there is no counter power. It is absolutely necessary to the well-being of Poland and Polish people.
Last but not least, please keep in mind that we have different opinions, but in fact we share exactly the same objective: we want Poland and Polish people to win, being the best country in the world and despite our differences, we all love our great country and want to make it even better!
I didn’t find this topic pleasant, but a necessary one. It was really important to me to share my thoughts on this topic with you. Do you agree with me? Or do you think differently? Either way, let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Also do not hesitate to suggest any other topics you would like me to write about in the future.
Greg.
67 Comments
Architecture! I couldn’t agree more… Look at Gdańsk and Wyspa Spichrzów – a space that should be truly special and deserved a buildings on the level of the late Zaha Hadid turned into a cheap (meaning architecture quality, not prices for investors who will buy apartments there and rent them for tourists, of course haha), fortgettable and disgusting set of equally ugly and unimpressive blocks that completely ruin the potential of the place. What a sad picture to see 🙁
Bartek, of course there are good examples as Wyspa Spichrzów, but most of the new building are disaster, cheapest material and no urban planning, effect is visible in every polish town
I love how you Triggered that many of my countrymen!!!
Keep up the good work!
Popisu people are nit the nicest nation in Europe,far from it. They try to steal and trick you all the time.And country is so cold.When they come to Croatia always find a way not to pay as muču as they should to.Low culture leavel. Always talking bad about forigners but they are living all over the world and want to be treated well. My opinion Hrvatska.
Dear Gregoire,
As a Polish citizen, I would like to thank you for the article. In general I agree with your view.
But please, do not write things like this “French people are warmer, especially when met for the first time”.
I have been working in a multinational environment , I deal with customers from Western Europe,
and I cannot agree with your statement. French customers are the worst I have ever had an opportunity to work with.
Rude, impolite, self-centered, convinced that they belong to the best nation of the world, looking down on people of Slavic origins, showing a lack of respect because you do not speak French…
Sorry to say that but I have no other experience regarding French citizens.
Look at your homeland, France, what a mess there is, your native country is away, that France, as we knew it, doesn’t exist any more, only because of people like you, so “tolerant” and “mutlicultural”. Thums up to the Poles, protect your country!
Actually, the first and the second “Rzeczpospolita” was a pot of nations, religions, and cultures, therefore was so powerful among EE countries. Listen to our history, dear Vojtech:)
It WAS. It is HISTORY. The author is right. Homophobia and xenophobia including antisemitism are rampant.
Wow, yes protect Poland indeed,… keep those educated foreigners out so you can wallow in your self pity and arrogance, with your uneducated racist xenophobic Catholic brain washed Polish ideology. While you flock to the UK to earn ‘Bardzo zloty’ ….the Polish are the worst people ever.
I am Polish and I agree. I can’t wait to leave my country because the mentality here is really annoying. I’m just very tired with Polish people.
It’s a shame because I love Polish nature and food. But I can’t take this nonsense any more. Rudeness, agreesion, lack of customer service, every little thing is a problem. It’s just tiring.
You just proved point nr 9 😂 hahahaha a little bit of critique and you are like: war! War! Protect the country?! Wtf 😂😂😂😂 you aggressive Poles 😂🤣
Haha totally agree here. @Vojtech – your comment was just dumb 🙁
The Poles are so keen to protect their country they flock like rats chasing Zloty to every country they can. No one cares if you want to protect your racist, homophobic, uneducated, PIs party indoctrinated country. You prove a point. Poles are the worst people in Europe, Germany invaded you because you were easy prey:))
facepalm
Way to confirm several of his points up there 😉
Your comment just supports his point about polish people that’s cannot take criticism.
Hey, nice reading for Friday. I also dream about free media although I think it will never gonna happen again (?), anytime soon, at least for TV business. I agree that TVP is biased but, sadly, it’s the same for all the others, which capital (and nation) is driving the other TV businesses? Exactly. It’s all about influence zone and social engineering.
Live long and prosper!
it’s almost funny how well you understand Poland not being a native and at the same time how many Poles don’t understand such things at all… i fully agree. bravo!
you should look on Framce in recent years..
Nie ma Pan wiedzy o systemie komunistycznym. Socjalizm to nie tylko wolna miłość i równość dla wszystkich. Francja kocha Rosję. I zawsze od klęski Napoleona sprzymierza się z władcami Rosji. Widząc w Rosji dostojeństwo, potęgę i egzotykę wschodu. Bez gułagów, paszportów schowanych przez milicję, ciężkiej pracy za półdarmo. Wykorzystania dla zysku. Gdzie są światłowody w podziemnych łączach dla konsumentów w szybkich transferach, sprawne łącza w czasie wojny? W gospodarce rynkowej – powinny być do nabycia za przystępną cenę. Gdzie energia geotermalna?
You do not know about the communist system. Socialism is not only free love and equality for everyone. France loves Russia. And always from Napoleon’s defeat, he allies with the rulers of Russia. Seeing in Russia the dignity, power and exoticism of the East. No gulags, passports hidden by the police, hard work for half-free. Use for profit. Where are fiber optics in underground links for consumers in quick transfers, efficient links during the war? In a market economy – should be available at an affordable price. Where is geothermal energy?
I am Pole and I hate exactly same things as you do so good spot!
I wish they all could begone forever.
Wish you could be gone forever lol
If you don’t like it here get the f*** out go back to the Islamic republic of France
Yeah, you’re such a good example of the respect and acceptance of criticism the article was dealing with. Why do I live in a country where 50% of the people are idiots (just as you are)?
Typical Polish in action
What means:
“F×ck this, f×ck that, f×ck everything, you should love me because I’m a Pole. And I shouldn’t love anybody”.
Buncha honyaks
Fortunately, the society show the willingness during the election.
I prefer public tv much more the private stations, just because I can’t watch “the leftis’ way of life” any more and I’m sick of it.
Everything what you and some of guys here don’t like, more than 40% of Polish nation do like. 🙂
Read more about concept of “fake consensus” method in politics. PiS election campaign is just perfect example.
The statement about the Church is very sad and unfair. I do not know where the inspiration comes from (I hope it is not from news). In this case we have to crticize ourselves as we are part of the Church (if we are baptised at least).
I would add one major thing like : ‘rude Polish’ and ‘no existing customer service’. Each time I am back here in Poland I get a quick reminder straight to way on the plane that this country is still way behind and why I had to leave this country. Not because of beautiful Poland as a country but because of rude people!
Ha yes I find myself muttering to staff in shops ” if you had no customers you would not have a job’. They are 90 % of the time rude and unhelpful. I think it may be changing in the big stores though. We have a new Obi store nearby and I shop there all the time because the staff are nice. Being nice works.
wow some world we live in
I wouldn’t really judge a country by it’s capital, all capitals are high in population and it is usually the reason people are rude to each other from stress. If you lived in different parts of Poland then ok but from what I see you are saying all the info from staying in Warsaw. Then I can say I know Russia because I lived in Moscow. People in smaller towns are nicer usually. I feel the Polish are always stressed, just the energy I feel but to stay “bad people” I disagree fully.
Hi. I agree with you in every single aspect. Especially when it comes to the point 1, 2, 4 and 6. I’m interested in architecture, and must admit that nowhere in Europe, even in poorer countries than Poland I haven’t seen anything similar. I mean about the various types of billboards, commercial advertising etc. that covers whole beautiful tenement houses in polish towns and cities. For example Głogowska street in Poznań. It looks horrible. There are plenty of streets like this outside Poznań. The exception are Gdańsk and old market in every town/city.
Thank you for sharing Grégoire. This is important to know how people with different perspectives see us, Poles. Now we need to work hard to fix all the problems you identified. I have some doubts if this is possible, but also believe that new generation of young Polish people will be able to make it 🙂
Poles are like virus. We are getting everywhere and We are destroying other countries without war. That’s what I’m proud of Poles. I’m not a fan of any political party and I’m not nationalist, but I’m social Darwinist for sure and Poles together as nation are just perfect parasite. That’s why I’m proud of every burned Polish flag and every copied stereotype: because it means We are winning with World without war
Polish people are liars, thieves, anti social, rude and into gossips.
and Austrians/Bavarians or many WEestern Ukrainians are even wars you very arogant French Belgian otr Italian arogant snob…
still better than being polish 🙂
Full agreement of all
-MK . First learn something about the country , instead of sharing stereotypes
Been living in Warsaw for almost a year now, Poles are boring people indeed. And why is it that once they get married their social life if practically over? Also, the rudeness, seriously guys you need to change that, it looks not very good!
you mean Poles from North and west with german background or from southern Tatry region or Bialystok region the rest is quite normal..
Hello, I am Polish and this article is on point. I agree with you 100% and though I love my country, I also believe we have our faults, and instead of being vulgar about them (like most of comments here) – we should work on them and become better society. And it is obvious that every country has pros and cons but this article is particularly about Poland so I don’t know why some people in comments are offended that other countries are these or that. The author is giving his views on Poland. If you also look further in the blog – same author is writing about 10 things he loves about Poland. Stop hating people, nobody is perfect, including our country. Sending very warm regards to all readers, Kate 🙂
thumbs up Dear.. looking forward to experience the greatness of POLAND ..will be relocating soon from Asia
Sneaky, ugly men with some pretty women, ignorant, suspicious, greedy are just a few words to describe Europe’s most despicable people.
Hey, Great observations. I could not agree more 🙂
Pretty biased opinion.
1. You’re not Polish, so it’s quite obvous you don;t know our history.
2. If you don’t know why people hate Tusk, then start learning our history.
3. You hate TVP because it’s not fake news? Wow. That’s really “objective”. All media should say same thing? That is:
lies?
4. If I comapre Poland and France I see Poland – homogenous country, proud of itself and Islamastan, not France.
And those yellow vests. xD Yeah. PiS is so bad. But it was PO who was beating Polish nationalists = patriots, when
they marched in Independance Day march.
5. Tip. Don’t use google. It’s definition of nationalism describes chauvinism. And those two things are quite different.
6. Well. I rather be that rude Polish, grey person, then Vichy traitor. 😉 Thanks for helping us when Hitler started Blitzkrieg.
Thanks 😊😊😊
You full if a snit.Polska 🐍👎👎👎👎👎👎 the truth from Croatia
Honyak.
I can not believe the fact that katolic Church is basically running the country where not many are “Actually” religious was not mentioned…
I can not believe there was no mention of racism and homophobia… Perhaps because pols are told they whole life that that Poland is a extremely tolerant country… Which is highly incorrect!
Stupid, boring, lazy, coward, aggresive until you beat them.
I couldn’t agree more, you covered most important areas in which Poland sucks. I am a Pole myself but I haven’t lived in Poland for 3 years now and I am happy about it, I confirm, there is so much hate, envy, negativeness, complaining attitude, racism, discriminatation, etc.
everyone in Poland thinks: I am right!
and they think they’re grumpy because of 2nd world war. hundreds of other countries suffered in the past because of war. Not only Poland 😂 so it doesn’t mean they can’t smile because of that.
I was born here and I agree with all the bad points…with good I have a problem with. The poles are the biggest thefts in Europe! Even next door neighbor can steal from you… I wont comment other coz you are a foreigner and things look different for locals.
I find poles the worst nation in eastern Europe…they have no honor or dignity of western people. Poles overseas fight,steal between them selfs often and they lack basic good attitudes all around. poles see another pole as a treat and enemy. This country will never succeed because all they can do is fighting between them selfs. After the war they have destroyed all major industry due reason mentioned above…so now they can only be a cheap manufacture country who produce foreign goods for export.
Oh, even a voice from distant Moscow is heard here!
poolish people is the biggest scum of europe
I personally find Polish people to be very stressed, impatient and argumentative.The most petty of things can turn into a huge problem!
There is always drama in their lives and usually this is about money. Poles usually think they are better than the next person and everyone else is perceived as an idiot.
All this is amplified in the way they drive as well.
Poles are always going on about their solidarity but actually they couldn’t give a #@%* about any of their country men!
That pretty much sums it up very well. Very impressed my these! Completely agree as a Pole.
I’m a Pole and an immigrant. I couldn’t agree more on all point about Poland. As an immigrant I see that patriotism is often blind and people lose perspective and are unable to objectively criticize their own country. Thank you for sharing. I really appreciate it.
Thanks 😊😊😊
Very accurate!
Heh, some people still talk about war..YEah, i think poles should hate all those nations for what they did to us.
kate please can you throw in more light on what Poland looks like..
I guess that you are a left-wing and you are completely brainwashed by the Bolshevik propaganda from GW and TVN. And of course you loved pre-2016 TVPO and TVSLD.. That explains a lot.
I don’t know where you meet all those petty polish people? Like I meet them on internet feeds, but rarely in real life.