Adventures in Poland

Hello all -- As you know from Amber's posts, I have been spending much time in Poland. I am sure you are wondering what in the world I am doing there. Well, for the past 10 months, I have been leading a project to setup an accounting shared service centre for First Data's European operations in Gdansk (see more below). On October 1st, we passed a huge milestone and onboarded our first wave of 25 employees. What a relief to get to this point. I was in Poland for 3 weeks straight getting the office ready for business, doing anything from assembling desks to configuring network switches. Ok, I know my degree is in Accounting, but that goes out the window when you have 25 employees getting ready to walk through the door and too much stuff to get done. Of course, I wasn't doing this on my own, but had a team of people in Poland working hard to get everything in place. What a team effort it was!! We kicked off their employment with 2 intense weeks of training and now the team is coming to the UK to begin their extended training period before we migrate back to Poland in a couple of months. For me, this means beginning the planning of the next country to migrate and more recruitment to get underway. Oh, yeah, and also more travels to another country. Never a dull moment!! Hopefully, though, I can remain in the UK for some weeks leading up to the end of the year before we migrate the team back to Poland. I am sure Amber and Cheyenne would like to see more of me!

About the Town
The office is located in Gdansk, which is a port town on the northern coast of Poland, and is joined with Sopot and Gydnia to form an area called the Tri-City region. For those of you who enjoy the beaches, you would enjoy Sopot, which is a lovely resort town. The food in Poland is really delicious, and the people are very friendly as well. I stay in a hotel in the Old Town and the buildings there are something else. My hotel is right on a river (see picture above) and so there are large boats outside my window...what a view to wake up to each morning! We are currently staying in a temporary office while our permanent office is under development. It will be ready April of next year. Oh yeah, add real estate developer to that list of odd tasks I have had to perform. The office doesn't outfit itself, so someone has to review the space planning.

The Language
I have found the key to fitting into any foreign country is to learn at least some of the language. The reception you receive when you greet them in their native language is quite pleasing rather than greeting them in English. With that, I began a daily ritual of learning a new Polish word from one of our Polish employees in exchange for me teaching him an American phrase. Phrases we say in our daily vocabulary just don't always translate over here, so you have to be careful of the odd phrases you use or they won't get the meaning. The Polish lessons started off with me learning very useful greetings and phrases, but as the project went on and got more stressful, I began to learn my range of rather 'not so friendly' words. Comes in handy when the taxi drivers attempt to overcharge you, but wait, that never happens in Europe. NOT!!!!!

Picture of the Old Town