The Polish Discovery: A management model - We pay regardless of results

How the Polish Football Association discovered the perfect life recipe - receiving a fortune regardless of results, while cashing in additional millions for successes.

Today’s Wyborcza newspaper reveals why Polish football is such a… I’m trying to find the right word.

The most guarded secret of PZPN (Polish Football Association) has been uncovered. 134 million PLN from Orlen regardless of the national team’s performance, plus 36 million in performance bonuses Orlen’s astronomical contract with PZPN. 170 million PLN

[Note: PZPN is Poland’s equivalent of the FA in England or FIGC in Italy. Orlen is a state-controlled oil company and Poland’s largest corporation, often used as a vehicle for government spending on various initiatives.]

This is the famous Polish management model in a nutshell - first you get a bag of money just for existing, and then a bonus for actually doing your job. During communist times, there was a saying: “whether you stand or lie down, the salary is due” - apparently still relevant today.

Let’s analyze this business model, because it is a business, right? Imagine a company that pays employees full salary regardless of whether they work or not, and offers an additional bonus for actually showing up at the office.

From my experience in management and running a business, if you get money regardless of results, it doesn’t bode well and usually leads to disaster. However, if after a period of not requiring results, you suddenly tighten the screws and start demanding performance, there will be outcries about oppression, tragedy, that no one works under such conditions, that they’ll leave because it’s inhuman to expect something from an employee. Perhaps this explains the mystery of football officials who, despite lack of results or obvious scandals, remain in this strange arrangement?

Following my line of thinking, in the normal world, the rule is simple and usually stands behind success stories - you get a basic living wage and decent bonuses for specific results. This motivates employees and gives them a sense of value. But in Poland? Officials detached from reality live in a world where results don’t matter, and money flows like a river.

Honestly, it’s like paying a chef a fortune just for owning an apron and smacking their lips at the sight of customers, with an additional bonus for cooking an edible meal.

[Note: Magda Gessler is Poland’s Gordon Ramsay equivalent, known for her dramatic reactions to poor restaurant management]

It’s truly fascinating how public money is managed in Poland - whether at the post office, in public transportation, or in sports. Everywhere the same pattern: big money first, and results? If they come, great; if not - oh well. Nobody holds anyone accountable, you can keep smacking your lips all you want.

If anyone still doesn’t understand this, I recommend looking at the national team’s results in recent years. This best shows what happens in a system where there’s no real accountability for results.

I wanted to provoke some reflection and point out the obvious things that everyone knows about, but no one can laugh at anymore - unless through tears.

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