On administration.
On administration.
Some people might wonder, why have I choose this subject; is there anything worth writing about administration offices and their employees. Some even might swear or hate them because of many reasons, and for some people it is just another type of work. Probably all of those three above are right, to a certain extent anyway. Yet I am not going to write about them just to curse them all the way down or point their eagerness [or lack thereof] to fulfill their duty, rather I would like to describe working administration offices in two countries: Poland and United Kingdom, their effectiveness, attitude towards interested people and their competences.
Polish administration...some people say IT IS THE LEGEND. Every grown up Pole has to do something with any kind of administration. Almost everyone has something to say about Polish administration, some even more than they should :) Whatever we think about people who say bad things about Polish administration, there is no doubt that some employees lack any kind of intelligence or common sense. For instance: “Dear Sir, Passport is not allowed document inside the country”. For those who do not know: yes, it is, along with ID card. Many stories of this kind can be found, not only in Poland but all over the world I suppose; sometimes it makes you angry, sometimes it is just pure laugh. But back to subject – working of administration office[s]. I think, despite of everything it’s not that bad after all. Of course, I am not saying that things cannot be improved or shouldn’t be improved – they should definitely. Two things here – one is unwilling to help sort out problems, and hiding behind legislation “wall”, which could be fixed by using more common sense in everydays work. Sometimes hiding behind the regulations while knowing them only cursorily will not solve the problem or help people. [One point here – amount of regulations made yearly is ridicilous and year 2016 Poland was 2nd place in whole Europe, if I am not mistaken]. It is like expecting work ethic from office employee – sure You can, but it is just a waste of time :) Another problem is lack of proper attitude: to resolve the problem and to find a solution, although there are some exceptions, hopefully they will happen more often. One major problem for Polish administration is the law which wrong design lead to many misinterpretations and anything like this will lead to one big confusion – employee and/or people. There are many solutions to this problem, we will have to wait.
Now time has come to describe British administration...now there is legend, at least as big as Polish one :) Some people might found that interesting or strange, but not necessarily it is better because we are not here. And another thing is that some even advertise British constabulary as “effective”. All those supporters says: “it is intuitive, digitalized” and God knows what else. But wait a minutre: can You not describe in the same way administration which someone never used ? :) Of course they can, and here lies one of the problems. When I first came across British administration office it was something like that: I came in, take the number to wait in a queue. And in this very moment one thing became very clear to me as it was in Poland: 10 standings, and only ONE open. For some it is propably not the issue, but when You have 30min to sort the problem out, it might be a problem...although when You consider work ethics – it might. Another thing which was like a lightning strike, was computerization – much more advance than Polish system [which is archaic to say at least]. Having said that, it is not the best solution for some cases. First thing which come to Your mind is: “great, I am not gonna go there”, but I think it is only about 20% of all cases. Problem with computers is simple, You cannot sort out everything with it, sometimes you need to sign something, apply for something, get the discount for something, and then You have to go to the administration office. Sorry. So if computer will not sort it out for You, You have to go to office, waste time and money [vide “time is money”]. One major thing which may surprise [or upset] many people is incompetence. For some people it is not that big of a deal, but when people are responsible to money transfers and they are sending money to the NON existing account and customer get the call “please, call to Your bank to sort it out” - it is game over. What is your purpose of sitting there and sending money to nowhere ? Major incompetence, and I have not found any of it in Poland. It is pointless to mention that cancellation bank transfer lies with sender possibilities, not receiver.
Subject has been brought up by me because of my fellow countrymen, who says: “everywhere is better, then where we actually are” but in this case it is not true. Not entirely anyway, and Polish administrations despite lack of many things, it is not the worst of its kind. What is the point of computerization, when people who use it or even administrate it, don’t know how to do it properly ? What kind of argument is: “at least you earn in Pounds”, when You have to deal which worse attitude towards person ? And people have to remember, that when You live “like an adult”, you have the place, you rent some place then You will have to deal with administration office. Actually, it is a MUST. Side fact is, that Revenue Office in Poland works much better, despite lack of computerization and much worse income tax calculation [PIT]. On the British counterpart [HMRC] is almost a disaster...when You want something, you have to call...and believe me – those are NOT free calls.
As You can see, there are some differences which are caused by few things: recent history [let say last 50 years], different kind of legislation and applying those in real life – in Poland main problem is from “red” part of history [communism], that administration office employees act like people were FOR them, forgetting clear fact, that others PAY for their wages. In UK main problem is incompetence and lack of “fix the problem” attitude. Sometimes different, doesn’t necessarily mean better :)
