The New Wave
There was a massive influx of people to Poland after February 2022. It was really unexpected for us to receive such a huge number of people relocating here. The new wave was caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Our Ukrainian colleagues didn’t feel safe in their homes, and they were looking for any place they could go. To help, we arranged buses, transfers, and hotels for DataArt employees coming to Poland. We would get 2 or 3 buses of people coming from Ukraine a day. I think more than 1,000 people came to DataArt Poland, and some of them have later moved on to other places. We helped newcomers take part in all local IT communities, like Java User Group, and JavaScript, and we integrated them into our cooperation with local university programs, and other local B2B programs.
But the wave of immigration from Ukraine over the last four years differs from previous waves in one other way, too: we see divided Ukrainian families. Ukrainian men can’t cross the border. So, there are many examples where the wife and children are in Poland, but the husband is in Ukraine.
Poland is a good place to live. It’s safe, it’s not so expensive, and it’s a good place for kids. But even so, for the Ukrainians who come here, their situation is still unstable.
So, we take care of people for any reason, not just with their work. If they have problems getting their kids into school, or learning Polish, or any other everyday matters, we are there to help them. We give everything our office has to help these people. Polish language lessons, integration of kids. This is the human thing to do. It’s natural.
Similar but Different
There are some groups of people who would seem to be quite close, such as Poles and Ukrainians. We share a similar language and a similar mentality. But in real life, it’s not so simple. For example, colleagues from Ukraine are focused on their job, and the task. So, if something goes wrong in the project, and the manager asks colleagues to stay a few hours more to solve the problem, everyone from Ukraine will say “OK.” They’ll call home and ask their spouse to be with the kids so they can stay later at work.
For Polish colleagues, this is impossible. The family is a higher priority than the job. The Polish employee will say, “OK, I’ll be there at 8:00 a.m., and we’ll solve the problem. But this evening I promised my son to take him bicycling, so I can’t stay late tonight.”
For another example, in Poland, kindergartens are formally open until 5:00 p.m., but in reality, if you come at 4:00, you’ll find your child all alone there with a nervous teacher, who asks “why are you so late?” So, these kinds of aspects force our new colleagues to adopt some new behaviors.
Today, we can see that our Ukrainian colleagues who’ve been living in Lublin for several years are changing their mentality. They’re adopting a more “Polish” approach to work. Everybody here spends 8 hours a day at their job, doing their best. But they keep work and family separate, and do not overlap work time with family time.
How to Head an Office
DataArt Poland makes up 20% of all the engineers in the whole company. We are focusing on production, but also on increasing our local sales. Poland is becoming more and more interesting as a sales location. There’s a big internal market. We’re one of the biggest countries in Europe, with 38 million people, and a fast-growing economy. There’s steady growth in sales here.
Previously, I was a programmer, and then I worked at the university. I finished my MBA, and read many books, but real life is completely different from management theory.
I don’t do any programming at this point. Today, half my time is people management. HR situations are not unsolvable problems. Most of the situations we deal with are based on miscommunication. I’m a people person, so I help resolve conflicts and give support to local HR.
The other half of my work is legal aspects based on corporate activities. Neither half requires me to touch any code.
Changes in Office Life
Before COVID times, staff participation in our office was about 90%. Over the last 3-5 years I’ve seen office participation reduced to 20%-25% of our colleagues.
Previously, the office was a good space for integration. Not only at meetings, and events, but also in the line to the coffee machine. We could talk about your project, my project, your family, my family. But when people work from home, they don’t call each other just to talk…
Today, we have around 1,000 people working in DataArt Poland. The thing we are most proud of here is the local integration of all our colleagues. The most numerous locations are Lublin and Wroclaw, but we are also observing a dynamic increase in the number of employees in Warsaw. We’ve worked hard to attract people who want to relocate to a new city. We do this with our city’s cultural aspects, traditions, and good communication.
Husband and Wife team
We started the Lublin office together with my wife, Julia. She was the president of DataArt Poland for the last 10 years. When we opened DataArt in Lublin in 2014, I was on a scientific trip to South Korea. Everything was thanks to Julia for the first few months at least. Today, Julia is the head of the local DataArt administration for Lublin, Lodz, and Warsaw. She leads the HR and PR departments, for example. She’s got a lot of work because we're constantly hiring new people.
Over the years, we've shared our work problems and discussed them after work over a beer. We know our Ukrainian DataArt families in Lublin can't do the same due to being separated by the war, but we are here for them and have done our best to give them a new, safe home.
