Romania is the land of total paradox. Employers complain they can’t find workers, yet we have enough unemployment to export it. The average Romanian complains that no one will hire him for a fat salary, but he’s not willing to get qualified or go the extra mile for the company’s success. Then he rages that foreigners are invading and stealing jobs and wants them gone — but won’t lift a finger to take those jobs himself.
The easiest way to stop foreigners from taking Romanian jobs is to actually show up and work, right? It doesn’t make much sense to whine that others are stealing your job while you refuse to take it.
And even the ones who do get hired aren’t exactly top quality.Yesterday morning I left the house to go pay my phone bill. I got to the payment point two minutes before the posted opening time. Two minutes — not half an hour. Inside, a couple of model employees were clicking away on their computers. Figuring it wasn’t a big deal, I walked in and…
“We’re closed!”
“It’s two minutes to nine…”
The guy leaned back and looked at me like I was a nobody and he was somebody important.
“Yeah, but it’s not nine yet.”
Oh, brilliant observation… There was less than a minute left until nine, but since it wasn’t exactly nine… Rules are rules, I guess — we respect them or we don’t.
“Come back at nine.”
Yeah, sure. Go screw yourself until nine. I walked out and found another payment point, where I paid without feeling like I was bothering some self-important bill-processing celebrity. The guy was polite and professional. It was already past nine, but I was still thinking about those rude clowns at the first Vodafone store. Yeah, we’re back to Vodafone. If I have the time and energy, I’ll tell you about the “return home” saga later.A few years ago I dropped Vodafone, but they got married to Telekom, and my subscriptions came as a wedding gift.Honestly, I can’t stand that “it’s not exactly on the dot” attitude. If you’re at work, do your job. I didn’t drag you out of bed to hear about my life. You were already in the store — you could’ve taken my payment.That was the Vodafone adventure.I also wanted to buy a specific electrical appliance — something for the countryside with particular specs. I found a promising supplier online, but the only way to contact them was through WhatsApp. Okay, at least it’s real-time. I wrote what I needed, and the reply came back as a question: “Good day, what part of the country are you in?” Sounded polite and promising. I answered, then asked: do you have it or not? “No.” Okay… then why the hell did you ask me what region I’m from? Couldn’t you have just said from the start that you have nothing and saved me the trouble?The model Romanian employee: wastes the customer’s time, only puts in effort during official working hours, and the list goes on. There’s a deep-rooted “I don’t give a damn” attitude in the Romanian employee that makes you want to take your business elsewhere.A while back I took the kids to a small electric car park. The owner was at the controls. He treated the kids like they were his own — he couldn’t do enough to make them happy. We stayed past closing time, but he didn’t kick anyone out or start pointing at the clock.Some time later I went back to the same area, this time with an employee in charge.
“We’re closed!”
“Closed? It’s only 15:30…”
The schedule said open until 16:00.
“Yeah, but I still have to put some stuff away… We’re closed. Come back tomorrow.”
Owner vs. Employee. The owner was busting his ass to keep the business alive — something that also benefits the employee. The employee, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about the guy who gave him the job. God forbid he stays until exactly 4:00 — that would be a problem.If you actually want to work, if you respect your employer and don’t want the company to go under, you help out as much as you can. You don’t sit there acting entitled, scrolling on your phone during work hours, and then treat customers like an inconvenience so they never come back.We have a lot of work to do when it comes to mentality. A whole lot.