Bureaucracy

Today I learnt something new about working in an office in Poland. Our firm is small so we have an accountant who my boss visits once a month so that she can devise fun things for us to do.
This often involves filling out forms in Polish, which is another one of my favourite pastimes. Thank goodness I have an active imagination, or I'd never be able to make any sense of them.

Apparently, every Polish firm should have a daily register (to record absences and so on), which must be signed in person by every member of staff every day. The firm has been officially up and running for a year or so, and we have yet to start signing the register. As a consequence, my boss returned from the accountant's world of wonders with a plastic file of sheets decorated with a charming dual-column table motif. My name was at the head of one column and his at the other. Actually I have mislead you: there is a third column for the director's signature. This means that my boss's autograph will appear twice on every row.
This would be all well and good (I don't mind signing things. Especially credit card slips- Galeria Kazimierz, bring it on...), except that we have to sign retrospectively as well.

That is to say, we have to sign in for every day we've missed so far.

I have been here eight months.

And it's not just a question of allotting one morning to sit down and sign the whole month away, oh no. Woe betide the firm whose register is signed off in advance when the Inspectors come around! (I'd be worried - Inspectors in these parts are terrifying).

I suggested the best solution would be to allocate a special 'signing day' and then get a doctor's note to take the next three days off sick with repetitive strain injury. This was surprisingly well received. I'm starting to see how the system works.

Although it wouldn't work that well for me: I still have to register with a non-private doctor. But that's a story for another post I think...