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A RT I C L E
In the office until the 1990s
The town hall can be considered a model institution for how offices operated in the
People’s Republic of Poland. There was the secretariat – a unit largely responsible for organi-
zational matters across the entire institution. A person employed there, in the position of clerk,
handled office supplies for employees. Compared to the present time, the workers’ equipment
could be considered quite modest. In smaller offices there was only one typewriter per de-
partment or unit. The clerk’s duties included collecting orders for necessary equipment from
particular departments and handling the dispensation of items. The funds for these purposes
were included in the budget plan for a given quarter or a year in advance, which was approved
by the head. It is worth mentioning that the clerk only dealt with the issues related to acces-
sories for office work, while another employee, whose duties included work health and safety
activities, was responsible for ordering hygiene products.
The procurement process for office supplies in PRP times was very simple: all the necessary prod-
ucts were purchased in the nearest stationery shop. It must be remembered, however, that the
availability of products and their types was greatly limited due to the country’spolitical systemand
state-managed economy. Therefore, purchases were made when necessary, just like it was with
any office renovations and rearrangements. Major changes in the interiors were made no more
oftenthaneverytenyears. Intownhalls,theSecretarywasresponsible forplanning jobs invarious
departments. The number of people working in a room was not governed by any standards, so
there was a lot of latitude on this issue and workers had no say regarding the furniture they used.
Persons inpositionssuchasclerkusuallyhadsecondaryeducationwithdifferentprofiles.Graduates
from economic technical schools, as well as agricultural schools were commonly employed. It also
happened that people with general secondary education worked in the position of clerk.
Functioning in offices in the period of the People’s Republic of Poland was strongly influenced
by the system in place. An average employee had virtually no decision-making power. It would
change only after the introduction of democracy. And for clearly visible changes to take place,
another decade had to pass.
The last decade of the XX century
Another ten years in the organization and functioning of offices in Poland was largely deter-
mined by two factors: democracy and computerization. The emergence of private compa-
nies in the market meant that applicable legal regulations notwithstanding, in every non-state
company particular processes began to occur in different ways. It was the owner, who had
the final say on most issues and as the free market was a new thing in Poland, the first decade
after 1989 was rather chaotic in terms of business. It was similar in the office life. Companies
now had an unit called the warehouse, where supplies for employees were stored. Now they
reported their needs for particular office supplies to the head of the department, who passed
them on to the warehouse. Alternatively, employees themselves obtained items from the ware-
house on the basis of a RW document, previously signed by the head. Although more prod-
