I was thinking about it and I’ve decided that it might be best to leave my blog only in English from now on.

Anyway, it got me thinking about our company culture and the language we use. For me Argos is a Polish company, but I guess in a lot of ways it’s not. The ownership is clearly not Polish. I am American and the other shareholder is from the UK. As to employees, by my count there are multiple employees including me who aren’t Polish, so that is a little over 10%. We have an office in another country. These are all things that would indicate that Argos is an international company.

Still, for some reason, personally, I feel like Argos is a Polish company. I guess so many of the people who created Argos and have worked so hard in the company over the years are Polish and they have left their mark. I find it interesting that a lot of people come up to me and say they were eager to work in Argos because it was an international company or that working here is not like working in a Polish company. I think this is really about something else. Management style. I guess there are international companies that are more “polish” than Argos and there are Polish owned and managed companies that are more “international” than we are. I think this has more to do with management style and attitude toward employees than it has to do with passports.

As to having a company language, this is always complicated. We finally decided that the blog could be in both Polish and English so people post/write in whatever language they feel comfortable writing in. I guess in the long term this isn’t going to work. It’s just a matter of time before we have more employees around the world and at that point we’ll want to have one common language which I guess will be English. I think it’s interesting that if I have to get up in front of the company and make an announcement or give a speech, or give a presentation or have a meeting or do anything, I always feel like I want to do it in Polish. I myself wonder if this is for historical reasons or just the way I look at the company.

I do find the subject interesting because a lot of people want to work for an international company and I think a lot of those people would consider Argos to somehow be an international company. New or potential employees seem to be excited by that. For me it’s a Polish company. I am curious how the rest of you feel? Any opinions?