Serbian workers: Fearlessly Apathetic

There are two basic types of motivators: big-uppers and ball-breakers. While both achieve success in Western countries, ball-breakers will find it much harder to motivate the fearless Serbs into shifting their idle arses... at least for the time being.

After years of playing rugby league as a youngster, I learnt that there are two basic types of coaches: big-uppers and ball-breakers. These coaches (or company managers in the real world) are, of course, defined by their tactical approach to their charges.

Big-uppers encourage with classical motivation statements such as “come on, lads, we’re better than that”, “let’s do it as a team” and “heads up fellas”.

Ball-breakers, on the other hand, try to get the best out of their players by making them feel the need to prove a point: “That’s just not good enough”, “you’re letting the side down” and “face it kid, you’re shit and you’ll never be able to do that” are just some of their regular words of (dis)encouragement.

Both big-uppers and ball-breakers may achieve success, but big-uppers often inadvertently undermine their own authority, while ball-breakers find it hard to win the trust of their players.

Big-uppers and ball-breakers also achieve loyalty in contrasting ways; with the first attempting to gain the loyalty of their staff by making them feel part of a close-knit team, and the second tending to use the threat of sacking to forcibly extract loyalty.

The problem in Serbia is that workers don’t fear losing their jobs in the same way that ‘Westerners’ do, simply because they don’t have as many financial obligations and, thus, don’t have as much to lose.

 Peanuts & Monkeys 

One of my brothers once advised me: “never let yourself think that you need your job more than the company needs you, because as soon as you do that you become a slave to the company”.

Most workers in the ‘West’ are exactly that: company slaves. As they buy their first home younger than people here in Serbia, they need to ensure that they have a solid wage to pay their mortgage instalment, pay their car instalment, pay their private pension/medical insurance premiums and, thus, they simply cannot afford to lose their jobs. They are held by the ‘short and curlies’ by the banks and spend their entire working lives indebted and thus living in mortal fear of losing their income. It is in this environment that ball-breakers flourish.

In Serbia, however, ball-breakers tend to fail. Why? Because Serbian people don’t have mortgages, don’t own cars that they didn’t buy outright and thus don’t have the kind of ancillary obligatory outgoings that make one fearful of losing one’s job. As such, raised voices and managerial pressure tends to lead to apathetic Serbian workers saying “Bollocks to this! What’s the point in busting my arse for 250 euros a month when I can go and drink coffee with grandma, wait for her to die of boredom and then inherit her flat that I can rent out for enough money to be able to live on?”

So, Serbian people are idle, unmotivated workers who are quick to quit their jobs and slow to bother seeking a new one that doesn’t come directly from a friend or family member, and doesn’t come with assurances of long coffee breaks and little professional responsibility.

But, then again, who can blame them for being lazy? Would you commit your heart and soul (and coffee-drinking time) to a company for €200 a month, when grandma’s death will bring you a flat that you can rent out for €300 a month without lifting a finger?

Or

Would you work 9-5 six-days a week in a private firm for a nasty boss for €250 a month when you could ‘work’ (pick you nose) from 10-4ish (depending on packing away time) in an easygoing (unviable but kept artificially afloat to keep voters happy) state firm for €180 a month?  

In the UK we say: “if you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys”. In Serbia we could say: “if you pay peanuts, even the monkeys will quit”.

The irony is that Serbian people are crying out to be able to get mortgages and loans that will allow them to move out of their parents’ houses before they turn 40, and by that same token they are crying out for the kind of financial responsibility that will see them become voluntary slaves to their companies; living in fear of losing their jobs.

And so, though big-uppers will achieve more professional success in Serbia at present, the time of the ball-breaking boss is on the horizon for Serbia; and as soon as mortgages and loans become available to all, these nasty, insulting, belittling bosses will rule Serbia… or will they?