Time off from a multinational to pursue a start-up project may involve pitfalls for the employer

On 31 December, the Minister of Development, Jadwiga Emilewicz, provided some hints as to what might be coming from her Ministry in the new year. Employers were electrified by the announcement that a new category of leave from work will be introduced – the start-up holiday, or holiday from the corporation. The idea, a formulated by Minister Emilewicz, is that an employee availing herself of such leave would benefit from a guarantee that her employer will re-hire her.

In this way, the Polish Ministry of Development hopes to achieve the objective of increasing the number of innovative tech companies which – who knows – may someday be in a position to compete with the titans from the West. This is an appealing idea, as far as it goes. Yet Polish employers did not exactly take this announcement as a pretext for fireworks and champagne; for the moment being, this ministerial idea seems to have met with limited enthusiasm (…)

Six months’ time off in order to put a business idea through a trial run and then, if this trial run is unsuccessful, to be rest assured that a cosy spot with one’s previous employer awaits – this idea of the Polish government has been engendering lively debate from the beginning of the year. The emotions it has elicited run the full gamut – especially seeing as, from the perspective of a company whose employee decides to try his hand at launching a start-up, this is tantamount to compelling such a company to nurture its competitors (…)

Full text is available in 17 (17.01.2020).