Managers in Poland Face Triple Pressure: AI, Hybrid Work and New EU Rules

Engagement among Polish team leaders has fallen over the past year from 71 to 60 percent, and among executives from 84 to 72 percent, according to data from consulting firm Mercer cited by Rzeczpospolita. The cause is three challenges piling up at once: rolling out artificial intelligence, managing distributed teams under a hybrid model, and preparing for the EU's pay transparency directive, which takes effect in January 2027.

Three pressures at once

Research and analysis cited by Rzeczpospolita show that Polish managers are now dealing with a pile-up of responsibilities that, just a few years ago, would have been spread out over time. Companies expect their management staff to simultaneously roll out AI-based tools, keep hybrid teams performing well, and prepare their organizations for new regulatory obligations around pay transparency.

Magdalena Warzybok, a director at consulting firm Mercer Polska, points out that boards' expectations of management staff on AI often clash with organizational reality. Boards want to see quick results from AI rollouts, while translating individual productivity gains for single employees into measurable efficiency across the whole company turns out to be far harder than assumed during the initial enthusiasm for new tools.

AI raises costs, not always efficiency

The problem experts point to is a gap between the benefits of AI visible at the individual employee level and their reflection in results across the whole organization. License and infrastructure costs rise quickly, while measurable gains at scale show up late, or not at all, if a company hasn't already redesigned its processes around the new tools.

Some organizations are responding by redesigning internal procedures to actually capture the potential of the systems they've deployed. In practice, that task falls to mid- and senior-level managers, who must combine technical competence with people management, and, as analysts point out, management training at companies is being systematically neglected in favor of investment in the technology itself.

Hybrid work reshapes the manager's role

According to Eurofound data, about 25 percent of employees in the European Union currently work hybrid, with the share notably higher among specialists and management staff, exceeding 50 percent within that professional group in Poland. Occasional work from home across the EU rose 14.4 percent, according to Eurostat, and 10.2 percent in Poland.

A Colliers study shows that 62 percent of managers struggle to maintain a sense of community in geographically dispersed teams, 52 percent report worse internal collaboration, and 47 percent say day-to-day team management is harder than under a fully on-site model. Managers are now expected to act as coaches and facilitators, not just overseers of task completion.

Hybrid work is no longer just about where people work. What matters is how work is organized and managed - Ivailo Kalfin, Executive Director of Eurofound

Pay transparency is coming

Alongside the technological and organizational pressure comes a third factor: the EU's pay equality directive, which takes effect in Poland in January 2027. It will require companies to disclose gender-based pay gaps, which in practice will shift onto managers the responsibility for explaining the reasons behind existing disparities to employees, defusing frustration over perceived unfairness, and handling difficult conversations about raises.

Experts cited by Rzeczpospolita stress that none of these three pressures will simply go away on their own, and that AI, contrary to what some boards hope, will not replace the soft skills that are becoming increasingly critical.

Even widespread use of AI won't make someone a better manager - Michał Zaborek, CEO of House of Skills

What this means for Polish companies

For Polish employers, the data points to a concrete risk: falling engagement among management staff translates over time into higher turnover in managerial roles and weaker results from the teams they lead. At the same time, the time pressure tied to AI rollouts often comes at the expense of leadership training, which could deepen the problem in coming years, especially once the pay reporting requirement kicks in from 2027.

Analysts recommend that companies invest in manager development alongside technology rollouts, not instead of them, treating AI as support for management staff rather than a substitute for people-management skills, which remain a purely human domain.