1. Good morning Mrs. Janina. How did it happen that you ended up working at OST Gromada?
It started with an announcement at the Employment Office, OST Gromada was looking for an employee for its accounting department. And since I studied labor economics, wages and social issues, and wrote a thesis on the subject of tourism, taking a job at Gromada felt like a natural next step for me.
I started work in April 1976 as an accounting department employee at the branch in Lodz. After half a year, I was promoted to the position of Specialist of Holidays, Summer Camps, Camps and Domestic Trips. Next, I worked as the Domestic Tourism Manager and finally as the Office Director. I finished working at Gromada in August 2018.
2. What roles did you worked in at OST Gromada?
It was a time of rapid development for the company, my duties often arose from the need of the moment. The District Branch in Łódź managed branches in, among others, Bełchatów, Płock, Łowicz, Łask, Sieradz, Rawa Mazowiecka. The office in Lodz had a staff of 28, each branch employed 2-3 people. In total, there were 49 people in the entire department. We mainly dealt in tourism, mainly holidays, domestic tours, and servicing institutional clients. A well-developed offer was the key to success. The first step in preparing the offer was choosing the property, center, or accommodation. Next, it was necessary to sign a contract with the owner, personally inspect the location, evaluate it, and see if it met the required standards. As a result, I often traveled on business. After returning from such trips, I wrote detailed reports of the accommodation. These reports were later included in the offers. The offers were prepared by hand, written on typewriters, and we did the calculations on abacuses. We personally delivered prepared offers to companies, we also used a teletype.
The most popular destination was the Baltic coast, but also spa towns such as: Ciechocinek, Nałęczów, Kudowa-Zdrój, Polanica-Zdrój, and Lądek Zdrój. When the sanatorium facilities were fully booked, we signed contracts with the owners of private lodgings. In those times, there was a huge demand for such services because the services were willingly financed by the social departments of various companies. That's why it was very important to personally establish and maintain good relationships with social department employees, because they managed and "allocated" the budget intended for their staff.
The largest share of sales was through institutional clients, who purchased vacations and team-building events for their employees,. Another popular product were summer camps for their children. We also operated in rural areas - our services were used by agricultural cooperatives, self-help groups, and provincial agricultural circles.
We also expanded our foreign tourism department and we even helped clients obtain passports, visas or currency exchange booklets. We operated comprehensively, we had our own transport department (Jelcz and Yugoslavian Sanos buses), which transported tourists to places like Prague, Rome, or Hungary. A sign of the times was the huge popularity of so-called merchant destinations - entire groups would go to trade in Turkey or to Berlin in Germany.
3. What gave you the most satisfaction while working at Gromada?
What was your biggest success?The fact that we always manged to be profitable and there was never a time that we were in the red. Also, we always carried out the we set out to accomplish. The job itself was satisfying, as was working with clients, especially when they appreciated our help. We received many thanks from companies, the City Hall or the local authorities of the province of Lodz. We were perceived as professionals. Despite the lack of computers, modern printers, and other office equipment, we were able to prepare a professional offer, always in timely fashion. Sometime it happened that we would stay after hours. We did not mind it, however, because there was always a good atmosphere in our team. An example of a satisfied customer could be Bank Handlowy, which for 9 consecutive years from 2002 purchased trainings for their employees at Gromada hotels.
4. What would you wish OST Gromada on the occasion of their 85th anniversary?
On the occasion of the Jubilee, I wish you further success, development, and perseverance in these difficult times.
