Aleksander Bochenski, president of Run Chlodnia, a frozen foods producer in central Poland, recalls a conversation with a tearful worker who told him he was planning to move to western Europe because the salary he was earning in Poland was too low.
"His wife was looking at their friends, who are working in England and Ireland, and was complaining that their children had computers and good clothes while he was barely able to make ends meet," says Mr Bochenski.
The conversation is being repeated throughout Poland. Workers leaving for more lucrative jobs abroad are a worsening trend for Mr Bochenski, and Polish industry in general. The frozen food executive raised his average monthly wages to 1,500 zlotys (€ 380), but that is insufficient to keep more ambitious workers from leaving for foreign shores.
"If I raise salaries too fast, I destroy my cost structure, but the danger to me is that if one person leaves and does well, then they end up pulling more people after them," says Mr Bochenski.
His former employees are joining a wave of Polish workers heading to western Europe, particularly Ireland and Britain, which did not restrict their labour markets after the European Union expanded in May 2004.
According to new figures from the UK's Home Office, 264,000 Poles have registered with employment authorities since Poland joined the EU. Around 150,000 Poles registered to work in Ireland since 2004, however it is unclear how many have returned to Poland since. Anna Kalata, Poland's minister of labour and social policy, estimates that about 600,000 Poles have left the country, but others put the number above one million.
The tide of workers heading west is creating a labour shortage in a country where the official unemployment level is 15.7 per cent, the highest in the EU.
Those workers seeking opportunities elsewhere tend to be younger, skilled and with language abilities. Many of those left on the unemployment rolls are older, live in rural localities and have communist-era skills, which make them difficult to employ in modern companies.
A recent survey by Lewiatan, the Polish employers' federation, found 43 per cent of companies it polled experiencing problems because of a lack of qualified workers.
Polish shipyards are desperately hunting welders, as many of their workers have moved to Scandinavia. Agricultural workers are difficult to find. About 5 per cent of Poland's doctors may have left.
"It's potentially an enormous problem," says Konstanty Radziwill, president of the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists. "The record is for anaesthesiologists, 16 per cent of whom are thought to have left or are making plans to leave."
However, Wroclaw, in western Poland, has enticed back Poles working in Britain, to take up jobs with the many foreign investors opening factories and service centres in the region.
The consequences of migration is felt most deeply in the building sector, which has been undergoing a boom. The folkloric Polish plumbers, carpenters and roofers plying their trades in Dublin and London are causing a scarcity in Warsaw and Krakow.
The shortage is so dire that many Polish employers are beginning to turn to Ukrainians to fill the jobs gap. There are thought to be about 150,000 Ukrainians working illegally in Poland, much fewer than before Poland joined the EU, which forced the imposition of visas on Ukrainians. But those who do manage to make it through the border are eagerly sought after.
Until now, Mr Bochenski has not hired any Ukrainians, but is still looking for ways of filling the gaps in his workforce. One idea has been to try to hire older workers, who may have been unemployed for years.
There is also another, more drastic option if his wages are forced to rise to EU levels. "My company is taking business away from western Europe because our costs are lower," he says. "There is a question of what happens when that cost advantage goes, so we are now looking at opening a factory in Ukraine."
