Prezentmarzen.com: 4 percent of employees see their boss mainly as support
Poles rate their relationships with co-workers positively, but with supervisors they are connected above all by cooperation on tasks. This is according to a Prezentmarzen.com study conducted on a sample of 5,327 people.
Relationships with co-workers are rated positively by 80 percent of participants in the Prezentmarzeń.com survey “Emotions in the workplace - relationships and integration.” 43 percent consider them rather good, and 37 percent very good and supportive. Difficulties in communication with colleagues are reported by 12 percent of respondents. The results were described on September 27, 2026 by the pulsHR.pl (opens in a new tab) portal.
As the dominant dimension of relationships with colleagues, respondents most often indicate cooperation (27 percent) and support (20 percent). However, the same share of respondents (20 percent) declare a lack of strong bonds with colleagues. Friendship was chosen by 17 percent, trust by 12 percent, and empathy by 4 percent.
The relationship with a supervisor has a different character. It is most often based on cooperation (32 percent) and respect (26 percent), followed by trust (15 percent) and admiration or inspiration (14 percent). A lack of strong bonds and emotions in the relationship with a boss is declared by 9 percent. Support as the main dimension of the relationship is therefore indicated by 20 percent of respondents in relationships with colleagues and only 4 percent in the relationship with a boss.
The predominance of “cooperation” over “support” and “trust” shows that it is safer to keep contact at the task level than to open up on an emotional level.
Overall trust in supervisors is in turn measured by ManpowerGroup’s Talent Barometer 2026, conducted on more than 500 respondents from Poland. In it, 65 percent of respondents trust their bosses, while 28 percent do not believe in their good intentions. Trust increases with position in the company: from 52 percent among frontline employees, that is the lowest level, through 58 percent among specialists, to 72 percent among middle managers. The two studies measure different things, so their results cannot be compared directly.
For managers who want to build engagement, this is a signal that employees find support mainly in the team: in relationships with colleagues, support is indicated by five times more people than in the relationship with a boss.