Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs ) form the core of the enterprise sector in Poland, both in terms of their numbers and their share in the structure of employment. However, the issue of employment relations in that area has been largely neglected in the research. The article attempts to sketch a picture of those specific type of social relations based on the data from the survey research project “Entrepreneurs 2011”, analyzed in the context of the existing body of knowledge, derived from the literature and statistical sources. The author states that employment relations in Polish SMEs are fundamentally pluralistic, entrepreneurs display a high level of individualism – which translates into a low capacity for self-organization – and have paternalistic inclinations, while the dominant management style is autocratic. Entrepreneurs suffer from a low level of social capital, which results in limited ability and willingness to form networks of enterprises. High, yet not extreme, is also the reluctance of entrepreneurs towards organized employee representation, especially trade unions. The presence of an organized worker representation in enterprises is marginal. Entrepreneurs are moderately interested in social dialogue institutions and their state of knowledge in the subject is limited. A new phenomenon, namely a shift of attitudes to etatism and egalitarianism seems to have emerged, as the analysis of data from primary sources (research “Entrepreneurs 2011”) suggests, which means that entrepreneurs of SMEs expect stronger states’ involvement in economic processes than it currently is, are skeptical towards foreign capital and support some practices typical for the welfare state.