It’s Friday, the first for 2022. And it’ll feel strange for all of us in the UAE. Some will be working, especially if you are a government employee. For others, they’ll be enjoying the first day of their weekend. Schools will be open, as will ministries. The country has embraced the global norm of the Saturday and Sunday weekend.
Now, this is where it becomes tricky. The country, and Dubai in particular, is a regional hub. Many firms and their employees serve other businesses throughout the region. And that region is yet to follow the same decision on switching the working week. The question must be then asked – what do you do if your clients, the organisations who contract you for work, are present on Sunday and require you to do the same? Will they accept a delay of a day? Will you require they respond on Fridays?
These aren’t hypothetical questions. As someone who has spent much of my career in the region, I remember the constant reminders to my colleagues outside of the Middle East that Friday was indeed my day off (God forbid I schedule something on a Sunday). And yet much of the service industry is based in the UAE. Take for example, the public relations sector; Dubai is the hub, and it’s hard to see how work for a country like Saudi Arabia could be done without the resources we have here in the UAE.
What will businesses here do? Will they adapt a hybrid model, whereby some people have to work on Sundays? Or will they have to begin reminding clients outside of the country that Sunday is now a day off? Will we see some firms actively promoting to their regional clients that they’re also working Sunday, effectively adopting a six-day working week?
There’s so much to work through over the coming weeks. My one hope is that there’s a means by which employees are helped through these changes, by both their employers and the government. We’ve had so much change over the past two years, and I sincerely want that change to be for the betterment of how people live, particularly their mental health.
I’ll be waiting to see how the new working week in the UAE looks for employees, and I sincerely hope that the shift will be good for the majority of people. I am just not sure if it will lead to better things for everyone.
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