On perusing some of my old blog posts (always a source of inspiration) I came across a post from shortly after our arrival in Dubai where I discuss how strange it felt working on a Sunday. When we first arrived, and in fact up to the beginning of last year, the formal weekend fell on Friday and Saturday. From 1st January 2022, the weekend moved to Saturday and Sunday in the UAE (although remained Friday/Saturday in other parts of the GCC including Qatar and KSA) - although in Sharjah the Government mandated a 4 day week with Friday to Sunday as the weekend (alright for some!).
Whilst it took some getting used to, I did enjoy a Friday/Saturday weekend as it meant that Sunday, while a working day, was relatively peaceful as the other offices in the network were still enjoying their weekend break so it was quite a gentle introduction to the working week allowing a focus on work rather than the wall to wall meetings that greets us first thing on a Monday now that we are on the same schedule as the rest of the World. Colleagues working on Qatar or KSA matters get the worst of both worlds as clients will insist on Sunday meetings but fortunately I have managed to avoid this fate so far.
The change in weekend has also meant that the traditional Friday afternoon “Brunch” has moved to Saturday (or indeed Friday evening) although this does not seem to have affected its popularity!
No comments:
Post a Comment