Weekend weakness
Jordan switched in January 2000. Qatar made the change in August 2003. Now Bahrain is also proposing a Friday-Saturday weekend:
Proponents of this idea say that the synchronisation with the global weekend would improve family ties and strengthen Bahrain's relations with the international community.
"A synchronisation with the global weekend would increase our communication with the rest of the world by about 33 per cent. We will gain 182 hours of communication with the West and 102 hours with the East," said Bu Kamal, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee at the Council of Representatives.
Why, then, is there no similar proposal in the UAE, surely the biggest international business hub in the region, to have a weekend more coordinated with the rest of the world?
The situation as it stands is a sorry mess. Currently, Thursday and Friday are the official weekend. Most private sector companies take Friday and Saturday. As a result, many service sector firms and government departments are forced to stay open on Thursdays, meaning that staff have to work a five-and-a-half or six-day week. The most ludicrous situation is for expatriate schoolchildren. Private schools are forced to have a Thursday-Friday weekend, regardless of the fact that most parents are off Friday-Saturday, meaning parents and their children only share one day off.
Time for changing times.
Proponents of this idea say that the synchronisation with the global weekend would improve family ties and strengthen Bahrain's relations with the international community.
"A synchronisation with the global weekend would increase our communication with the rest of the world by about 33 per cent. We will gain 182 hours of communication with the West and 102 hours with the East," said Bu Kamal, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Committee at the Council of Representatives.
Why, then, is there no similar proposal in the UAE, surely the biggest international business hub in the region, to have a weekend more coordinated with the rest of the world?
The situation as it stands is a sorry mess. Currently, Thursday and Friday are the official weekend. Most private sector companies take Friday and Saturday. As a result, many service sector firms and government departments are forced to stay open on Thursdays, meaning that staff have to work a five-and-a-half or six-day week. The most ludicrous situation is for expatriate schoolchildren. Private schools are forced to have a Thursday-Friday weekend, regardless of the fact that most parents are off Friday-Saturday, meaning parents and their children only share one day off.
Time for changing times.
Labels: bahrain
12 Comments:
I remember the kerfuffle when the Thursday/Friday weekend was made official. And rumours that we couldn't have Saturday because the Zionists had already bagged it.
But there is no question that it is a continuing headache for companies who have dealings with the rest of the world, ie most of them.
And rumours that we couldn't have Saturday because the Zionists had already bagged it.
Yeah, I've been told (reliably or not) that Saturdays is a no-no because it is the Jewish sabbath.
Things are changing actually, a family member who works in a government bank in Abu Dhabi reports that he can take saturday off if he take thu as a work day.
Majority of the companies work 5and half days. Thursday is no more holiday. Thursday half day becomes full day work ..most of the times.
I feel that only about 20% of the private organisations work 5 days a week ..rest all 5 and half and 6.
Take it for what it is worth, but I have been told by one of the upper level Emiratis here (UAE University) that this (change to Fri-Sat) is going to happen and fairly soon.
Poshboy: ...personally do not agree with the whole moving your young children half way round the world just because the father gets a job in Dubai.
I probably will be shot for that comment from people with kids...
Consider yourself shot.
You may be interested to know that Indonesia - the world's largest Muslim country - has a Sat - Sun weekend. Muslims are allowed time off for Friday afternoon prayers.
It seems to work well enough there.
Pakistan- a nation created purely for Muslims- also has Sat Sun as a weekend. I'd imagine the Thi/Fri weekend has nothing to do with anti-Zionism- just the fact that Thu which used to be a half day has now defaulted to a full day for those fortunate to have two days off. It's a nightmare for those that work with the rest of the world because you never really get a day off and are often expected to be 'ón call' on Thu/Fri.
poshboy: would you also object to moving the kids half way around the world if the MOTHER got a job here?
I happen to agree with pixelsonic actually... as it is traffic is such a nightmare.. the current scenario at least lessens the traffic on thursdays and saturdays..( if one can call driving a distance of 15km in 1hour good driving ;)
anyways rather than this issue, i feel public holidays SHOULD be declared in advance !!!! the situation now is plainly ridiculous.. no one knows until just a day before whether the next day is a holiday or not... i mean.. how can anyone plan anything? the private sector as it is are shortchanged with regards to the number of holidays.. and during public / religious holidays the situation becomes farcical...
a rather silly proposition..why not go further..my home is 4 hours ahead of Dubai..can some smart alecs pls suggest they synchronize the time..thanks...in rome do as the romans do pls..
in arabic counties also week starting on sunday... if u have doubt check arabic week names... and arabic 1,2,3...
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