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17 May, 2006

Saturday's children

Finally the UAE gets a sensible weekend that isn't unmanageably out of sync with the rest of the developed world:

"According to the cabinet decision, federal ministries and institutions, local government departments, public and private schools will close on Fridays and Saturdays for the weekend . Saturday will therefore replace Thursday as weekend."

As noted previously, other Middle East countries had already set the trend.

Now what remains to be seen is whether a lot of people that used to work on Saturday will still have to work on Saturday, meaning a six-day week; or whether a lot of people that aren't used to working on Thursdays will still slack off on Thursdays, meaning a four-day week.

6 Comments:

Blogger phoenix said...

so it means half day on saturday, first day of the week. great.

sunday sucks.

17 May, 2006 08:37  
Blogger Tim Newman said...

I wonder if the Jumeirah Beach Park will remain women only on Saturdays?

I'll be able to finally ditch my disguise.

17 May, 2006 10:02  
Blogger Jassim said...

If it aint broke dont fix it. I like my weekends as it is.

17 May, 2006 10:35  
Blogger BarfUser said...

Yes, it's sensible, especially with the UAE increasingly in sync with Europe, Asia and Africa, all of which do the Sat-Sun thing...

By the way, I enjoyed this from today's paper, about the official temperatures vs. reality:

"The temperature is actually three to four degrees higher than reported in our bulletins," said the official, adding this difference was caused by the specific temperature measuring apparatus.

(Snicker) ... ummm... right. The apparatus. The one that ... doesn't register the right temperature?!?

17 May, 2006 12:29  
Blogger BuJ said...

wow.. something worth celebrating.. this is way overdue!

what happens to the private sector though?

17 May, 2006 21:17  
Blogger John B. Chilton said...

Phoenix, for those of us basking in the luxury of a 5 day work week perhaps we're clueless about your meaning.

I think you're wondering what happens to those who work 5 and 1/2 days per week. You used to a weekend that started midday Thursday and you returned to work on Saturday morning.

Now those who work 5.5 days will typically start their weekend at the end of a full day of work on Thursday and have to return to work when? Midday Saturday? For being in sync with Europe and North America the afternoon makes sense, I guess.

Example:

The 5.5 day worker now gets off say 1pm Thurday and returns to work 9am Saturday: Thursday afternoon, Thursday evening, and Friday form the weekend.

With the change in weekend that worker leaves work at 6pm Thursday and returns to work at 1pm Saturday: Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday morning form the weekend.

18 May, 2006 09:58  

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