UAE: Half of employees feel pressure to work extra hours
Working in the construction industry, Sadia Anwar was given one simple instruction: stay at work for 12-14 hours every day while she settled into her first employment position in a foreign country.
“In retrospect, it was a very aspirated lifestyle, given that it did not even matter what one did; I was on a long clock, even when Ramadan was on. I used to reside in Ajman with my parents while working at a firm based in Dubai. I remember coming back to Ajman for Iftar and returning to my office to complete some menial tasks that were absolutely not necessary,” she recalled.
A new research has shown that four in 10 (45% of workers) working in the the center for arab economies cite there is no need to work beyond their allotted weeks. Whereas in Ghac countries, recruitment campaigns throughout the IT services organization for ‘Halian’s 2025 GCC Market Report and Salaries’ included over 2700 employees across various sectors like technology, finance, marketing, creative and design, health and life sciences, and construction.
Sadia who has worked in the corporations for so many years shared that there were certain days where she could not help but dreadfully follow ‘bad’ work habits. “I would sit back at 2am to complete a presentation and the following morning, 9am at the office for the presentation”, she said. “Eventually when the time came for me to start the family, I left because such a lifestyle is nearly impossible to balance with a family.”
Impact on health
According to the survey, there was a big group of people, 45%, who felt the workload was affecting their health. “Though this may not have immediate effects on the work they are doing, it will ultimately become a hindrance to them, harming the work they do and the companies’ overall output,” it stated in the survey.
Even medical practitioners are reporting having patients with such histories. "These days we see people saying that they have to work too long, there is immense pressure and they are made to take a lot of work,” Dr Yasir Shafi, Homeopathy Doctor at Wellth, stated.
“There is an increase in risk of chronic conditions such as tension headaches, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease as a result of lifestyle unrelated to physical work coupled with emotional factors such as depression along with cognitive impairment.”
The other issue also noted was the concern about employees’ health and how the employees were actively looking for other employment opportunities as nearly 85% were looking forward to switching jobs within a period of one year.
Toxic work culture
In their report, this company’s CEO stated that she and her colleagues usually work for about 12-14 hours per day. She went on to explain, ‘It is not like we are sitting in the office for twelve hours a day. They can work from home if they wish to. But we work in social media and marketing spheres. This means that the team is never out of reach. There are times when we receive requests in the middle of the night and we are struggling to push them through. I do enjoy that sort of work culture but it is because of us that such poison exists. What is worse, if we implement such time-‘off’, we will surely lose business. And at this point in time, that is not a situation we can live with.’
The Global Middle Class and Emerging Economies report conducted an interesting survey. However, the respondents were working in the UAE and the respondents were surprised. Apparently 35% of UAE employees believe their work life balance is fair and almost half voiced a need for enhanced flexibility when it comes to taking breaks.
Yasir cautioned that this kind of work culture can disintegrate families. “We are witnessing the lack of emotional connection among the members of a family due to the work-life imbalance,” he pointed out. “It gets into a cyclical pattern – an individual returning from the office late and unable to spend time with family, unable to eat and sleep at reasonable hours and rushing again in the morning. At the end of the day, such insensible habits destroy one’s psychological condition.”
Future opportunities
There were also other findings of the report which indicated that about 41% of the employees in the UAE feel positive about getting employment opportunities in the future. However, many are already targeting the increasing job market by going for further education and certification. Therefore, such employees are poised to perform and be employed in the markets which are continually changing.
The regional scope of the study made comparison of the labor market of the UAE and Saudi Arabia among other scope regions. The survey also yielded several important regional findings.
According to a survey conducted this year, almost four out of every ten GCC professionals which is 40% received an increase during the last year which was between 5% - 10% mark. Statistics Further reveal that 49% percent of these increases came due to performance, 14.9% because of the job change and about 44% of the sample finally anticipate a salary increase before the end of year 20204.
Furthermore, the report revealed that there is a great potential in employment opportunities as up to 37% percent of the employees were able to see employment opportunities beyond 24 months. Out of these employees, 24.3 % hoped to achieve a promotion in the same organization. In a way to illustrate their optimism in the labour market in the GCC, 47% of employees are currently studying or are in the process of obtaining other certification.
The report found medical insurance to be the most sought out benefit followed by air tickets and flexible working arrangements, with percentages 80%, 55% and 41 % respectively.
Compensation and benefits enhancement together with career growth are the key factors that are making employees change jobs in the Gulf region.
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