Synchronizing the weekend in the Middle East

It is damaging to the economy. For private companies working with the Government, and that is just about everyone, there are effectively four working days and not five. That is a 20% loss in productivity. Now admittedly in reality much of this is made up, but the cost in lost economic activity is still high.

If this confusion is magnified across an economy as large as the Middle East, then imagine how much money is being lost in terms on unnecessary time delays. As if multi-cultural and lifestyle differences were not already taxing enough on economic efficiency.

It is damaging to the quality of life. Take for example an extreme example of a wife who works for a Government agency in Dubai, the husband for an international bank with a child at school. The father has a Saturday and Sunday weekend, the mother is off on Thursday and Friday and the child on Friday.

Thus the parents never have any time off together and the child does not have a free day with his father. It's more than that. Coordinating any sort of public event is more difficult with unsynchronized weekends.

A Government Department would like to hold a press conference on a Saturday. Sadly a lot of the media are not working on that day. Too bad, they go ahead and speak to an empty room!

Things have also got worse, and not better, in recent years. The UAE Government, for example, switched to a two-day weekend a few years ago. Fine, a two-day weekend is generally a step forward for productivity; the studies show it: staff function better for a longer weekly break.

But not if the two-days are Thursday and Friday! This creates a new problem in solving an old one.

Of course, some people have got completely the wrong end of the stick and suggest that revolving weekends throughout the week are the answer. What a recipe for total chaos that would be. You would never know when to expect somebody to be working.

No, there is a clear and unambiguous case for moving the private and public sector to a Friday and Saturday weekend. The only alternative might be to synchronize with the global Saturday and Sunday weekend, but this is probably too out of phase with local customs and beliefs.

The Middle East should stay different but become more organized with a Friday and Saturday weekend for everyone.