Friday, November 25, 2005

National Day



December 2nd is the UAE's national day. This year, it falls on a Friday. Friday is a weekend here. In other countries, if a national holiday falls on a weekend, you get an extra day off on the weekday to compensate...so for example, in Canada, if Canada day falls on a Sunday, you get Monday off....But this is not the case here. Not for the private sector at least. It was announced last week that the private sector will not getting any days off to mark National Day. But, the public sector is getting not one, not two, but three days off!

So here are 2 questions I'd like to have answered:
1) Why the discrepancy in holidays between the private and public sectors? Do employees in the public sector work more than the ones in the private sector (therefore deserve more of a break?). How does the UAE government expect to have more locals working for the private sector when there is such a difference in the number of days off we get (and this is not just the case for National day. It's the case for every single holiday we get in the UAE).

2) Why does anyone need 3 whole days to celebrate National Day? One day is more than enough.

Unless of course the government decides to match the private sector holidays with the ones for the public sector. Then 3 days off to celebrate National Day sounds just perfect :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hmm mebbe they think that the government end of th epublic sector is mostly natioanls and would only have a sens eof patriotism so they shoudl begetting those offs lol. the others are ust expatriates... its not that we expatriates are ever allowed to call the uae our home even if we've been here all our lives yeah? anyhoo, since im off on thursdays usually, fo rme the sat is an extra holiday lol. eveyrone else in my offic eis pissed coz they are of on sats normally. heh