Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

Has anyone haerd that KSA is soon going over to a weekend on Friday and Saturday ? This has already happened in Bahrain and Qatar.

The rumour I herad (coming from Aramco) was that by royal decree this was going to be implemented in January.

[Stephen Jones]

January what year?

Why don't we compile a database of rumors and see how many of them come to pass, if ever.

Having "Sunday" before "Saturday" will be a little confusing.

The business arguments in favor are very strong though.

[dmb]

[Stephen Jones]

A very large chunk of the world works Monday - Friday. A Saudi working week of Monday - Wednesday means there are only three days a week maximum to have dealings with those countries. Add time zone differences and the problem becomes even more serious.

[dmb]

ok, but why the Friday Saturday weekend? just for one extra day to be the same as the rest of the world?

[scot47]

That is the argument. We will then have 4 days when Saudi and the rest of Planet Terra are working together. Seems a pretty spurious idea to me.

[Stephen Jones]

The one extra day makes a lot of difference. At present if you are in an office in the States and want to contact Saudi you have to do it early (often very early) Wednesday morning, or wait until the following Monday.

This affects all import/export businesses, and as nearly everything you consume in Saudi is imported and paid for by exports, it affects a lot of businesses.

Scot47 thinks it's spurious because he has been infected by the Saudi idea of time.

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

Scott's retirement date has suffered from the same time infection .. it's slipped from 2010 to 2014 within the space of 2 months ... at this rate it'll be up to 2026 by summer ...

[scot47]

The rapid decline of the US dollar and the Saudi Riyal means that I may have to cancel retirement and continue working until they put me in a box.

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

Why stop then ...

[Cleopatra]

I too have heard this rumour several times.

Whether it will turn out to have any more substance than the equally persistant rumours about the imminent abolition of the women drivers' ban, or the introduction of tourist visas, remains to be seen.

[007]

There was an article about this issue in Al-Riyadh online paper (in Arabic,http://www.alriyadh.com/2006/12/26/article212116.html).

The idea of changing the holiday from Thursday to Saturday, still in discussion amongst the Saudi Businessmen and government officials. But, nothing is official, because the issue is under discussion, and there are conflicting opinions from the Saudi liberals and hardliners.

The liberals, especially the Saudi economist expert, believe that changing the holiday from Thursday to Saturday will benefit Saudi economically and politically. And this has proven true in some Gulf countries like, UAE and Bahrain.
But, the hardliners, object to the idea on the basis that Saturday is the Jewish holiday, and Sunday is the Christian holiday, they think that the Saudis as Muslim, should not follow the path, or take the example from the Jewish or the Christian, and they base their argument on a certain Hadith. Even some of them argue that, the birth of Saudi Arabia is now more than 70 years and during this time the economic situation was and is good, with the weekend on Thursday and Friday, so why change it now??

So, we have to wait and see what will happen in the future, and see who will win the case, the liberals or the hardliners???

If it is agreed, the proposal has to go through the country's consultative council, the Shura. Then, approved by the King of SA, taking into account the views of the different Saudi society, especially the Religion organization!.

BTW, Scot47;

[scot47]

My religious advisor tells me that writing a will is an act of impiety.

[Cleopatra]

[007]