The British newspaper, The Guardian, published report On the UAE changing the Friday holiday since last December, she said that some private companies continued the Friday holiday system, as is the case in other Gulf countries.
She added that businesses have split, with some moving to Western-style weekends.
She pointed out that people are combining work and Friday prayers, as the country moves to the weekend on Saturdays and Sundays.
She said that employees and school children were jogging between work, study and Friday prayers on the first Friday in which the new weekly holiday system was implemented in the Emirates.
She added that mosques seemed crowded, as worshipers arrived as usual carrying prayer rugs, before many of them returned later to the offices.
She explained that a survey conducted by the company “Mercer” for human resources showed that out of 195 companies surveyed, only 23% of them were ready to work on Friday following prayer, and more than half will adopt the weekend on Saturday and Sunday.
Concern regarding the impact of the lack of synchronization with the countries of the region
The Mercer survey found that nearly a third of companies were concerned regarding the impact of out-of-sync with other countries in the region.
It quoted British Rachel King, 27, – who works in the hospitality field and has lived in Dubai for 6 months – as saying that she prefers to take the weekend off on Friday, adding that it is the day that they all know and love, during which they go to certain open places and do other things. .
The newspaper said that the UAE announced a sudden change of the weekend last December, as it was grappling with the increasing competition in international business from other Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia.
She attributed to Rana (an employee of a company to organize events) saying that they work a lot with Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The Guardian noted that the financial district in Dubai was unusually quiet on Friday, with large numbers working remotely, especially in light of the high number of “Covid-19” infections, and many children are also studying online.
The new arrangement – according to the Guardian – was a major point of discussion on social media, with one Twitter user complaining, “It feels very wrong, my body and mind have adapted perfectly to the Friday holiday, I think today will be a long and hard struggle.”
And the newspaper reported that the emirate of Sharjah, neighboring Dubai, found a simple solution, which is to specify Friday, Saturday and Sunday as a weekend.
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