The Government of the UAE has recently announced its policy decision to allow around 70% of the federal government employees to work from home on all Fridays in the holy month of Ramadan. In fact, all the Universities and Schools have also been advised to operationalize online classes for students during this holy month.
The aim behind this policy decision is to offer flexibility to the employees so that they can celebrate the holy month of Ramadan with ease and comfort.Â
UAE is definitely taking all the possible steps in order to promote sustainable living among its residents. This has been in furtherance of its latest initiative which is strategically oriented towards improving the quality of life by balancing personal and professional lives.
The advisory has been issued with respect to only Friday. According to some informal sources, the government is planning to extend this opportunity to other days as well. However, no official confirmation has been received till now.Â
UAE has planned to provide equal importance to the social dimension during this Holy month
The President of Dubai, High Highness, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has directed the public and the private bodies to segregate the workforce in two proportions. Around 70% of the employees shall work from home and the remaining 30% shall work from the office.
This directive applies not only to the government and private offices but also schools and Universities. Earlier, the Government of the UAE declared an off only 70% of the students while the remaining 30% will have to attend classes during Ramadan.
But now the latest notification has allowed the entire school to function remotely on the assigned Fridays of Ramadan.Â
The Crown Prince of Dubai has directed all the departments to which this notification applies to devise a mechanism for arranging work from home and developing software for monitoring the performance of employees. A special task force would be established in order to exercise control over the execution of the remote working mechanisms.
The Crown Prince of Dubai has specifically warned the organizations not to compromise the quality of the work at any cost. The objective behind this relaxation is to make it comfortable for the employees to work while fasting so that their health is not affected.
The Government of UAE has laid enough focus on health and quality of life. All of these efforts are pursued the realization of this goal.Â
A clarification has also been issued by the Dubai Human Resources Agency with respect to the official working hours to be followed during the entire month of Ramadan.
The companies and government departments in addition to giving this above-mentioned relaxation, have also reduced daily working hours for the employees.
The timings from Monday to Thursday would be from 9 am to 13 noon whereas, for Friday, it would be from 9 am to 12 noon. An employee working at the electricity department recently tweeted that it has become very easy for him to work without altering his fast timings.Â
However, these guidelines are not exhaustive and are rather open-ended. Each institution has the liberty to customize and amend these guidelines according to the exigencies of the situation.
In fact, it would be noteworthy to mention that many departments such as taxation, revenue, and public Works development are operational for only three days a week that too in a limited capacity. Rest of the days, their employees work from home.
The Government realized that each organization might have its specific requirements and this liberty will help them to make their decisions without delay.Â
It has been for the first time that such a facility has been offered to the employees during Ramadan. This happened because a large number of employees used to remain absent from work during Ramadan and hence a huge amount of loss was reported.
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Even those who came to the workplace didn’t have the energy to work for the entire day and their efficiency was highly compromised. That is why, the Government this year, introduced the concept of work from home for a considerable part of the workforce in an organization.
This will be ensuring the continuity and efficiency of work in the offices and departments.Â
The decision has been applauded by the employees to a great extent. They took to Twitter to express their gratitude towards the Crown Prince of Dubai for respecting them to such a great extent. And find it extremely easy to work in such a hybrid mode that too with reduced working hours.
They are now reporting regularly on duty and this is actually enhancing the quality of the work. The Government has devised the best plan so that employees could fast for Ramadan and work at the same time.Â