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DDS’s story about his Sharjah adventure brings to mind this question: Why do most ME government offices open only until 1:00 or 2:00 PM. I could never, ever figure this out!!! In the US, and most developed countries, most government employees work as long as the private sector employees.

One time in the US, I walked into a DMV Office (Dept. of Motor Vehicles) to renew my DL. I only had 10 minutes before they closed, and the place was sort of crowded. It was about 4:50 PM when I walked in the door, and they close at 5:00PM. Believe it or not, I left the building with my renewed licence in hand as they were just starting to close the doors at 5:00 PM!!!

Here in the Middle East, beside low efficiency and poor productivity, they top it up by working shorter hours!!!

Go figure!!!!!

Bacially because they're all staffed by locals and you can't get them to work long hours - they just won't do it.

Hey then it would be convient for people and might actually even get some work done too, now we don't want that now do we ! Less red tape and free flowing, blasphemous I say !

But some depts is dubai do open till late now, RTA car registrations being the top most in my book. Least amount of red tape, open from 9 to 9 and even open on saturdays, and then until 12 midnight in Ramadan even or maybe that I gone through the cycle so many times and well versed with the procedure that I don't feel it any more. But yes the timings are very good.

Chocoholic wrote:Bacially because they're all staffed by locals and you can't get them to work long hours - they just won't do it.

That reminds of one of the local radio shows I was listening to Bu Omar or something like that, and had a caller complaining his office timings till 2 pm were too late and that because of this he didn't get enough time to spend with his family and it was taking heavy toll on him !

Just because the office isn't open to the public it doesn't mean that they aren't working. When my friend used to work for the Government full time, he worked from 7.30am till around 6pm.
But having said that he could always slip out for a 2 hour 'meeting' with me at Starbucks, or a 3 hour lunch at the Royal Meridien. Privilige of being a local I suppose

Well you can pretty much make out they are not working when all the whole building is almost empty half an hour before quitting time.

I had a friend who worked in the IT dept of Ajman police, many days he'd just tell one of his buddies to punch in his card for him. So techinically he was still at work that day !

So what's new DDS? My employer (the British Government) has tightened up in the last few years, but it wasn't that long ago that the lads popped out to get their cut and put a bet on and the ladies popped out for a sausage roll. We all covered for one another.

Tom Jones wrote:DDS’s story about his Sharjah adventure brings to mind this question: Why do most ME government offices open only until 1:00 or 2:00 PM. I could never, ever figure this out!!! In the US, and most developed countries, most government employees work as long as the private sector employees.

One time in the US, I walked into a DMV Office (Dept. of Motor Vehicles) to renew my DL. I only had 10 minutes before they closed, and the place was sort of crowded. It was about 4:50 PM when I walked in the door, and they close at 5:00PM. Believe it or not, I left the building with my renewed licence in hand as they were just starting to close the doors at 5:00 PM!!!

Here in the Middle East, beside low efficiency and poor productivity, they top it up by working shorter hours!!!

Go figure!!!!!

That was probably to the late nineties but know it’s mostly until 4-5 pm, many of these departments are linked to banks to transfer their service charged cash to those banks after business hours and are forced to deposit by 1 pm .
But know with the use of CC and smart prepaid methods they were able to extend their hours, however you have to also look at other factors like the number of the ppl those government department will service in those extra hours, I would say ,just a few at that time, so it won’t be really sufficient to open the hall department for a lazy person who don’t feel like waking up until 1 pm ! you don’t copy and paste other countries my friend, you do what fits you and the nature of your work, right ? but know many have 2 shifts since the population increased .

-- Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:29 am --

Chocoholic wrote:Bacially because they're all staffed by locals and you can't get them to work long hours - they just won't do it.

Bacially you are still dum.....

Lot of the embassies and counsellates of various countries also operate from 9 to 13,

desertdudeshj wrote:

Chocoholic wrote:Bacially because they're all staffed by locals and you can't get them to work long hours - they just won't do it.

That reminds of one of the local radio shows I was listening to Bu Omar or something like that, and had a caller complaining his office timings till 2 pm were too late and that because of this he didn't get enough time to spend with his family and it was taking heavy toll on him !

LOOOOOL.. I like that! What an excuse!!

Now your signature really befits your post!!!

zubber wrote:Lot of the embassies and counsellates of various countries also operate from 9 to 13,

Embassies are not there to serve the local population. Their basic mission is to liaison between their own government and the host government, and to provide assistance to their own citizens abroad.

Issuing visas is not really a big part of their work, hence they're open to the public for only short hours.

However, the embassy employees, themselves, usually work the full 8 hrs!!

^^ Yes, I am aware that they work the full 8 hours, But asking you to come at a different time to pick up your documents is unnecessarily annoying

zubber wrote:Lot of the embassies and counsellates of various countries also operate from 9 to 13,

No, they have consular hours that they see people who bring their documents and pick up their documents, but that doesn't mean they go home at 13:00. Often they are there working a full day doing admin of all the paperwork that comes and goes.