The weekend—we all look forward to it. But what would happen if your country decided to change the days that make up a weekend? Well, they’re about to find out in the United Arab Emirates.
Lesson summary
Hi there, it’s Jeff, and this is Plain English lesson number 428. JR is here too. You can’t hear him, but his presence is always felt. He’s the producer working behind the scenes to bring you these audio lessons every week and uploading all the content to PlainEnglish.com. The best way to get to each lesson is by the lesson number. So today is 428, and you can find the full content at PlainEnglish.com/428.
All right, coming up today…the song says everybody’s working for the weekend…but the weekend means something different depending on where you live. In the Middle East, it has traditionally been Friday and Saturday. But the United Arab Emirates is changing its weekend from Friday and Saturday to Saturday and Sunday to match the western world. Today, we’ll talk about that transition.
The English expression we’ll talk about is “decide on.” And we have a quote of the week, with an invented word. Let’s dive in.
New weekend plans in the UAE
In most Western countries, the workweek is Monday through Friday, and the weekend is Saturday and Sunday. However, in much of the Middle East, the weekend is Friday and Saturday; the workweek starts on Sunday.
Why is that? It has to do with Christianity, and that Sunday is a day of worship and rest. In the Islamic tradition, however, Friday is a day of prayers. In Judaism, the day of rest goes from Friday night to Saturday night. Therefore, our secular calendars are aligned with the religious traditions in our respective parts of the world.
With the advance of globalization, it makes sense that most people who participate in global commerce should share a similar definition of a workweek. And so, even areas that have different religious traditions have adopted the western work week of Monday through Friday.
The United Arab Emirates is a small, wealthy country comprised of seven “emirates;” the most famous are Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The UAE, especially Dubai, is a regional destination for shopping, culture and tourism, and a global destination for business and finance. About ten million people live in the UAE. Just eleven percent are citizens. You heard that right: 89 percent of the people living in the UAE are expatriates, citizens of other countries.
Like most of the Middle East, the UAE has observed the weekend on Friday and Saturday. Muslim prayers are on Friday mornings. But the UAE, as an international hub for business and finance, has decided that it will move its weekend to align with the western work week of Monday through Friday.
A complete transition, though, would complicate the Islamic tradition of Friday prayers. So, the UAE has decided on a compromise. From Monday to Thursday, working hours will be 7:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. On Friday, work will go from 7:30 until about noon, with work at home encouraged. Prayers will be moved from the mornings to 1:15 in the afternoon on Fridays.
If you’re doing the math in your head, you may have noticed that this only adds up to a four-and-a-half-day work week. This will be the first time a country has introduced a work week of less than five days. (In other words, if your move to Portugal doesn’t work out, you can always try the UAE!)
The UAE says this is a way to encourage more work-life balance. At the start, only government offices and universities will be required to adopt the new workweek; however, many private businesses are expected to align with the official new schedule.
The new policy is also expected to make it easier for expatriates to move to the Emirates and adapt to the culture. If the local stock market moves its weekend, it will make it easier for foreign investors to trade stocks. Anyone who ships something to or from the UAE often must wait an extra day if their shipments are around a weekend; that could speed up if the weekends are aligned. People outside the region will find scheduling calls and meetings easier.
This will complicate life a little bit. The new schedule allows just over an hour to get from work to prayers. Whatever time people may have spent getting ready for prayers will be cut short; like going to church on Sunday, people want to look good, not disheveled after a workday.
And in Dubai’s luxury hotels, “Friday brunch” is a tradition for after prayers. The luxurious brunches with free-flowing alcohol will have to move later in the afternoon on Friday—will it still be brunch? —or they’d have to move to Saturday.
Office workers will lose something precious: their quiet Sundays. Sunday is a quiet day for people who work with clients and colleagues outside the region. There are fewer calls and fewer emails because so many contacts are off.
This new policy is part of a broader effort in the Middle East to diversify economies away from the oil and gas industries that have sustained the region for so long. The UAE is competing with Saudi Arabia to attract ex-pats and foreign investment. Both countries have been relaxing some strict rules that are uncomfortable for foreigners. Last year, the UAE lifted its ban on cohabitation by unmarried couples, and it eliminated the need to have a license to drink alcohol.
A quick transition
The government made this announcement on December 7, 2021. The new weekend starts on January 1, 2022. They gave everyone less than a month’s notice to change the structure of their daily lives completely. Now any “weekend” plans for 2022 will be disrupted—every wedding, every weekend away—all that now must shift forward a day.
That point about Sundays is real. I’ve spent a few months in India over the years, and Sundays were my favorite workday. I worked with colleagues there, but primarily for projects based in the U.S. And Monday mornings in India are Sunday nights back home. So, our Mondays would be slower workdays; we’d have a chance to catch our breath before all the emails and calls started up for the rest of the week.
So, pity the office workers who will lose their first quiet day each week.
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