‘Jobs for life’

Just stumbled across a somewhat depressing article in The National from a few weeks ago.

As Sultan Ali browsed among the stalls during yesterday’s careers fair at Dubai Men’s College, he was thinking along the same lines as most of the other 2,000 Emirati students expected to visit.

Whatever the merits of working for a private company, he wanted a job in the public sector.
“I prefer the government sector,” said Mr Ali, who is studying applied business technology. “I feel more comfortable psychologically. They give you Friday and Saturday off, they give you good wages, pay for your rent and health insurance.”

To many young Emiratis, public sector jobs remain the most attractive because they offer more security, shorter working hours and longer holidays.

“In the private sector, you work more, your salary is small and you have a lot of pressure on you,” Mr Ali said. “In the public sector, you get holidays as you want.”

I remember once reading a two-word summation of  all economic theory: “incentives matter”.  Unfortunately, public sector employment policies in the UAE have been pretty effective in destroying any incentive to work in the private sector.

It appears that most of his contemporaries have the same attitude. A recent government study found that while 96 per cent of students at the women’s higher colleges of technology intended to work upon graduation, only 11 per cent wanted private sector jobs.

I don’t blame them. Let us simply compare the official holiday periods for the private and public sector for Eid Al Adha and National Day:

Private Sector - Two Working Days (It’s three if you work for one of those antediluvian companies that still work a 6 day week.)

Public Sector – 4 years.

Sorry, I exaggerate; it’s actually 6 working days. Even so, it’s unlikely to lead to public sector employees forming an orderly queue to take part in the profit-making and wealth-creating sections of the economy.

Mike Hynes, the managing partner of Kershaw Leonard, a UAE and Qatar-based human resources consultancy, said public jobs were attractive because “historically, the government sector is seen as a job for life. There was little chance of losing that job.”

Fair point.

Mr Hynes argued that it was “terribly unfair” for inexperienced Emirati students to be expected to conform to a tough work ethic in profit-oriented companies.

You go Mike! Keep speaking truth to power!