# employees



## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

I wonder if the attitude to work will ever change here.. yes I know it's early days but lets face it the honeymoon period shouldn't be over yet.

I have 4 drivers who work one week in 4 and then it's only 6 days but two drivers should always be on duty (the other one just lays in bed sleeping in the staff apartment).... the hours are 11-4 unless I need them in the evening. Yesterday I went shopping for groceries which took me 45 minutes and when I got into the car with the shopping bags I told the driver finished as in I have finished shopping. I returned home and in less than 15 minutes discovered meat that I had bought was rancid so I asked the maid to phone the driver and tell him I want to go back out... 

Driver... Tell madame I have to go to the embassy.
Me..... tell him that is ok but who is the other driver as I want a driver now.
Driver... ok tell Madame I will be 20 minutes.
Me... Tell the driver no 20 minutes to come now.

I sent the meat back with the houseboy and the maid.....

Driver to houseboy.... I spent 5LE getting a taxi back here.
Houseboy... why a taxi you live next door to us.
Driver.... My wife is sick 
Houseboy what has that got to do with it
Driver... Madame told me I was finished and could go home.

I never told him he was finished... it was 12.30pm!! he had been at work for less than 2 hours... 



On Monday I sent for a driver only to be told... after 30 minutes I am eating my breakfast!!! I phoned him at 11.20am.


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## GM1 (Sep 30, 2008)

sometimes you don't understand these people: aren't they afraid of losing their jobs? Or do they think that they are so good that they can't lose their job?


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## hurghadapat (Mar 26, 2010)

MaidenScotland said:


> I wonder if the attitude to work will ever change here.. yes I know it's early days but lets face it the honeymoon period shouldn't be over yet.
> 
> I have 4 drivers who work one week in 4 and then it's only 6 days but two drivers should always be on duty (the other one just lays in bed sleeping in the staff apartment).... the hours are 11-4 unless I need them in the evening. Yesterday I went shopping for groceries which took me 45 minutes and when I got into the car with the shopping bags I told the driver finished as in I have finished shopping. I returned home and in less than 15 minutes discovered meat that I had bought was rancid so I asked the maid to phone the driver and tell him I want to go back out...
> 
> ...


Sounds very much like a typical Egyptian to me.......you should have heard it all by now saying as you have lived there a long time.....but do you not find the longer you live there the more it starts to irritate you.


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## canuck2010 (Jan 13, 2010)

Sounds like you have too many drivers, firing one or two of them should motivate the remaining.


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## MensEtManus (Jul 30, 2009)

The laziness here is incredible. I also have a similar strategy like you where "supposedly" I have a backup to each worker/employee. 

I find many folks here assume that because they are alive I should pay them a salary. The part where they are supposed to work is optional.


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## txlstewart (Jun 20, 2010)

MensEtManus said:


> The laziness here is incredible. I also have a similar strategy like you where "supposedly" I have a backup to each worker/employee.
> 
> I find many folks here assume that because they are alive I should pay them a salary. The part where they are supposed to work is optional.


LOL! 

I had the opposite experience as a foreigner working at an "American" school that mostly had Egyptians as teachers and administrators. I was expected to clock in and out using a thumb print. If I was 5 min. early clocking out (in order to make the school bus), I was docked half a day. It did not matter that I took a cab into school so I could work in my classroom before school started. Foreign teachers were only allowed 3 days off all year, and we were docked for those days. I was expected to work at home at least 6 to 8 hours per weekend. They constantly shorted my pay, blaming the fluctuating exchange rate. If I was not at my bus stop, they would not wait.

HOWEVER, the Egyptian teachers were absent all the time, yet were paid. They would be up to 30 minutes late for the bus--the driver and matron would go to a convenience store and get a snack, smoke a cigarette, etc., while we all waited for the Egyptian teacher. They all had families here (obviously), so they were not expected to work at home as much as the foreign hires as we did not have our families with us.

I felt like chattel, and was thrilled to be able to escape there after a few months.


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

canuck2010 said:


> Sounds like you have too many drivers, firing one or two of them should motivate the remaining.




I don't have too many drivers... when my employer is in town I have to take on more drivers. Firing them would be no good.. there is no such thing here as motivation.


I went out this morning with the same driver from yesterday and told him to come back for me at 2pm... at 1.15pm he telephoned me to say he was sitting outside, this was not to tell me he was there that was to tell me to hurry up... I kept him waiting well past 2.


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