# UAE employees want work/life balance but many admit to being stressed



## Editor (Aug 20, 2009)

The majority of people working in the United Arab Emirates regard a good work/life balance as being important but many feel under stress every day, according to a new survey. On a day to day basis some 56% of employees in the UAE feel that they are either highly motivated or motivated 28% by the [...]

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Please come back to discuss the story here in this thread.


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## vantage (May 10, 2012)

An oddly written article. 
Would love to know the size and demographic of the sample.
Some of the statistics are frankly unbelievable!

It appears as a write up of a survey, without any analysis. xx% said this, xx% said that etc.

_"To help increase retention levels, the incentives that respondents claim are most important to them are monetary rewards (55%); *certificates (35%); *time off (19%);* medals, or plaques of achievement (14%*), and functional awards, such as gym memberships, discount vouchers and so on (13%)."_

really? people want a plaque before cash reward?!

_"A further 72% believe that their work is important to their country of residence"_

This is odd, too. The number of businesses and industries that are here for regional or tax purposes rather than benefits to the UAE must be higher than 28%!


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## Scatterling (Apr 25, 2010)

vantage said:


> An oddly written article.
> Would love to know the size and demographic of the sample.
> Some of the statistics are frankly unbelievable!
> 
> ...


Yeah, I agree. What exactly is the point of the article anyway? Maybe someone had too much time on their hands? All those % stats are vague. I wonder how the questions were phrased and what the choices for answers were?


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## de Mexicaan (Apr 16, 2012)

If you did not read the article yet: don't. It is really not worth your time. Sorry.
Indeed the point of the artical is not clear, and the same counts for the way it is written.


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## Felixtoo2 (Jan 16, 2009)

Editor, has quite obviously never been to Dubai and regularly posts complete crap that insults the intelligence of Dubai Expats. Either he/she is a robot or someone who likes fishing because you will never find a follow up comment firm this poster. Prove me wrong Editor?


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## indoMLA (Feb 6, 2011)

They are stressed because keeping up with the Jones' is hard work in Dubai; has nothing to do with work.


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## Gavtek (Aug 23, 2009)

Surveys like this are always a waste of time. No-one's ever going to say that they don't want to be paid more or don't want to go home earlier.

Having said that, the plaque thing did make me smile, the amount of times you go into someone's office in a bank or government department, they have "recognition of satisfactory performance" or "achievement of HSE KPI's" plaques and ribbons everywhere, or if they're really lucky, a photograph of them shaking hands with their CEO.


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## vantage (May 10, 2012)

Gavtek said:


> "recognition of satisfactory performance"


This is now my ultimate goal in life!

I already have a letter rejecting my application to work in McDonald's in Dundee as a student. I'm very proud of that!


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## Gavtek (Aug 23, 2009)

vantage said:


> I already have a letter rejecting my application to work in McDonald's in Dundee as a student. I'm very proud of that!


Why was that? You didn't have 6 fingers on each hand so they didn't want to risk you scaring the customers?


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## vantage (May 10, 2012)

Gavtek said:


> Why was that? You didn't have 6 fingers on each hand so they didn't want to risk you scaring the customers?


i think i used a coherent sentence..


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## thickodicko (Nov 13, 2012)

as a former McDonald's Northern Employee of the Quarter I take offence!



actually, I don't... I was 17 and still cleaned up (literally and metaphorically)

(obviously I still write that achievement on my CV!)


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## Roadworrier (Jul 3, 2012)

de Mexicaan said:


> If you did not read the article yet: don't. It is really not worth your time. Sorry.
> Indeed the point of the artical is not clear, and the same counts for the way it is written.


Reminds me of the golden era of the Khaleej Times about 7-8 years ago, "your favorite number 1 newspaper". A great place for journalism dropouts and editors who use Google Translate to interpret Arabic press releases from government agencies. They had some of the most stupid polls I ever saw.......for example, "Are you going to celebrate Valentines Day? 11% Yes, 14% No, 75% Don't Know". The other story I recall was this about Arabic pastries being served during Eid that were named after famous people, and that the most popular ones were named after Osama Bin Laden. Then they had this editor who was trying write like the UAE version of Andy Rooney. He must be doing better selling Mazdas these days.


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