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28 March 2024

Majority of UAE employees positive about 2016

Published
By Staff

Professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) are looking forward to the New Year, according to the Bayt.com Holidays in the Mena workplace poll.

The vast majority of respondents (79.6 per cent) will be making career New Year’s resolutions. In fact, 30.4 per cent of them have already resolved to work harder next year.

Feelings about 2016 are very positive: 38.7 per cent describe their feelings as “very positive” and 33.2 per cent as “excited”, compared to only 19 per cent describing their feelings as “anxious” and 9.2 per cent as “neutral”.

Majority - 57.1 per cent say that the new calendar year affects their levels of excitement towards work, while only 31 per cent are “not affected at all”. An impressive 93 per cent of professionals believe in “reinventing oneself, career and/or life” and 83.1 per cent say they would like their career and life to be “very different” next year.

More than half of Mena companies (52.4 per cent) hold events to celebrate public holidays at least once a year, according to employed poll respondents, with 23.6 per cent of companies hosting several events throughout the year.

When asked about their working environment during holiday seasons, the majority of poll respondents (66.3 per cent) felt that the office environment is “more fun” during the holidays, with a third believing it is “a lot more fun”. A third of respondents also felt that the office environment “does not change” during the holidays.

More than half of employed Mena respondents feel that their productivity is not affected by the weather (57.5 per cent); however, 42.5 per cent are affected with 24.7 per cent stating that they “work best in spring/summer”, while 17.8 say that they “work best in fall/winter”.

The holiday season also affects productivity for 38.2 per cent of employed respondents, but with only 20.8 per cent saying that it is “affected to a large extent”.

A third deny that productivity is affected at all.  In fact, more than a third of poll respondents (34.1 per cent) “almost always” work on a public holiday, while 44.7 per cent “work occasionally”.  Only 21.2 per cent said that they do not work during public holidays at all.

When it comes to favourite holiday activities for employees around the Mena region, travel tops the list for 30.1 per cent of those surveyed. A sizable - 22.2 per cent claim to travel during “almost every holiday”, while 30.3 per cent travel once or twice a year.

Almost a third admit that they “rarely” travel for the holidays, while 18 per cent claim to “never travel” at all.  Other favourite holiday activities are “spending time with family” (21.3 per cent); “going out with friends” (15.2 per cent); and “partaking in outdoor activities” (10.9 per cent).