By Ibrahim Muhammad Badawood
BASED on studies relating to the workplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, 80 percent of workers believe that Ramadan leads to a boost in their morale in the workplace, 44.5 percent said that their productivity was unaffected in the holy month, while 55 percent mentioned that Ramadan did not lead to important decisions or meetings being cancelled or postponed to after the month.
The situation over here, however, is different. As soon as Ramadan begins, the laziness begins. Workers go to work late and their productivity decreases as a result of them fasting. Even the workday decreases from 8 to 5 hours. Some workers in Ramadan stay up late all night and do not sleep except for a few hours after the Fajr prayer. They then wake up exhausted and use Ramadan as an excuse to not work properly. This is exactly what came out of a study that stated 74.7 percent of respondents find that productivity in Ramadan is very low, while 46.4 percent of them strongly agreed with the statement. Some of them think that this common belief might be the result of less working hours in Ramadan. This might be the case but many workers become busy doing other things such as shopping and praying etc.
Ramadan is the month of work and achieving something. Some workers consider Ramadan as a great opportunity for working and gaining more money. They even believe that Ramadan is a unique opportunity to achieve more. It is a month that comes only once a year and so we should try our best to overcome whatever obstacles we face to make Ramadan a month of productivity instead of idleness.
Ramadan is an extraordinary chance for those who know exactly how to spend it correctly, those who discover the great amount of energy they have. They can work, pray and do many other tasks while fasting. Without Ramadan, we would not realize what we as humans are capable of. We should be cheerful during this holy month and aim at developing our abilities to increase our productivity throughout the whole year.
