Why do Saudi government employees leave work early?

Why do Saudi government employees leave work early?

November 11, 2016
Salim Ahmad Sahab
Salim Ahmad Sahab

Salim Ahmad SahabSalim Ahmad Sahab


IN a recent public debate on the MBC channel, Saudi Minister of Civil Service Khaled Al-Araj said many Saudi government employees only work for an hour each day and that this figure was based on studies.

The Mayor of Madinah has recently made it compulsory for all staff in Al-Madinah Municipality to record their fingerprints five times a day to ensure that employees are at work and do not leave early. In fact, many government employees leave the workplace many times every day, citing different excuses. The use of the word “many” here is unhelpful because this word does not indicate figures or percentages.

Let me mention some of the excuses employees give for leaving their place of work. Some are relatively acceptable while others are not. Some employees have children to pick up from school or have wives or sisters to pick up from the workplace and drop at home.

However, other employees leave the workplace to go to cafés for coffee or to go grocery shopping. I wonder why they opt to go shopping when at work. Is this the only time they have? What about the rest of the day, what do they do with it?

Most employees take permission to leave the workplace to pick up their children or wives. By the way, this issue is an old one and has been debated several times. It dates back at least six decades. There has never been a practical solution for it. For example, there are no school buses to transport students although we have read many times in newspapers that a transportation company is to be set up to transport them.

There is another solution to this problem, but it is unlikely that it would be accepted by teachers, male or female. School hours could be extended to 3 pm. In this case, a government employee would not have to leave early to pick up his wife who is a schoolteacher. In fact, this is not a new solution. It has been suggested several times, but it has not been discussed seriously, let alone implemented on the ground.

If both solutions are impractical, another solution should be found. I have a simple solution: microbuses and busses owned by citizens. The Ministry of Transport should facilitate the implementation of this solution and stop relying solely on public transport buses, which cannot meet the huge demand for transportation.


November 11, 2016
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