Speculations have been surfacing from earlier this year that the United Arab Emirates will soon be changing its official weekends from Friday and Saturday to Saturday and Sunday. Nothing was confirmed until today, with the UAE government Twitter account posting the breaking news just minutes ago. The Tweet also mentions that Friday, which is known as an Islamic holy day, will only be a half day.
#UAE announces today that it will transition to a four and a half day working week, with Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday forming the new weekend.
All Federal government departments will move to the new weekend from January 1, 2022. pic.twitter.com/tQoa22pai9
— UAEGOV (@UAEmediaoffice) December 7, 2021
According to Bloomberg, the change will be effective as of January 1st 2022, and it is specific to the public sector. It is still not clear whether or not the new change will be implemented into the private sector, but we predict that private businesses will soon follow.
The UAE, as well as Saudi Arabia and the majority of Middle Eastern countries, have been observing the weekend from Friday to Saturday for years, whilst North African countries such as Tunisia and Morocco observe their weekends from Saturday to Sunday. We predict that this change comes due to the clash of working days from countries in the West, as this change will surely make it easier for businesses and corporations in the UAE to work with international companies.
This change will also make it easier for those with families abroad to get on similar schedules. We don’t know about you but we certainly can’t wait for a 4 and a half day week!
Stay tuned for more updates.
