Study: UAE, Saudi employees are overworked

A new study conducted in the UAE and Saudi Arabia by LinkedIn reveals that most employees feel overworked, reports Gulf News.

The study surveyed 1,005 adult respondents who identified themselves as full-time permanent employees, full-time self-employed, or freelancers. According to the survey, 65 per cent of employees feel overworked due to various factors such as bosses that don’t grant leave, immense volume of work that makes it difficult to plan a holiday and a mistrust in co-workers’ ability to hold down the fort.

As a result, a significant part of the millennial workforce in the UAE (45 per cent) and Saudi Arabia (24 per cent) do not use all their holiday time. In the UAE, employees are entitled to 30 days of annual leave if they have completed one year of service. Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, employees are allowed up to 30 days of leave if they have spent five consecutive years in the company.

Only 37 per cent of UAE respondents took 26 to 30 days of leave in 2018 while in Saudi Arabia this number was ten per cent lower. UAE respondents cited having “too much work to do” and “no one to fill in” as reasons for not using all their allowed vacation days.

Furthermore, only five per cent of those on leave in the UAE and seven per cent in Saudi Arabia took a real break from work, disconnecting from work emails and phone calls. This trend was also present in younger generations with almost 70 per cent of millennials aged 18-38 reporting to have been in contact with co-workers while on holiday.

The results point to employees being at risk of experiencing burnout because of this lack of holiday time. Many respondents expressed interest in taking a pay cut in exchange for more vacation time.

In response to the results, head of LinkedIn MENA Ali Matar urged companies to “review the survey outcomes to be best positioned to attract and maintain talent,” highlighting how the UAE and Saudi markets are “the two biggest and most attractive to talent in the region,” making the survey especially pertinent.

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