Just Back Report - Working In Qatar

1. INTRODUCTION- posting 1 of 5

My contribution

This is my first contribution to Qatar Living and I'm not sure how it will be received. I offer this 'just back report' of my experience of working in the Gulf in the hope that there is some benefit from it and that a forum and discussion threads develop about all aspects of working life in the region.

Coming to an entirely new culture to work you need a guide such as other people's experience, websites, books etc. If you come from an entirely different culture and/or a first world country you need constant advice about what and how you need to work within this culture. I hope a wide and varied range of accounts like this contribute to a body of knowledge for those who are coming to the region. For those already working here to talk about work and cultural issues can be sensitive and some may prefer a dedicated forum in which they can put their experience out there for others to learn from and to get insight, ideas and advice. We've come to the region to work and presumably want to make the experience as productive and positive as possible; and I see a forum like this as providing a much needed and valuable service for those who need this sort of information.

Dedication

This is dedicated to people coming to live and work in the region with all sorts of reasons, aspirations and backgrounds. I hope this record of my experience and observations is helpful and above all I hope this account alleviates unnecessary stress and suffering for those who may need the perspective of other's experience and when they have no-one to talk to. Further I hope many more people contribute to this approach so that a rich and varied body of experience, insights and advice is available for readers. Obviously an account like this must be strictly anonymous and I do not want to enter into a lengthy or ongoing discussion. I simply hope this account is useful.

Structure

What follows has been divided into sections and topics which can be read individually or as an overall story. It will be posted in five (5) sections over the next so many days as they are completed to make it easier to insert into the website.

So where to start ….and how do I balance and be fair and pick out those things that telling or unique to this culture and which at the same time we all recognise from working life anywhere? Being a westerner from a first world country it was never going to be a case of bolting first world country systems and professionalism onto a completely different operational base and culture. As the two worlds and ways of operating come together there has to be a dialogue to better understand the nature of the interface and how it can work. It is my intention that this account of my experiences will also contribute to this.

Overview

This account commenced as an attempt to describe my experience in the Gulf. How did the story unfold and what were the themes? What do I want to point out and why? What were the issues, the incidents, the themes? What did I learn? How much and what was really new in my experience and how much had I experienced before. The simple answer is much of what I have to relay is about politics and how it impacts on day-to-day professional life. I've decided to focus on this because it is the prime driver of much of what happens but also because when people ask about working life in the Gulf they tend to receive fairly nuts and bolts answers about working hours, visas, pay, offers etc. There is a large information gap about this other and important aspect of working life and therefore this account tries to provide an overview of this issue based on my experience. It is a very important issue because we've all been employed to provide expertise yet even before we provide expertise we have to negotiate the politics that are in any work place, organisation or culture. I hope this account gives a good insight into some of the dynamics that drive professional life in this environment and there is no doubt that most or all of what I describe happens in the west, but some of it I personally had never experienced and therefore it was new for me. For a westerner working in the Gulf is a bit like getting accustomed to the roads and drivers. In the west we are used to orderly, legislated, monitored driving environment with low accidents and fatalities. In comparison driving on the roads in the Gulf was dangerous with crazy drivers from all sorts of backgrounds and driving codes, accidents, fatalities and an anything goes mentality. In a nutshell it was the developed and orderly versus the rapidly developing and disorderly (in comparison). However it was more than this, as there were clear cultural differences and in many ways the Middle East was the polar opposite to what I was accustomed to.

It's their culture

This is a big consideration and how do you fit into the local culture and way of doing things and what exactly do they want from you and your culture? You need to understand their culture but who are 'they' if the nationals comprise only a small proportion of the population. The culture is Middle East, Gulf, Arab (etc) but who else is in the mix and what does this mean in your working life? Therefore your view of the culture can be highly skewed by these realities and it really comes down to the key individuals who influence your working life. I was working in a small team and we were surrounded by and interfaced largely with other expats and in real terms we didn't have a lot of face to face time or interaction with nationals. What you gleaned about the culture was through the organisation, the team, other long time expat workers and the key managers who were nationals. I was lucky enough to have a short period of interface with nationals and this gave me another perspective again. However, at the end of the day you will notice cultural differences, despite all of these obscurations.

Putting the experience in context

You have to be fair and logical and put your experience in context and I spent many hours sifting through my experiences, pondering and checking. In the Gulf there was much that I experienced that was 'not new' and most of the time it was a case of 'seen it and heard it before' but there was also that which was unique in my experience. Organisation cultures vary widely and what is black in one organisation is white in the other; and even within the same organisation teams can have very different dynamics and often it comes down to the impact of key individuals. Any large project like the one I was working on can be riddled with politics and there may be factional interests at play. Any workplace can be subject to individuals or groups jostling for power and influence. Further, there is a lot of diversity in the Gulf due to the range of nationalities all with their own traits, so it can be difficult to generalise about a particular culture and even within the nationals some are more westernised where others are more traditional. I came from a first-world country with well developed systems and the country in which I was working in comparison was a rapidly 'developing country'. Therefore much of what I have to relay must be balanced against 'what is to be expected' in the circumstances and I really want to stress this. One of the key reasons I spent hours on this account was an attempt to come to a balanced and peaceful resolution in my own mind of my experience. Therefore this account should at the same time remind you of what you already know or suspect and have experienced or heard about and how it is quite different.

Project context

Whilst there is much that is typical and to be expected, the situation I relay in this account is possibly unusual. In general terms it was a large national project, with a new and existing team as well as an external team from a range of cultures and backgrounds with different areas of expertise. Management were under resourced and under pressure because in addition to the workload it was a highly reactive environment and when certain things came up others had to be dropped - immediately. As a result there didn't seem to be much of a plan and things changed and happened on a daily basis and in general they appeared to be making it up as they went along. Therefore new team members could arrive and be sitting around for weeks before anyone got to them. Some team members were overseen daily by a supervisor while others received little or no supervision, guidance or support. There could be three people working on one document, while someone sitting next to them was working on a major document on their own. There were glaring inconsistencies and uneven management and resource allocation and some staff got attention and resources and some didn't. However this uneven and contradictory approach carried through to a whole raft of other issues on the project.

General comments

There are certain key things or drivers in this environment which appear to influence many other things. In any workplace it is usually politics first and professionalism second but in the Gulf this was even more the case and everything seemed to be underpinned and amplified by politics. Possibly this is because of the fast rate of growth, constant change, few systems and general growing pains. Therefore new and expanding teams from very different backgrounds and large, complex projects meant that it was never going to be a case of 'just add water and mix'. This was an unrealistic expectation and such volatile environments are going to experience dynamics within teams and between individuals and some degree of turbulence. Leeway was needed but in fact it is a culture with very tight margins of error regarding acceptable behaviour, body language, conversations, professional input.....anything. As a result there was real tension between independent professional advice and professionalism, the reason we were brought on board and the group culture and thinking. In the absence of western style management systems and practices, there was complete reliance on relationships between key people and informal information networks. This dynamic was exacerbated by a top down hierarchy with a few trusted workers/assistants liaising between the most senior management and the rest of the staff who may rarely deal with senior management. The relationships approach and the top down structure caused a lot of issues and this in turn impacted upon the next major driver, a general lack of thoroughness and objectivity. Since information networks were informal and personal and only a handful of key people liaised with senior management or had their 'ear', the views decision makers developed of situations were skewed by these information networks. There was no attempt at obtaining all the pertinent facts or a balanced overview of situations. Of course one can be a trusted assistant or source of information and lack all the pertinent facts and objectivity, something which either didn't occur or didn't matter. The highly buffered interface between senior decision makers and the rest of staff was further exacerbated by a communication style and process that is veiled, partial and indirect. Over a period of time you will be told things (and often not) but you will begin to notice inconsistencies, double standards and a gap between what you're told and what actually happens. You need to carefully observe, talk and reason through these issues and situations. Further what you are told can vary and you can hear divergent opinions about the same situation, person or issue. Therefore the 'system' runs on relationships, information networks and factions and this is further exacerbated by the viewpoints of different cultures and backgrounds. Build your networks, don't take anything at face value and be careful of what you say. Above all be on your guard because this is an environment where things may not be as they seem. It is very much a veiled way of operating and the best protection is the safety of the group or not revealing your hand. The public face and explanation (if you get one) may mask a different reality behind the scenes.