DR. ALI AL-GHAMDI NOBODY denies that it is the God-given right of every Saudi to find a job in his own country. Nobody contests the fact that priority in employment should be given to Saudi citizens. Nobody argues that it is the duty of society to create job opportunities for Saudi men and women according to their skills, capabilities and qualifications. It is the duty of employed Saudi citizens to do their job with sincerity, loyalty and competence without complaining, resorting to slackness or degrading their position. It is also the duty of the government and society to provide training facilities, rehabilitation programs and incentives to encourage employees to do their work properly and efficiently. Employers should provide new employees with orientation programs and properly introduce them to the work they will be doing. New employees should not be reprimanded for the small mistakes they may make while learning how to do their jobs. They should be corrected and shown the best way of carrying out their duties. As for the employees, they should not neglect their duties or show any slackness in performing their assignment. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) says that Allah will hold the individual accountable for properly doing the job which he is paid to do. He also says that Allah asks all of us to perfect the work we are doing. Laws and legislation ensuring the rights of both employees and the employers should be drafted. The employer should create a healthy work atmosphere, provide sufficient training and provide adequate financial incentives. At the same time, he should not shy away from punishing employees who are lazy or who are not willing to do their jobs properly. The punishment should be gradual starting with salary cuts and the prevention of promotion and raises. The punishment should culminate in dismissal and in a refusal to give the dismissed employees certificates of release and good conduct. This is the way that things should be, but what do we find in reality? Regrettably we find that some Saudi employees (I say some so as to be fair and avoid generalization) show arrogance and think that they are above their colleagues. They come to the office late, leave early, look for reasons to delay work and create lame excuses to avoid doing the tasks they have been assigned to do. They are not ready to take the blame for their substandard performance and are quick to place the blame on others or on the work conditions and the low salary. This is negativity in every sense of the word. Who would dare blame the employer who refuses to increase the salary of such an employee, to give him bonuses or even to have confidence in him? The employer will wait for the right opportunity to get rid of such an employee. I am saying this from personal experience. I recently wanted to renew my car insurance policy. I went to one of the offices of the insurance company for this purpose. The employee shocked me by saying that the computer system was down. I asked him when the system was expected to be fixed and in an unfriendly manner, he answered that he had absolutely no idea. I asked him to direct me to the nearest branch of the company where I could renew my policy and he described an office which was very far away. I later discovered that there was in fact another office nearby. At any rate, I went to the office he directed me to and queued for an hour. When my turn arrived, I approached the employee with all the required papers in my hand. I told the employee that I wanted to renew my car insurance policy but he asked me to come back the next day as the concerned employee was absent that day. I pleaded with him but to no avail; he would not budge. He said it was not his job to renew policies but to hand out the newly issued ones. The next day I went to a third office where the employee asked to see my driving license. I told him that I brought the car, its registration papers and my driving license when I first took out an insurance policy and that all of this data had been stored in the computer. However, the man insisted that he had to have the license which I did not have with me at the time, so I had to come back a third day to finish a simple job which could have been done in less than an hour. In the end, it took me three days to renew my car insurance policy. I have had a number of similar experiences and so have friends of mine. One of them told me that he went to a shopping mall to buy some commodities and when he wanted to pay, he found a single cashier with a long line of customers. He asked why there were not more cashiers and was told that one of them was sick, the second did not show up for work that day, the third took permission to leave early and the fourth was absent. My friend had to wait for a long time to reach the lone cashier. He suggested that women cashiers be appointed because they are more disciplined than men. Finally, I have to say that this is unacceptable and illogical behavior. We have to make efforts to change this mentality. We have to inculcate the culture of the love and respect of work in our society. Parents should make their children aware of the importance of work ethics and culture. They should train them to do simple jobs and bring them up not to disdain any kind of work as long as it is honorable. Schools should complete this task. The mosque should complement the roles of both the home and the school. In their sermons, the imams of mosques should spread awareness among the congregation instead of focusing on political and sectarian issues which only serve the enemies of the country. — Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]
