When I first came to the UAE I was strictly speaking, a salaried employee but my status and security were such that I might just as well have been a contractor. Gone on a whim and at a moment's notice with no comeback. Our labour laws here make employed expats little more than indentured servants and most would in fact be better off on freelance contracts - except the local laws make that hard and the business culture doesn't understand paying for time.
I've been back freelancing for two and a half years now. It's much tougher than in Europe and I'm barely making a long term living. I had one serious contract from a British client but the work for locals has been unsatisfying to say the least.
We have no insolvency laws here but we do have very strict laws about getting into debt and passing bad cheques. You will go to prison. And since the recession many have. So how is it clients continually get away with incredibly slow payments and invariably never paying you in full? Government and official organisations are the worst of all delaying for a year or more and then short paying. You have no practical comeback. So you build it into the price and take a lot of your money upfront. Of course that makes it harder to get work. And puts prices up since you need to allow for the costs of collections in your price.
But then what's the point of doing work and not getting paid? And no one seems ashamed. It's near universal.
It wasn't always thus. It seems wealth has made the current generation of local business people not just more stand offish but more arrogant and self centred. Perhaps that's the penalty for being in a tiny minority in your own country.
If so it is even more important to look to a future not so dependent on cheap imported labour. Time to embrace technology; a hard work ethic; a willingness to build and not expect to start at the top; and adopt a culture of learning not using.
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