There are a few things I don’t seem to understand..
-Why do some people complain that they are overworked and underpaid and go on to work overtime?
-Why do we spend almost two decades of our lives in school trying to understand thousands upon thousands of ideals and concepts but rarely do we give ourselves the space and time to overstand and become innovative?
-Why do we undermine people to make them less important whilst we underline text to make it more important?
Allow me to answer your questions, although I am no intellectual on such areas but depend on what I had experienced thus far:
1. I notice the same thing with some of the employees I work with, complaining the same way. Problem is: a) employees dont know their full rights and obligations as employees and what they truly deserve, b) employees dont know the basic work ethics and work standards in companies, hence expectations or often conflicted between employer and employee, c) Bahrainis in general unfortunately learnt the concept of patience to a very bad degree that even if people step on them, they cant do anything about it and blame the economy for no available jobs out there (which is quite in the contrary there are LOTS of opportunities)
2. academic standards in today’s Bahraini universities are quite disappointing. I would think twice before employing a local university graduate and always go with Bahrainis who graduated from well-known accredited universities from abroad. the high school system is disastrous to say the least and nothing is done about it. If you think about it, most of the people I know or saw throughout my life went through school the easy way (being at certain ‘easy’ schools, get HIGH GPA’s, get into tough universities abroad only to skip it as it’s ‘tough’ and lounge for 4-6 years of waste until they get an ‘acceptabe’ degree or the type that skips going abroad (due to high costs) and ends up in ‘easy’ universities (which parents by the way really recommend for some stupid reason) get to do with 1-2 courses each semester, ‘buys’ into the degree only to be pushed into a ‘hard-realistic’ world where the person is simply NOT ready, or the ones who do their best in school and university only to clash with employers due to their attitude (something you dont get taught in school or university unfortunately) and it tends to reflect the up-bringing you have been through, which unfortunately here in Bahrain I hear some really sad and tough stories of neglect and carelessness. So to answer your question, there is NO ‘guiding light’ or ‘advice’ given at anytime of a person’s life (not the family, not the school, not the university) and when they go into the workplace, people are simply not ready to face what’s expected from them.
3. sometimes we undermine people to shock them into understanding that UNTIL they get their act together, they wont be of much value in the workplace. Companies (within the strictness of the law) have the right to dispense people and hire as they see fit for the company. This concept is quite tough for some to swallow. Some unfortunately have TOO much pride in themselves that they find themselves difficult to work with in such circumstances and resort to working in ‘familiar’ surroundings, i.e. family-owned business or similar.
I suggest for the government to create a crash course (which is mandatory and repeatable every 2 years) for ALL Bahrainis for the purpose of the following:
1. get them updated with work ethics, laws, obligations of employee/employer in Bahrain
2. get them updated with the latest of trends in business and take 1 or 2 global case studies to learn from
3. for each employee to review his value and skill-set and makes sure to enroll to new training programs to keep the employee ever more valuable as the years go by.
Unfortunately right now in Bahrain, it’s a clash of expectations, people think they are doing/working ALOT and deserve something, while in reality they are NO WHERE NEAR what companies expect of them. I think this is error in part of companies who don’t teach such expectations to employees and the government to accept the situation of academia as it is in Bahrain today, being below par in international standards and doing enough to train and make the average Bahraini more valuable for employers to employ.
hope this helps.
Firstly, thank you for your very insightful comment and taking it from a business/work ethic point of view
I must agree with you in all you said, as for Bahraini employees not knowing their rights and duties etc.. the civil service bureau actually have a “crash course” on such matters but they don’t or can’t seem to get all the new employees in the goverment to attend this course. I would such a course should be given to new employees before they even step into their offices.
as for the new private universities, well to be frank they’re a joke and make UOB look like Oxford or Cambridge, and as we all know UOB needs a lot of work and extra funds..
Many thanks to you once again