scrubbedexpat141

How busy are you all at the moment?
Good / bad / indifferent?
Noticed much change?
Busy in different places?

Just curious and hoping you all have a fantastic day.

UKCityGent

Im actually pretty free - I reckon working utilisation is probably 40-50% (most of it self inflicted) - I reckon the whole organisation is working at 30-40% utilisation due to our business strategy changing, the markets, and overstaffing !

weasel decentral

Busy though a lot of it is bullshit work. Getting less busy personally though that's because I have finally eroded the spirit of the staff and moulded them into the way I want them to work

Current client is running out of money so I see a blow up on the horizon, do I care? Do I ****

Bonus week this week so fingers crossed I won't have to machine gun everyone in the head office later

scrubbedexpat141

I'm swamped but a lot of stuff is outside the region. Trip to India in a few weeks, then UK the following. Probably Singapore not much further down the line.

Locally the big programme we have is kicking up a gear so that'll keep me busy in Dubai hopefully. Saudi seems to be a big target market as the spending ramps up.

In fact...I've not actually ever worked this hard. Genuinely. I spend so much time doing work I don't have time to dick around or annoy people on here as much as I could.

Millhouse

Not as busy as I want to be. I reckon about 40pct load and most of that is internal bullshit. Some of the people in the office are totally idle.

I have three deals in various stages of development that could result in a very successful year; or the internal politics and bullshit could kill them resulting in a terrible year. I’m not in control of the outcome, sadly. If it goes the wrong way it could be me done in Dubai.

My package is also coming to an end this year; and I will be moved from a premium local staff to either a standard local or an international expat on a featherbed package. Oddly both result in an effective 20pct pay cut. I’m going to ask for local as I prefer to have compensation in the form of pay rather than benefits... if I’m still here.

IKnowNothing

Gip.

I do hope that was a piss-take comment and you don't actually sign off emails etc. with that comment?

UKCityGent

Ouch sounds like a harsh drop (unless you were 20% overpaid in the beginning).

scrubbedexpat141

I had money in my mind on your or one other poster in particular to pick up on that and take it the wrong way, say something shitty or just generally be negative about it. Wishing people a pleasant day is just being nice.

Note: I don't finish emails with it, nor do I start emails with 'hope you're well'.

Irishbeekeeper

50% workload of what it used to be and 50% sales which means we are making half of what we used to. Am waiting for the Post ramazan slash in rents etc to make huge cost cuts to bring the overheads down. Its all about surviving this year but in all honesty I dont see it coming back up now. The UAE population overall in my opinion will be much much less in 5 years than what it is now as a lot of them will either leave or be asked to leave. Less numbers obviously means less commerce so yeah. By the by a lot of the boys sitting in Jebel Ali etc are pretty happy as their sales has increased (no VAT there) so maybe I should look into setting up a small virtual thing there.

DXBtoDOH

I reckon I'm at 80% utilisation. But only 20% utilisation is for GCC work.

Sort of like what Scamp's going through!

Qatar is deader than the carcass of a dodo bird in a pond filled with alligators. The two main contracts we have locally are coming to an end within the next six months and that's bad news for most of the local staff as there's no replacements on the horizons beyond vague promises by our big client of another mega project perfect for us. But company has issues with the same client (payment, natch) so I'm not sure if they're keen to chase it. Suspect there will be a massive culling later this year but unfortunately I'll probably survive it.

Millhouse

If I’m totally objective, it’s a bit of both. Still it’s not nice to see but I’m going to suck it up.

All in I reckon it will be about 16pct cut if we factor in a 4pct rise this year thanks to VAT.

jam25mack

I'm pretty quiet at the moment and just cruising along nicely. It's actually quite nice to be able to close out paperwork which I have been delaying. One of my looooong term projects is programmed for completion at the end of the year which could be an issue, however, we are in for quite a few other big projects so I'm not that concerned........yet. Enjoying it if I'm honest as I can see it all getting a bit mental sometime relatively soon..... to the point that my line manager is asking me what leave I have planned for the year (this is rare).

ExpatAl

Working in sales, it's as busy as you want it to be! Probably on 60%

Bumper Q1 for me and commission bonus has just been paid. Although as it comes closer to Ramadan, sales are slowing and it's increasingly hard to book meetings

Doesn't help that motivation is low and the company has a culture of complacency (that I'm trying to change...)

DXBtoDOH

Oh, you poor thing.

TheShed

Working harder than I have for the last 3 years, but thats probably due to starting a new company and striving to get it off the ground.

Usually 40% of my business is in UAE and that has probably dropped to 10% so loads more traveling Africa taking off big time.