It's the great workplace debate of our time: working from home vs return to the office.
Companies want their staff back - at least for some of the week.
And with many government restrictions now lifted, employees have few excuses - though a recent rise in cases to 2,000-plus per day calls for caution.
Many companies, including their bosses, have also seen the benefits of working from home, with improved productivity and staff on-hand for longer hours.
But where does everyone stand legally?
We spoke to lawyers and workplace experts to find out.
Do UAE employees have the right to work from home?
From a legal perspective, companies are well within their rights to tell staff to come back to the workplace.
“All employment contracts in the UAE include a ‘place of work’ clause, which state that the employee will be working from an employers’ premises,” said Sara Khoja, employment partner at law firm Clyde & Co.
Following government directives to work from home to curb the spread of Covid-19 in 2020, workplaces have steadily been allowed to increase the number of occupants.
Ms Khoja said in a place like Dubai, where authorities are allowing for 100 per cent capacity, a company is in “quite a strong position” to say everyone must come back to the office.
“An employee can only legally resist that mandate if they have a valid medical reason that puts themselves and their co-workers at risk,” she said.
“They would have to be in a high-risk category, like being a cancer patient for example, because then it becomes a health and safety issue.”
She said an employee has no legal grounds for refusing to come back to the office just because they feel they’re more productive working remotely.
What laws do employers need to follow?
There are various steps companies need to take before they can welcome people back into their physical office space again.
Based on which emirate they’re in, businesses must adhere to the capacity regulations which dictate what percentage of their workforce they are legally allowed to have in their office.
We're seeing a lot of organisations that are very eager to go back to how things were before. It's short-sighted because you're almost writing off all the great benefits
For Dubai, that's been full capacity since last June for both the public and private sector, while Abu Dhabi recently doubled its workplace capacity for government employees from 30 to 60 per cent.
Meanwhile, private companies in the capital can still have only 30 per cent of their workforce back. For most of the Northern Emirates, it’s still between 30 and 60 per cent.
Employers are also expected to ensure that there is a distance of at least 2 metres between all desks and workspaces.
For many in office towers, for example, that could mean a physical reconfiguration or bringing staff in on alternate days.
Return to the office? A global debate
The ‘work from home’ versus ‘return to the office’ debate continues to run on.
This week, it was Apple chief executive Tim Cook who received a backlash from his staff after announcing that he wanted them to return to the office from September.
According to The Verge, dozens of Apple employees signed a letter expressing their frustration over the instruction to do three days per week in their offices.
"Without the inclusivity that flexibility brings, many of us feel we have to choose between either a combination of our families, our well-being, and being empowered to do our best work, or being a part of Apple,” the letter said.
As recently reported by The National, businesses across the UAE are turning to a hybrid working model for the long-term as staff return to the office.
Many employers see the benefits, while some fear losing, or failing to attract, the brightest talent to companies with more flexible policies.
However, not all are so flexible.
“We’re also seeing a lot of organisations that are very eager to go back to how things were before and have everyone back in the office full time,” said Ramy Bayyour, regional director at CIPD, a professional body for HR and people development.
“It’s short-sighted because you’re almost writing off all the great benefits we have seen over the last year from offering people that flexibility.”
Mr Bayyour said that in some cases, a lack of trust between employers and their employees led bosses to get their teams back into the office at the first opportunity.
Flexible working: Let's meet halfway
Some employees The National interviewed spoke of their relief at getting back to their office workplace.
It provided the chance to normalise working hours once again, and put a limit on back-to-back Zoom calls.
“The pandemic has taught us that we don’t need to be at the office all the time in order to work productively,” said Steve Severence, a project manager in Abu Dhabi who was asked to start working full time from the office in March.
He said there are some parts of his job, such as making personal connections with clients, that are better done face-to-face. The ideal working week for him would be to spend three days in the office and two days remotely.
However, Mr Severence said his request to switch to that model was met with resistance by his employer.
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Best global remote working places - in pictures
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For Dubai-based accountant Imran Dhalla, working from home full-time when the pandemic first hit last year was initially ideal because it gave him the work-life balance he craved.
“At first I fell in love with WFH, but with time I realised that I was overworking since I had my laptop in front of me the entire time,” said Mr Dhalla.
“The ideal scenario is a hybrid system because it gives you flexibility, while at the same time it also provides that social component of meeting people in the office.”
Recognising anxiety and stress
Whether it’s on a full-time or hybrid basis, HR experts say the onus is on employers to ease their workforce back into the office.
“Having staff come back overnight can have a toll on their mental well-being,” said Mr Bayyour.
“Many people haven’t been around large groups of people for a while, and that could lead to things like social anxiety and stress.”
He also said it’s important for bosses to communicate to their staff that those who are still working remotely will not be favoured over those who are back in the office.
“What we don’t want is that mentality where if my manager sees me in my cubicle, it means I’m working and I’ll get called into meetings but if I’m working from home, I won’t,” said Mr Bayyour.
“There needs to be a level of fairness and inclusivity.”
Fixtures (6pm UAE unless stated)
Saturday Bournemouth v Leicester City, Chelsea v Manchester City (8.30pm), Huddersfield v Tottenham Hotspur (3.30pm), Manchester United v Crystal Palace, Stoke City v Southampton, West Bromwich Albion v Watford, West Ham United v Swansea City
Sunday Arsenal v Brighton (3pm), Everton v Burnley (5.15pm), Newcastle United v Liverpool (6.30pm)
Company info
Company name: Entrupy
Co-founders: Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder/chief executive, Ashlesh Sharma, co-founder/chief technology officer, Lakshmi Subramanian, co-founder/chief scientist
Based: New York, New York
Sector/About: Entrupy is a hardware-enabled SaaS company whose mission is to protect businesses, borders and consumers from transactions involving counterfeit goods.
Initial investment/Investors: Entrupy secured a $2.6m Series A funding round in 2017. The round was led by Tokyo-based Digital Garage and Daiwa Securities Group's jointly established venture arm, DG Lab Fund I Investment Limited Partnership, along with Zach Coelius.
Total customers: Entrupy’s customers include hundreds of secondary resellers, marketplaces and other retail organisations around the world. They are also testing with shipping companies as well as customs agencies to stop fake items from reaching the market in the first place.
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
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First Test, Dubai International Stadium
Sun Oct 6 to Thu Oct 11
Second Test, Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
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1 Mohammed Hafeez, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Asad Shafiq, 5 Haris Sohail, 6 Babar Azam, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed, 8 Bilal Asif, 9 Yasir Shah, 10, Mohammed Abbas, 11 Wahab Riaz or Mir Hamza
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- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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Bantamweight: Jalal Al Daaja (JOR) beat Hamza Bougamza (MAR)
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Lightweight: Abdullah Mohammed Ali (UAE) beat Abdelhak Amhidra (MAR)
Catchweight 73kg: Mosatafa Ibrahim Radi (PAL) beat Yazid Chouchane (ALG)
Middleweight: Yousri Belgaroui (TUN) beat Badreddine Diani (MAR)
Catchweight 78KG: Rashed Dawood (UAE) beat Adnan Bushashy (ALG)
Middleweight: Sallah-Eddine Dekhissi (MAR) beat Abdel Enam (EGY)
Catchweight 65kg: Yanis Ghemmouri (ALG) beat Rachid Hazoume (MAR)
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Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
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