The region’s top developers have been shedding hundreds of jobs over the past two months in order to cut costs in the face of a regional real estate bubble burst. Damac (200 jobs cut), Nakheel (500 jobs cut) and Dubai Properties (estimated 600 jobs cut) have all made staff redundant, while other major developers such as Emaar are still reported to be reviewing their staff numbers.
However, the most disconcerting aspect related to the job cuts at some of the largest real estate employers was the fact that they seemed to have been caught completely unaware by the magnitude of the crisis. “We were told more than once by upper management that we have nothing to worry about,” said Raja Khouri, former senior public relations executive at Dubai Properties. “What was told to us was, ‘We are going to cut all expenses, however, the one thing we are not going to do is fire employees.’ In fact, exactly one week before I was fired, the CEO of Dubai Properties gave a speech telling everyone not to worry in order to put us at ease.” Another senior executive at Dubai Properties who preferred to remain anonymous commented, “It just goes to show that they had their heads in the sand the whole time.”
Furthermore, the employees that were let go at some organizations appeared to be those that were deemed expendable and most costly. “The firings were based on two things. One was the tenure of how long people had been there. Everyone who was still on their probationary period of six months was let go. On top of that, all the highest paid people in their departments were let go, so all the seniors were let go,” said Khouri. “The three major senior managers in the marketing department were let go, moreover they kept all of their national employees.”
Severance practices were reported to have varied, but ultimately people have been put in a tough spot. “People that are getting fired are getting three months severance pay,” said Tarek Akkad, former IT policies & procedures coordinator at Nahkeel. Khouri added that: “They gave us one month severance pay as well as unused holiday days, which is the amount contracted to employees who spend more than one year in the company… Basically they are giving us what we are due, but they are not giving us anything on top of that.”
Leave on your own or get the boot
The process that some real estate developers took when it came time to give their employees the axe further pointed to desperation. “The director of each department gave the employees two notes. One note was a resignation letter and one was a termination letter and we were asked to choose which one we wanted to sign,” explained Khouri. Moreover, neither letter stipulated any reason why the staff was being laid-off. “We are still in discussions with the [former employer] in order to attain a specific reason for being made redundant,” said the source who formerly worked at Dubai Properties. “The fact that they are not acknowledging that they made some mistakes is what really leaves a bad taste in your mouth,” he said.
For many expats who work in the Gulf, the next few months will be crucial to finding out if they can hold onto their jobs or even find new ones. “I think that under normal circumstances, two months would have been enough time, but under these [economic] circumstances I don’t think it is going to be enough time. Now everyone who has been fired is looking for a job and nobody is hiring,” said Akkad. “I’m scrambling against the last three weeks of my visa validity to basically try and find something, because otherwise the bank will freeze my account, seize my car and probably take the money in my account. It’s just messy.” Indeed the mess that started only a few months ago in the US has begun to surface in the Middle East and only time will tell how many pieces of how many lives will have to be picked up, before this is all over.
