Yesterday morning, I took time to type up some material of my Omani students in a piece entitled: Learn about our Omani Students & Changes in Oman through their writings.
In one of these works, one of my students had surprised me by writing this opinion of hers on Omanis as follows: She wrote specifically (in the revised draft in a piece on her grandparents) in stating, "They [Omanis] liked to work and [enjoyed] life." In an earlier version of the same work, this very same student had also indicated that both her grandparents and Omanis today "like to work."
This view of Omanis as being hard workers or being strongly engaged as employees had surprised me because a great number of Omani's do not give the impression that they like to work. As a matter of fact, several ministries have been working on this issue for some time. Omanis, in fact, as a nation do not give even their brethren the impression that they love to work.
LIKE TO WORK?
This is the case some 25 years after Oman began a major project as a nation called Omanization.
Omanization means to replace the heavily dependent-upon-foreign-labor in the Omani economy with Omani nationals. I should add that every nation in the wealth Gulf Arab states (Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait) has had these nationalization schemes in place for decades--to little avail in most cases. These failures hav certainly partially been due to fact that all of these GCC states provide great amounts of welfare and cozy government jobs [with lots of pay and low hours] to their nationals.
This multi-decade-long cycle of decreasing worker motivations amongst masses of Omanis as the recent developments in the nation has created two or more generations of Omanis [GCC nationals]--who as a whole--appear to be fairly uninterested in work and achievements requiring a lot of consistent labor and effort. Moreover, since examples of hard-working Omanis appear to be far and few between, many expats have wondered at times when young people will again be given again hard-working Omani role models, so they can consider creating a new Omanized world. (Without role-models, where is the motivation for change in a society? Will change only occur when a calamity occurs or will it take the end of king petroleum in economy to force Omanization to really proceed?)
MY SURPRISE LATE YESTERDAY
In short, after spending yesterday morning at my office pondering what could be envisioned by my one female Omani student who claims that "Omanis like to work", I had a surprising and an insightful Omani encounter at my home last night in the guise of meeting a hard-working Omani from Omantel (the national state-run telecommunication corporation).
Initially, I had been a bit perturbed by the delay in service from Omantel up to that t very day. However, meeting this hard-working Omani changed my impression of that government-run company.
I had just ordered wifi services for my home the week before and had been told I would have to wait two or three days for the installation. Five days had passed, and I was impatient for the service. In the meantime, the Omantel telephone of my home's landline had also been functioning improperly. Finally, around noon yesterday, I was contacted several times by one Omantel employee who had assured me that by 5pm an Omantel employee would be arriving at my home and bringing my family and home wifi connectivity.
By 6 o'clock that night, no one had called and no one had arrived to undertake the installation.
I called the customer service for installations and was told apologetically that the installer would be arriving shortly in my home. There had apparently been several problems delaying the installer.
Just prior to 6:30pm, I finally received the Omani installer in my home. This man ended up staying till after 8pm, and he took time to explain to me some things about the infrastructure and troubles with phones and wifi in the area where I live.
ThIs Omani installer was in his late 50s or older. He was definitely Omani because only Omanis are permitted to wear the national dress (photos below). The man was not particularly fast but he was capable in solving problems and patient in trying to carry out explanations in his faltering English to me over a 100-minute period. In the end, he not only got my new wifi up-and-running but he also installed a new Omantel landline phone in our home--all at no extra charge to us as customers. Furthermore, this Omani gave me many tips about using my wifi and phone numbers on how to get assistance on a variety of telecommunications issues I might face in the future. In short, he was a diligent employee and seemed to enjoy his customer service--even though English was not his native language and he was far than proficient in it.
This Omantel Installer was apologetic about being late but first explained that there had been several emergencies in the area where I lived which he had unexpectedly been asked to take care of during the working day.
In fact, the elderly Omani went on to explain that he had been working straight through since 8am that morning making installations and trouble shooting. However, he added, he still had two more home to visit that night before he would quit for the day.
My jaw almost dropped as I heard this Omani Omantel employee indicate (or imply) matter-of-factly that he would likely have worked non-stop for 14 or more hours that day before going home.
Until yesterday, I had had no idea that some Omanis--elderly or young--held such strong work ethics in the modern culture in which they now live (in the GCC or wealthy Gulf states). i should add that prior to living in Oman, I had lived and worked in the UAE and Kuwait. In neither of those countries had I witnessed such conscientious work in Emiratized or Kuwaitized employees, i.e. working for either a private or for a government entity.
I laud this example by the Omani installer who came to my home last night and showed me a different Omani tradition than I had been witness to before.
From this personal experience, I can now envision what my female student meant when she wrote on her essay, Omanis "like to work."
Read more on the topic of Omanization here.